To all readers: This is my first piece since registering on the site. I hope to interact with you all through this outlet over the months or years.
Who is a Guru?
A Guru is different from a ‘shikshak’. The latter merely teaches us the techniques of how to go about achieving our desires and is, in this sense, more of a tactician. A Guru is more than that: he is equated with God himself: “Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwara; Gurus Sakshat Parabrahmam Tasmai Shri Gurave Namah”.
He removes unseen and, perhaps, unknown obstacles from our path, invokes the Lord’s kindness on us and clears our spiritual pathway for us progressively, so that we may practice the techniques of self-advancement that he teaches us at various stages in our path.
A Guru plans our self-advancement for us. In return, we need to repose absolute faith in anything that he says and surrender ourselves to his superior knowledge and wisdom. But we must be unquestioning in this. It must be a faith that yields to absolutely nothing and no one. We must ask ourselves: Is this possible for the majority of us? If not, are we truly deserving of a Guru?
Why do we want a Guru?
Perhaps the more fundamental question is: Why do we need one? Could we not be content with a ‘shikshak’? Do we suffer from unhappiness or general dissatisfaction with the common problems of life, or are we grappling with spiritual problems that need some answer? If the former, a Guru is not warranted; a mere ‘shikshak’ would do. If it is the latter, it is the Guru who will find us and not the other way around. Various great persons have told us so and have also told us that we must prepare ourselves to be spiritually ripe to receive a Guru. That is, we must abide by the ‘yamas’ and ‘niyamas’ (such as delineated by persons like Rishi Patanjali) and assiduously cultivate our character - especially, intellectual and emotional honesty and integrity - such that it is not weakened under any circumstance. After that, we can only WAIT – wait patiently for a Guru, even if it takes several births! It is not for nothing that patience is considered the first virtue on the path to spiritual progress.
The moot question is: Are we in a position to determine whether we are or are not spiritually ripe? Further, is this something to be determined by oneself or by the prospective Guru?
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