Lessons from a Taxi Driver

“That’s it my friend. I lost everything and took me a lot to get back to normal. I still love my family but, now with matters related to business and money, I don’t take their advice”, declared the cheerful, happy looking African brother driving the Taxi.

This is the story of a Taxi driver I met recently. I was on my way to the Melbourne Airport and here are some excerpts of our talk.

He is in his early thirty’s and told me that he came to Australia about 7 years ago. He worked hard, did lot of odd jobs, drove taxi and earned some hard bucks. He took the advice of his family members and relatives and invested in a business. Unfortunately,

It turned out to be a wrong choice and he literally lost everything.

“It’s not that they wanted me to cheat me, lose my money or something but, they simply don’t know the proper details. They heard from someone in a gathering or dinner and believed the words and passed on the message. In fact forced me to do it. It’s like one blind man leading the other blind and we both fell in the ditch”.Hahaha, he laughed heartily.

I looked at him with admiration and empathy. I appreciated his courage and strength that he had in overcoming the disaster. What is more impressive is that, he is not being resentful, fretting, fuming or cursing anyone.

Who is a Guru

I started thinking. Yes, there could be so many people trying to give us advice on so many things based on their own experiences and situations they came across in life.”Atmavan Manyatae Jagat –“Everyone looks at the world with their own eyes and their own way. Basing on their nature, temperament they perceive things differently. It’s as if, if one has a color film on his eyes say, yellow – the whole world looks yellow to them. Do this, do that, I know it did wonders etc. So, it is so important to take advice from right people and right sources. If you want to invest in shares, real estate or stock market, you do your own research, learn about the subject and then approach the people who are right and qualified people in that field. But, then there are so many people in the market, out there claiming to be experts, authentic and genuine? We need to use our intelligence, find out what qualifications so and so person has, what is his affiliation or firm that he is working with, what about the other subject matter books, magazines talk about this subject. And, does it all match up? Like, our own research through books, qualifications of the person, the organisation that he is associated with and then, the personal behavior or the qualities the person exhibits in real life. And, it becomes even more important in and matters related to spiritual life. It is said that spiritual life is compared to walking on a razors edge. We cannot do it whimsically and because, someone else your friend is doing it. It’s interesting that, same things that needs to be looked at while dealing with matters like investing in a business etc. It’s called the three point check of spiritual life – Guru, Sadhu and Shastra.

The most important step in spiritual life is taking shelter of a Spiritual Master who is coming in a line of bonafide discipilic succession. What this means is that someone who is claiming to be a Guru is a genuine and has qualifications like, always engaged in the service of God, who speaks from the Vedic scriptures and words of other spiritual Masters above him. If he speaks anything different, they need to be reconciled with the words of Vedic scriptures and other Gurus above him called as Sadhus.

 I have some interesting feedback of why or how someone follow or accepted a certain Guru. Because, lives in Himalayas for six months in a year, because he speaks very logically, because of his attire so on. As stated in Bhagavad Gita,4.34

tad viddhi pranipatena

pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam

jnaninas tattva-darsinah . Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.

        “Hi Mate, which terminal you need to go to”? The words of my taxi driver friend brought me back to the senses. I took my luggage hurriedly, paid the fare and with real feelings in my heart, thanked the driver for the drive and sharing his story. For the last 30 mins or so, we talked about so many things starting from, weather, footy, cricket, stock market, real estate etc. but, out of all the things, I last conversation about taking advice from the right people, right source touched my heart. Ultimately, we are accountable for our actions and the results that come.

It is said that, there are three types of people.

One who learns by hearing – considered first class.

One who learns by experience – considered second class.

One who does not learn even after experiencing – the Third class. I guess, I am a mix of all these classes, sometimes first, second and third.