Thursday, June 7, 2012

Who is Guru


A Guru is very different to a teacher or a preacher. He is a beacon of spiritual light in our world, and teaches us the universal spiritual principles that underlie all religions and cultures. This article expands on His characteristics and salient features. I had seen this article in Spiritual Science Research Foundation web site and resembles Guru Baba,thought its worth to publish in this blog.

The word ‘Guru’ is derived from the Sanskrit language and has a deep spiritual meaning. Its two syllables Gu and Ru stand for the following:
Gu denotes the spiritual ignorance that most of humankind is in.
Ru represents the radiance of spiritual knowledge that dispels the spiritual ignorance.

In short, the Guru is the One who dispels the darkness of spiritual ignorance in humanity and bestows upon them spiritual experiences and spiritual knowledge.
There is a saying that in the kingdom of the blind the seeing man is a king. With a highly activated sixth sense, the Guru is the totally ‘seeing’ person in the kingdom of the spiritually blind and ignorant. He is someone who has already walked the spiritual road under the guidance of his Spiritual Guide, and has access to the Universal Mind and Intellect. In this article, we will explain who can be considered a Spiritual Guide or a Guru and His characteristics.

Definition of a Guru or an evolved spiritual guide
There are various aspects to the Supreme God Principle. These various aspects of God perform specific functions in the Universe. This is pretty much akin to the government of any country which has various departments to facilitate the smooth governing and functioning of the country as a whole.

Just as we have a department for education in a government, which facilitates teaching of modern sciences throughout the country, the aspect of God that looks after spiritual teaching and spiritual growth in the Universe is known as the Guru. This is known as the unseen or unmanifest Guru or the Teaching Principle of God. The unmanifest Guru pervades the entire Universe and is with us at all times during our life and even after we die. The salient and highlighting feature is that the unmanifest Guru stands by us throughout our life and slowly lifts us from our worldly life into a spiritual way of life. The Guru guides us according to our spiritual level, i.e. our capacity to imbibe knowledge whether we know it or not, helping us develop skills such as perseverance, dedication, attention to detail, tenacity, compassion etc. through our lives. All these kinds of skills are intrinsic to being a good seeker of God and are vital in sustaining our spiritual journey. For those who are proactively seeking spiritual growth the Guru is more active, guiding them in an unseen form according to what is needed for them.

Out of the entire population of the world, few take up spiritual practice that is universal and beyond the confines of formal, organised religion. Among these, very few people through their spiritual practice (regardless of their religion of birth) attain a spiritual level of over 70%. The unmanifest Guru then works completely through some of these evolved individuals who are then known as the manifest Guru or the Guru in the human form. In other words, a person has to be at least of the 70% spiritual level to qualify as a spiritual guide or a Guru. The Guru in human form acts as a beacon of spiritual knowledge for humanity and is in total alignment with the Universal Mind and Intellect of God
Literal Meaning of Guru

The word ‘Guru’ is derived from the Sanskrit language and has a deep spiritual meaning. Its two syllables Gu and Ru stand for the following:

Gu denotes the spiritual ignorance that most of humankind is in.
Ru represents the radiance of spiritual knowledge that dispels the spiritual ignorance.
In short, the Guru is the One who dispels the darkness of spiritual ignorance in humanity and bestows upon them spiritual experiences and spiritual knowledge.
 Differences between a teacher/professor and a Guru

The following chart gives the differences between a teacher and a Guru in human form.

Differences between a preacher and a Guru

There is a vast difference between a person preaching Spiritual sciences or religious study as compared to a Guru. The following table expands on the differences between them when guiding people. 
Most preachers in today’s world are at the 30% spiritual level and as a result they are neither able to understand the true implied meaning of the Scriptures they quote, no have they experienced first-hand everything has been written. Thus, the possibility of leading the audience astray is high.

What are the differences between a Guru and a Saint?

What makes a person become a Guru over and above being a Saint?

Every Guru is a Saint but the reverse is not always true. Only a small percentage of Saints qualify as Gurus.
 What are the similarities between a Saint and a Guru?

    Both a Saint and a Guru are over the 70% spiritual level.
    They both have spiritual love for all of humankind, i.e. love without expectation.
    They both have very little ego. This means that they do not identify themselves with their five senses, mind and intellect but with the Soul, that is the God within.

 What are the differences in characteristics between a Saint and a Guru?

