RECOGNIZING THE TRUE SPIRITUAL GURU
Let’s read through the next part of the article on recognizing the true spiritual guru. (click here to read the first part.) We understood the claims that people make to be known as a guru. Let’s look at some more claims to gain complete clarity and identifying the right guru for ourselves.
Seeker A: I have heard about teachers who claim to have a huge following. Their followers are told, “If you want an express appointment with them, you’ll have to pay a premium. Only such people will attain salvation. Others will not.” How can one buy salvation with money? Also, how can only specific followers attain salvation and not others?
Sirshree: There are some who claim to be a guru by the number of followers they amass. If you want to meet them, you need to stand in long queues and pay for meeting them. But one cannot buy salvation with money. In fact, money can never reduce or increase your sins. You can’t buy piety with money. And definitely, you can’t attain salvation by simply seeing someone! Such practices only misguide people; they can never guide people towards the ultimate truth.
Seeker A: Right. I also know of some people, who claim to be gurus by being leaders of their communities. They could belong to different sects. Listening to their inspiring words, people do feel motivated and capable of achieving success in various ventures.
Sirshree: There are motivational trainers whose inspiring words can help in achieving worldly success. There are also leaders of communities who inspire people to promote the ideologies of their community. However, these words do not arise from the stillness of pure consciousness. Words arising from the plane of concepts and ideologies cannot serve the purpose of attaining the ultimate truth. This is because the truth is beyond all concepts, beyond ideologies, beyond the mind and intellect. So it becomes farfetched to imagine that one can attain the truth through the guidance of such motivational speakers.
There are also some, who claim to be gurus by inheritance or lineage. They take over from the previous guru of the sect or lineage. However, with the passage of time, the successors forget the real aim, the original vision, and the essence of what their predecessors lived for. Designation, authority, power and appreciation become more important. Thus, they remain mere title holders, occupying the position that has been passed onto them.
Seeker B: I have also seen programmes on the religion-related TV channels where the masters keep singing devotional songs or kirtans or even dance. Their activities revolve around singing hymns and food offerings. But the participants in such congregations are mainly interested in the food that would be served after the rituals. No one discusses the truth there. There are also many information providers who claim to be gurus in their own right. They can be teachers, life coaches or even online marketing, business or media coaches.
Sirshree: Some people wrongly consider them as their guru. This is why the word “guru” has lost its true meaning. They are merely information providers. They impart knowledge about subjects related to the external world. The true guru makes you aware of your inner world and prepares you for the ultimate truth.
Sirshree: There are some who claim to be gurus by solving your problems through some sacrificial ritual or a medallion. People approach them with their issues and they give them such solutions that have nothing to do with the truth.
Seeker B: In Christianity, people confess their sins and beg for forgiveness in the presence of priests. Confession boxes are placed in churches where people can seek forgiveness by confessing their sins.
In Hinduism, the river Ganges is considered sacred and is personified as the Goddess Ganga. She is worshiped by the Hindus who believe that bathing in the river causes remission of their sins and facilitates liberation from the cycle of life and death and that the water of the Ganges is considered sacred.
Sirshree: When people can’t easily do away with their feeling of guilt or regret, they find it difficult to live happily and peacefully, being in the present. They tend to live in the past and dwell in wrongdoings committed by them or others. Such rituals help them get relieved off their sins and negative feelings and allow them to live life afresh.
Seeker A: It is difficult to lead a good life without seeking confession often. I have been visiting confession once a week if possible, once a month at the least as a ritual, even though I have no mortal sins to confess. So far I was doing it as a mechanical activity, but henceforth I will follow it with the right understanding.
Sirshree: In fact, you can seek forgiveness every day. At the end of the day, seek forgiveness from all those whom you may have hurt knowingly or unknowingly through your thoughts, feelings, speech or actions. This will help you live each day afresh without any burden of the past.
There are some people who claim to be a guru by denouncing gurus and those who follow gurus. They logically convince you not to follow any other guru but believe in your own intellect. The intellect likes to hear such things. The intellect prefers to be the master. But the real Guru principle is beyond the body, mind and also the intellect.
