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Guru and his mandate

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People often ask me, “Why can I not read all the books available and the vedas and evolve? Why do I need a guru? I cannot bow before another man."


Such questions and emotions expressed so frequently make me think about the role of a guru.

It is the result of good karma of all the previous lifetimes that the gate of a being’s good fortune opens and s/he meets a guru. As a rule, this never happens unless preceded by intense sadhana performed in the previous births. Moreover, very often it happens that even if a great saint, the very incarnation of Lord Shiva, appears in front of an unfortunate being, he is so blinded by ignorance or ego that he takes Him to be an ordinary person and starts judging Him with his limited senses. Whereas if someone has acquired good fortune through positive karma in previous births then love and single-minded devotion at the feet of the guru are his natural qualities — s/he would never lose the chance of meeting Him and recognising that it is the Supreme Guru who has appeared.

There are people who start judging the guru by their physical appearance; they dislike accepting a man who, in literal sense, is not a Brahmin. As, in their opinion, mantra is mere words, so in their judgment guru is a mere man. In Yogini Tantra, it is said, “It is because the Supreme Guru appears in the body of the human guru that shastras relate the greatness of the latter.” If only the physical body of a guru were taken into account, the method and aim of sadhana would differ according to the appearances of individual gurus. That is why shastras clearly state that for one who thinks of the guru as a mere man and identifies him with his physical attributes can never be liberated.

Therefore, one must be very careful as s/he embarks on the journey of sadhana. It is advisable to take time, to decide whom you are calling your guru, because once you do that, even the slightest disregard results in losing the fortune collected over all the previous lifetimes.

Guru mahima is anant, akhand. It is not possible to sum even a fraction of guru’s significance given the limited space.

To grasp what is a guru, imagine that the sadhak is a piece of very hot stone and the ultimate knowledge is ice. If ice melts and falls straight on the sadhak, then the body of the sadhak would crack with the sudden change in temperature. The guru is the force which holds this icy cold water and very gently pours it on the sadhak’s body. Very gently the sadhak begins to cool and ultimately becomes as cold as the ice, so much so that now he is also a guru.
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