The following table shows a gross comparison between a Saint and a Guru at the 80% spiritual level.
Difference between a Saint and a Guru 

  By love for others, we mean loving others without any expectation. This is different to worldly love which is always tainted with some sort of expectation. 100% would mean the unconditional, non-partial, all-pervading love of God, extended equally to all of creation right from non-living things, to the tiniest of living beings like ants to the highest of beings i.e. humans.

  Service means serving the Absolute Truth or Spiritual science, that is the universal principles that underlie all religions and govern the entire universe. 100% here would mean 100% of their time and abilities in all dimensions like physical (bodily), mental, intellectual, financial, social, etc. is spent in serving God.

    Sacrifice means how much of their time, body, mind and wealth have they sacrificed to serve God.

    Quantity of writing of texts related to explaining or propagating the Absolute Truth.

    The nature of the writings of Saints and Gurus are more about spiritual experiences and spiritual guidance respectively.

    God functions by His mere existence. He does not need to make any effort, hence His energy is not manifest. The forms of His energy are unmanifest, like Serenity, Bliss etc. But Saints and Gurus, because they have a tangible physical body, do use manifest energy to some extent.
    What is I'ness
    As Gurus are more one with the unmanifest (nirgun) form of God, they do not need to use much manifest energy. As the ‘I’ in Saints is higher than that in Gurus, they use more manifest energy than Gurus do. But this is much lower compared to those performing similar functions with the help of supernatural powers. For example, when a person is cured of his illness due to blessings of a Saint, only 20% energy is manifest, whereas the same may be up to 50% in the case of one who is not a Saint but heals with supernatural healing powers. As the manifest energy of God is 0, the manifest energy one expends is a function of oneness of God. Thus the more your manifest energy, the further away you are from God. Signs of manifest energy are bright, glowing eyes, sharp hand movements, etc.
    In order to carry out their mission Saints and Gurus alike need manifest energy which is given by God. Saints sometimes solve worldly problems of their devotees which use up comparatively more energy. A Guru focuses His disciple on spiritual growth, which in turn makes the disciple self-sufficient in overcoming problems where the root causes are spiritual in nature. As a result the Guru uses up less spiritual energy.

    Both Saints and Gurus have a spiritual level of at least 70%. After crossing the spiritual level of 70%, spiritual progress is faster in Gurus than in other Saints. They attain the level of a Sadguru (80%) and a Paratpar Guru (90%) faster than other Saints attaining the same spiritual levels. This is because they are constantly engrossed in the mission of spiritually uplifting a disciple, while Saints also help their devotees at a more worldly level.

 What is the importance of the Guru in the human form?

Each one of us seeks guidance from teachers, doctors, lawyers etc. in their respective fields. If a guide is needed even in these comparatively simple fields, then imagine the importance of the Guru, who releases one from the bondage of life and death.
6.1 Importance of the Guru - from the perspective of educating a student

The Guru comes in many forms. He teaches us through situations, books, in human form, etc. The following table is a comparison between these various forms and it shows the importance of the Guru in the human form.
Guide-importance-chart-1

 Importance of the Guru - from a psychological perspective

There are many psychological benefits for a student to have a spiritual guide in the human form.

    Unlike God and deities who do not display their existence and potential, the Guru displays His form through the human Guru. This way the student of Spirituality has a tangible guide to take care of him on his spiritual journey.

    The Guru in human form is omniscient just as the unmanifest Guru and is able to perceive everything about his disciple. He knows through His access to the Universal Mind and Intellect whether the student is sincere or not and where he is making mistakes. As a result, the student being aware of this ability of the Guru, often refrains from doing bad deeds.

    The Guru does not allow the disciple to develop an inferiority complex from the fact that he is lesser than the Guru. He eradicates the inferiority complex in the deserving disciple and grants him the all pervading nature of the Guru.

 Importance of the Guru - from a Spiritual science perspective

The following table shows the importance of a Guru in the human form for the spiritual growth of a seeker/disciple.
Guide-importance-chart-2


Footnotes (based on numbers in red in the above table):

    At around the 55% spiritual level, a student/disciple develops enough spiritual maturity to benefit from the Guru’s presence in human form. It is akin to receiving a scholarship in Spirituality. At this level of spiritual maturity, the disciple is set to take proper advantage of the Guru’s assistance in guiding him towards experiencing God.

    It is relatively more difficult to derive benefit from an idol. The subtle, intangible frequencies that an idol or picture of a Guru emits, can only be useful to a person beyond the 60% spiritual level with an activated sixth sense.

