Whenever we buy something valuable, we check for the warranty. Some products may come with a few years of warranty and others only a few months. Very few products come with lifetime warranty. But even those products, once damaged, will be replaced only once and if the second product also gets damaged, you will not get a replacement. Now think about how valuable our life is. Did we ever check who gives warranty to this life and for how many replacements? Our life is a result of the balance of good and bad karma we did in our earlier lives. And based on the balance karma left over after this life, we get a new body suitable for experiencing the results of that karma.
Our parents and other family members might have protected and nurtured us in this life. But what about the earlier and later lives? Do we know our families from those lives? Do we even know which species we were born into? All our relations and friendships end in one life. This was clearly shown to Arjuna by Lord Krishna when the former was in great grief due to the loss of his son Abhimanyu. Lord Krishna summons the soul of Abhimanyu from heaven and when Arjuna expresses his love for the son, he simply questions him, "Who are you? You are my father? From which life? I have gone through many lives and don't remember any of the relations from those lives."
But there is only one person that maintains his relationship with us throughout the cycle of our numerous lives and leads us in the path of liberation form this cycle. That is Guru. Only he can give us the warranty to be with us, protect us, and lead us until we attain the eternal state of bliss and merge into Him. Our Gurudev Sri Babuji Maharaj used to narrate a story - Sage Narada once goes to Lord Vishnu and requests him to explain the power of Satsang. In order to show the power through experience, Lord Vishnu tells Narada to go to an insect born in a pile of cow dung on earth and ask the same question. When Narada asks the insect the question, the insect dies instantly. The disappointed Narada goes back to Lord Vishnu and let's him know about the sad incident. The lord asks him now to go to a newborn calf and ask the same question. When Narada approaches the calf and asks the same question, the calf also dies instantly. The shocked Narada goes back to the lord in dismay.
Lord Vishnu now asks Narada to go to the palace of the king of Kashi and ask the newborn son of the king the same question. Having seen the deaths of two creatures upon asking the question, Narada was reluctant now to try it on a human infant. But left with no choice, he goes to Kashi and hesitantly asks the newborn prince the question. To his surprise, the new born bows to Narada and starts speaking. He humbly says, "Oh Mahatma! I was first born as an insect in cow dung and had the great blessing of coming in contact to a great guru like you. I immediately left that life and was reborn into the life of a sacred cow. It was my great fortune to have your darshan again in that life and now I was born as a human prince. But as a Guru, you were not going to leave me in any life and so now I again got the darshan of you and am freed from the cycle of rebirth. What else can be a practical example of the power of satsang or the warranty a Guru gives you through the cycle of rebirths?"
In the Gita, when Krishna says "I imparted this knowledge to the Sun, who in turn passed it on to Manu, and Manu to Ikshwaku and so on" Arujna asks "You and me are of same age. How can you say you imparted this knowledge to the Sun long back?" Krishna replies "You and I had several lives till now. You know nothing of them, but I remember everything. I have always been with you in all of your lives." When Dhruva had the darshan of Lord Vishnu at a very tender age, all the aged rishis get jealous and ask sage Narada how such a young boy can have darshan whereas they had been doing spiritual practice throughout their long lives without getting a result. Narada takes them through different forests and hills showing them five different skeletons hanging from trees and cliffs telling them that these were the earlier births of Dhruva in which he was bestowed with Guru upadesa and continued his spiritual practice, which has ripened in this life at a tender age, again with the guru's blessings.
Let me conclude this with my own personal experience. At the age of five Sri Gurudev was initiating me into the worldly education by performing "Aksharabhyasam". Then he asked me "I gave you a mantra in your previous life. Do you remember it?" When I nodded my head indicating no, he said, "OK, I am giving it to you again. Always remember and recite it" and he bestowed me with the mantra. That's the warranty a guru gives us no matter how many lives we go through.