If one has not known the truth, one will remain content with half-baked knowledge and may get stuck in the intellect forever. The highest use of the intellect is in realizing its own limitations. Truth is beyond logic. The highest use of reasoning is in realizing the limited confines of logic when it comes to experiencing the truth.
The intellect should be trained for subtler contemplation to a point where it realizes the futility of stuffing knowledge. True wisdom lies in becoming empty. Become an empty flute through which divine music can flow.
Seeker B: There are some scriptural experts who claim to be gurus by studying various religious scriptures like the Vedas, the Geeta, the Gyaneshwari, or the Dasbodh, the Bible or the Quran and summarizing their essence for the common man.
But in today’s fast-paced world, people have got so much held up with their daily chores that they don’t have enough time nor inclination to go through such scriptures. At such times, it really helps to listen to these people and get to know about the teachings from the ancient scriptures.
Sirshree: Yes, it’s a great service rendered by them. However, when they earn a good name, fame and honor from their followers, they believe themselves to be spiritual gurus. Thereafter, they don’t get ready to listen to the essential truth for themselves from anybody else. Many of these service providers, who do commentaries on the scriptures show off their knowledge, without realizing that it is bloating their own ego. Thus, their own journey to the truth is hampered.
Seeker A: So many people from the West believe that learning scriptures are spirituality. Hence, they learn ancient languages like Sanskrit.
Sirshree: Yes, that’s the biggest loss for earnest seekers of truth. They learn scriptures from these people in the name of spirituality and remain deprived of the essential truth, which is beyond words.
The scriptures have been venerated as the truth. They speak about the truth; they can point to the truth, but they are not the truth. The truth expressed in the scriptures arose from the experience of the Self that realized masters reveled in. They are a reflection of the direct experience of the truth. They serve as a mirror. But the mirror is not the truth.
Moreover, the mirror is tainted with dust. The reflection of the truth has been distorted through years of interpretation and commentaries, mostly by those who lacked the direct experience of the Self. Let’s understand this with an example: Consider the grand aphorism declared in the Upanishads – “Aham Brahmasmi”. This declaration arose from the experience of the Self. This has been literally translated by many as “I am God”, “I am that all-pervading reality”. However, such translations cause the seeker to believe that he is the God personified. However, the truth is that a person can never be God. The deeper import of the aphorism can be stated as “God is the I-AM”. This may sound grammatically incorrect. And yet, it means that God is the “I-AMness”, the sense of existence, the living presence within every body-mind. This is what Jesus states as “I AM that I AM”. Interpretations and translations that do not arise from the experience of the Self, mislead the seeker away from the essence of the truth.
It is only with true faith and devotion that one can let go of such bookish knowledge and abide in the truth. It is then that true realization of the depth and grandeur of the truth becomes evident.
Seeker B: I am keen to gain the wisdom of the ultimate truth.
Sirshree: You cannot borrow the truth from outside; it cannot be obtained from outside. This is because it is already available within you. When a true guru points at the truth within you, it is by this grace that true wisdom awakens within you.
Truth is a subjective experience, not objective knowledge. It cannot be known as you would know the other topics of the world. You can only experience it by “being” it. And to “be” it, you need to empty yourself. You need to empty yourself of all that you have learned about the truth. You need to release all the beliefs and knowledge that you have gathered this far. This requires true faith and devotion, which can be awakened in the presence of a true guru.
The true guru is a complete guru. His teachings and instructions have a very deep impact as they directly arise from the experience of the Self; they arise from the very Source – the quintessence of truth.
When you come in contact with a true guru, you don’t remain the same. You get completely transformed. Thereafter, you get guided from your heart. The presence of a true guru awakens the guru within you. You do not just realize the truth, but also get established in the experience of the truth. You become free from vices and blossom with virtues. You open up to your infinite potential. You start working for the purpose why you have taken this birth.
One comment
Rohini Nair
Superb article!
Thank you Sirshree for giving so much clarity on how to identify a true guru.
It is indeed a grace to gain this wisdom where each word emanates from the Source and touches the heart of the seeker.
It’s a sincere wish that all seekers of truth should gain this wisdom and attain the purpose of their life.