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.