    When one follows the guidance of a Guru in human form, the effort required to make spiritual progress is the least as it is channelised most efficiently. In all other cases, the chances of making mistakes are much higher.

    To be able to understand the implied meaning of the scriptures is no mean task. Very often Holy Scriptures and books are prone to misinterpretation.

    Here ego refers to faith in oneself. If faith in oneself is not high, then one cannot make spiritual progress without taking guidance from someone.

    Without a spiritual guide the likelihood of stagnation or even regression in spiritual growth is high.

Some salient features of a Guru in the human form

    A Guru is beyond organised religion and He looks upon all of humankind as the same. He does not discriminate on the basis of culture, nationality or gender. He only seeks the student who intensely desires spiritual growth.

    A Guru will never ask one to convert from his religion. He will lift the student to comprehend universal spiritual principles that underlie all religions.

    Whichever spiritual path or religion one follows, they all finally lead to the path of grace of the Guru.
Path of Guru's grace

A Guru functions with spiritual power at the level of resolve. With this spiritual power given by God, He lifts a deserving student just by His thought that the student should progress. A seeker/student of Spiritual science cannot reach the spiritual level of 70% unless he has the Guru’s grace and is guided by the Guru in the human form. The reason for this is that, in the earlier stages of our spiritual growth, we can progress just by following the basic laws of spiritual practice. However after a certain stage, the spiritual knowledge becomes so fine that one can easily be misguided by ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies, etc.) through their sixth sense. One needs a highly evolved spiritual guide in the human form to accurately negotiate the way for further spiritual progress towards Sainthood.

    Even after one reaches the level of a Saint one needs to continue one's spiritual practice to ensure a constant flow of Guru’s grace.
    He lifts the student to be able to access the Soul knowledge within. This is as opposed to some people with sixth sense (ESP) who, as mediums, access knowledge from subtle bodies (spirits) in the subtle dimension. When one acts only as a medium, one cannot make spiritual progress.
    The relationship between Guru and student is pure and the love that the Guru has for the student is without expectations and is unconditional.
    The Guru is omniscient and is therefore able to take care of the student even when he is not with Him physically.
    Severe destiny can only be overcome with the grace of the Guru.
    The Guru guides the student according to the six laws of spiritual practice as per the spiritual level and hence capacity. He never teaches a student beyond his capacity.

    The Guru will always teach with a positive attitude. For example, a Guru may advise one to undertake any one spiritual practice among the following, depending on the student’s spiritual maturity, ‘‘Sing devotional songs, chant The Lord’s Name, perform service to God, etc.’’ He never guides in a negative way such as ‘‘Do not drink alcohol, do not behave this way,’’ etc. The reason for this is that teaching not to do certain things is at the psychological level, and does not serve any purpose from the point of view of making spiritual progress. The Guru focuses on the spiritual practice of the student. Over time this itself will give the student the capacity to discard activities which are detrimental to him.

    Though the clouds shower rain equally everywhere, the water accumulates only in craters while the erect mountains remain dry. Similarly Gurus and Saints do not discriminate. The bestowal of their grace on all is the same but the ones with pure intention to learn and grow spiritually are like the craters, able to receive and retain the benefit of their grace.

    The Guru being omniscient intuitively knows what is best for the student to further his spiritual progress. He guides on a one-to-one basis.
How do we recognise and acquire an evolved spiritual guide?

It is difficult for a student of Spiritual science to judge the ability of a Guru. This would be like the student testing the teacher.
Note-Subtle-world

To test someone, one has to be of a higher calibre than that person. The student cannot be that person to test the Guru. More importantly, the ability of the Guru is in the subtle or spiritual dimension, i.e. beyond the understanding of the five senses, mind and intellect. It can be gauged only through a highly activated sixth sense.
 
To grow one’s capacity to discern, one needs to do regular spiritual practice according to the six basic principles of spiritual practice. This will ensure spiritual growth and development of a sattvik intellect. The all-pervading unmanifest Guru or the Teaching Principle of God keeps a constant watch on all of us. When one achieves a spiritual level of around 55%, a Guru in the human form comes into one’s life. (The mode spiritual level of present day people is 20%). At the spiritual level of 55%, a student of Spiritual sciences has the spiritual maturity to have a sense for whether the Guru is genuine with their sattvik intellect itself.


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