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My husband comes to see you, so please advise him."
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"He gets up at two in the morning and begins to recite the japuji. It is impossible for the rest of the family to sleep. If I complain he tells us that we should all get up and chant too! What should we do?"
I called the husband to me. "When do you recite the japuji?" I asked him.
"Early every morning, about two," he replied proudly.
"That is proving to be quite a nuisance to others," I said.
"That is their fault," he said. "They are lazy and indolent! -- they should all get up at that time. Besides, I'm doing them a service by reciting aloud so that the holy words can fall not only on the family's ears but the neighbor's as well."
"Take it easier with your practices," I advised him. "You can get up at four in the future." You have to bring down such a person by degrees, or else it is impossible to bring him down at all.
"Never!" he replied. "I never expected to hear such words from you. Do you want to rob me of my religion?" He couldn't believe his ears.
Now this was his arrogance -- that no one could recite the japuji like him. This alone is his obstacle. You may repeat the japuji all life long, but the real need is to destroy your arrogance.
Therefore Nanak says time and again, "Nothing can be attained by whatever you do, unless you eradicate your own self." This concept of the guru is a priceless alchemical device to annihilate the ego, because whatever you do, you just say, "It is all the grace of the guru." I am doing is the difficulty. If you can eradicate your I without any help, you do not need a guru. But it is one in a million who can do this; he is the exception for whom we need not make any rules or regulations.
It happens sometimes that some person drops his ego without the help of a guru, but it requires a very deep and profound understanding which you do not have. The understanding should be so deep that you can order your ego to stand before your eyes -- and by your mere looking, the ego must drop. Your eyes must be like the eyes of Shiva, through whose very glance the god of love turned
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