Guru

The word Guru comes from “Gur” which in Hindi, means a person who masters an art. Guru thus means one who is proud of it and wants to use it. Most Gurus use the latest technology to influence people and make them disciples.

Now a day to have a Guru is a status symbol. When your Guru comes to your house in your big Car, you invite all the bigwigs in the neighbourhood. Your popularity index shoots up.

In the material World, we are well aware of the rat race. When we get tired of it, we turned to spirituality; but here too, we end up doing something similar. We start running the ‘seeking race’. So we move from one Guru to another. We shop for one cult or another. From Osho, we move to Radhaswamy, Nirankari, Asharam, then to Ramdev and then to another, many such Guru are available on Astha, Sanshkar, TV Channels. Promotional material, CD’s and books of various Gurus start piling up on our table. We seek the truth with the philosophies of these Gurus till someone comes along and tells us that another Guru is much better and that the Guru we are following is fake.

We pick up our bags and run to the next Guru shop. Once again, we do spiritual shopping and then again and yet again...the peace we were searching is completely lost. We run after Buddha and start chanting; we run to a Krishna cult and start dancing, sometime we even change our religion. Six months down the line, we are the same---depressed, lost and without hope, nothing seems to live up to its promise. We enroll the expensive course. We go through ‘clever’ workshops, which demonstrate their effectiveness with brilliant examples.

We, actually, feel the change for a few days and then it’s back to square one.

It is the approach that has gone wrong. Instead of internalizing spirituality, we have externalized it. We look for magical solutions and like typically successful marketers, specialist guru-marketing, organisations makes a fool of us. They sell us empty concepts at huge prices, because they have no real content; they are ineffective. A Guru marketing organisation cannot have a true Guru at its heart that is for certain.

There are seekers who have been seeking for years and who take pride in announcing that you are studying since decades and have reached nowhere even you are in your 80’s  and dying ?

Jesus’ 12 disciples saw him performing so many miracles, but doubted him all along, Judas even betrayed him. So why couldn’t they see divinity in Christ ? What prevented them ? it is the ego, as long as you seek with ego, you will end up pampering your ego. You have to seek by surrendering. When you surrender your heart; the seat of the Divine starts guiding you. you are able to see which Guru is genuine and who is fake. Your heart tells you. According to Kabir, you have to worship your Guru as God. There is God in Temple and books and Holy places, but like blind men and women, we are unable to find Him. Only a Guru can help us open our eyes and see Him. That why a Guru is equal to God in your life.

Our spiritual journey begins when we stop seeking and start meditating, using the technique taught by our Guru. The Guru is a master and knows best. A Guru is one who helps you become your own Guru and make you independent. You shed your ego and your bad habits.

So stop Guru shopping, start meditating and begin your spiritual journey. God is in you. Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Sarswati, Laxmi, Durga and all Devi Devta are inside you. Only you have to invoke them.

Let us begin with........ Kabir’s views on God’s whereabouts:

तेरा साँई तुझमें ज्यों पहुपन में बास, कस्तूरी का हिरन ज्यों, फिर-फिर ढूंढत घास

-God is always within, outside search is useless !

कस्तूरी कुंडली बसे, मृग ढूंढे बन मांही ।

ऐसे घटि घटि राम हैं, दुनियां देखे नाही ।।

मृग की नाभी में कस्तूरी रहती है । वह उसकी सुगंध से अभिभूत हो कर उसे प्राप्त करने के लिए वन-वन में ढूडता फिरता है, वैसे आनंद स्वरूप भगवान् प्रत्येक के अंतःकरण में निवास करते हैं । जीव उस आनंद के आभास से मुग्ध हो कर उसे पूर्ण रूप से प्राप्त करने की इच्छा से विभिन्न साधनाओं में भटकता है ।

Now look at the beauty of his revelation of God:

मोको कहां ढूढे रे बन्दे, मैं तो तेरे पास में; ना तीर्थ में ना मूर्त में ना एकान्त निवास में !

ना मंदिर में ना मस्जिद में, ना काबे कैलास में ! ना मैं जप में ना मैं तप में, ना मैं बरत उपास में !

ना मैं किर्या कर्म में रहता नहिं जोग सन्यास में, नहिं प्राण में नहिं पिंड में ना ब्रह्याण्ड आकाश में !

ना मैं प्रकति प्रवार गुफा में, नहिं स्वांसों की स्वांस में; खोजि होए तुरत मिल जाउं, इक पल की तलाश में !

कहत कबीर सुनो भई साधो, मैं तो हूँ विश्वास में !

 – God is, where faith is !

Let me say, these are the wonderful life management fundas. Who says spirituality is not practical ? It is more and much more………………..Always in pursuit of Truth.