Need Of A Guru
Every soul is destined to be perfect and every being in the end, will attain the state of perfection. Whatever we are today is the result of our past acts and thoughts and whatever we shall be in future will be the result of what we think and do now. In most cases, we receive help from outside to shape our destiny and when it comes, the power of the soul is quickened, spiritual life is awakened, growth is animated and the person becomes holy and perfect in the end. By study of books, one may become intelligent and one may be able to only speak well on spiritual matters. Hence, to quicken the spirit, the impulse must come from another Soul. Such a person who imparts this impulse is called the ‘Guru’ and the person receiving such an impulse is called ‘Shishya’.
To convey such an impulse, the conveyer must possess the power of ‘transmitting’ it and also the receiving soul must be fit to receive the same. The seed must be a living seed and the field must be ploughed and kept ready. Only when these two conditions are fulfilled, spiritual awakening happens and not otherwise. All others are only playing with spirituality by merely standing on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion. Purity in thought, speech and act are absolutely necessary for anyone to be religious. There must be a continuous struggle, a constant fight, an unremitting grappling with our lower nature, till the ‘Higher want’ is actually felt and finally victory is achieved. The student who sets out with a lot of patience and perseverance will surely find success and realisation at last.
The teacher is expected to know the spirit of the scriptures and it is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone constitutes the true religious teacher. He must also be pure in heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of the beyond never comes until the soul is pure and only thus he can be the true ‘transmitter’. Further, he must not teach with the sole motives of money, name or fame, but his work must be simply out of pure love for mankind at large. God is love and only he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and God to a person.
He who is learned in the scriptures, sinless and unpolluted by lust and is the greatest ‘knower of Brahman’, is the real teacher. Without faith, humility, submission and veneration in our hearts towards our spiritual guide, there cannot be any spiritual growth in us. If this venerable relationship is not maintained, then spirituality becomes an unknown quantity and in which case, there is none to transmit it and none to receive it! When such a divinely appointed teacher comes, serve him with childlike confidence and simplicity, freely open your heart to his influence and see in him God manifested. Those who come to seek truth with such a spirit of love and veneration, to them the Lord of truth reveals the most wonderful things regarding truth, goodness and beauty.