Gurudakshina?

By Manju Gupta?

Sri Krishna and Balaram, when young, were trained under Sandipani Muni, who gave them intense training in all kinds of skills. When it was time for the shishyas to give gurudakshina to the muni, they asked him what he would like to have.

The guru had a son who had been drowned in the sea. So he told his shishyas, “Go to the sea and ask it to return my son to me.”

Sri Krishna went to the Sea God and asked, “Have you swallowed our guru’s son?”

The Sea God replied, “There is a demon named Panchajana who lives beneath my waters and who has taken away the child. You will have to kill him first to recover the child.”

Sri Krishna immediately dived into the sea and swam below to reach the demon’s kingdom. He asked Panchajana to give the child but the demon said that he had swallowed the child and could not give him now. Sri Krishna got enraged and killed him in a tussle and extracted the dead child from his body. He took the body of the child to Yama and asked him to revive him to life. How could Yama turn down Sri Krishna’s request? He brought him back to life and the child opened his eyes with a smile on his face.

Sri Krishna took the child to his guru and Sandipani Muni was extremely happy to receive such precious gurudakshina, which he could never have received from anybody else.