Why do we need a GURU

[Rohit Sharma]

Namaste to all the SOULS here,
This question had been inside me since long and is embedded deep in me before even i got into the path of Spirituality.
1. Why do we need a GURU when we know or have read somewhere what our GURU says?
2. Do we not believe in ourselves that we require a GURU who would make us know what we are?
3. Do we choose our GURU or he chooses us or it is a divine intervention?
4. Are the people we treat as GURU really the one whom we should follow to attain salvation?

These are some of my points, the details would unfold as we go ahead with the discussion.
Would request from the core of my heart to please comment and discuss on the same as this would enlighten everyone across here who are looking towards spirituality and the divine knowledge.

[Liana]

Namaste,

1. First of all Guru means teacher, most of us are students of life. There is always something one can learn and one more learned can share, it depends on the field of interest - in spiritual field we prefer to call the teacher, Guru.
In my opinion a real Guru is that one so called "self realized" means on a high spiritual level. A guru can simply help us to become aware and grow spiritually. By this he is the remover of ignorance which may lay in us.

2. Honestly, for now i feel my Guru is God, on this path i chose. God has interesting ways to act. Sending someone in one's life, from where he/she can learn doesn't means necessary that person is a Guru (because a real guru has to be a self-realized person as i mentioned above).
Perhaps some of us can say at the end of our lives we have been our own Guru, depending on each purposes and standards we have.

3. This question was also in my mind for a long time. I think in a way or other a Guru is sent to us, if and when we need Him. What we need to do is to open our hearts and feel it.

4. I think a Guru can help us but can not guarantee if we follow him we can attain salvation, because that can happen only by one's effort.

Thank you very much for this topic and i hope other members will let us know their opinions.

[amit]

My God is my guru.he is taking care of my spiritual journey
OM

[Rohit Sharma]

Namaste to all,

I am really sorry to see that there are no comments on this post, i would like to know why are the souls not coming forwards and sharing the knowledge across here?
Just being a member and not participating actively brings a lot of stagnant energy across here and it would really hamper the journey of other souls here towards the divine path.
Since i have seen that all the members are are DIVINE to some extend so why not come forward and let others also learn what is to be learned as in a single incarnation it is really difficult to attain all the knowledge until and unless there is a flow of the same.

This is a humble request to all the members to come forward and please contribute.

May GOD show you the way

[Monk]

A Guru is a realised being who steps in to help those who seek to walk the path to God. Only God knows God and God took the role of the first Guru to teach man about Himself. Then those who were realised taught and guided in the same way the first Guru did

When the student is ready the Guru comes. The inner yearning for God brings into operation the divine law of attraction and Divinity intervenes to send the Guru to the student.

The true Guru guides and shows. Never forces. He will never claim that his path is the ONLY way to salvation. Each one is shown the path best suited for him

I have spent most of my life with such a Guru and I can say with conviction that a Guru shows the quickest and fastest way of attainings ones potential in life - material and spiritual

All souls are guided by Divinity as per their needs. Glory be unto God who comes as Guru to show the way to Him

[Sandeep]

I planned to speak more, but I feel everything has already been said :)
I appreciate this topic and all the comments here...showing light...

The divine intelligence which is this very life has always got a lot of surprises :)
And can happen(appear) in different ways (forms) as necessary (required)...
Let us be aware and connected all the time as possible...
Also trusting our inner guide...and the deepest place (peace) we seek with in us!
Let us never lose faith, and the way is seen...
What is best for us, let that happen...
This is my prayer!

Let us all reach the Oneness which we are...

[Ananda]

Namaste,

1. If you have the ability to analyze and digest what a liberated being or Guru has written that's great, but ultimately you will need the inner and outer support of that being in order to truly realize the essence of what has been written. In my experience being "self realized" is only a step in the direction to full liberation and not all so called self realized beings or gurus of this type can really offer deep inner support.

2. I think one needs to look at the concept of belief and there means to achieve the work on there own. It depends on how deep you want to go on your inquiry into the nature of your "self". Can you really do it on your own...? And if so, can you ever be sure that that's the final stage?

3. This is a great question, In my experience the connection is beyond choice, it's much deeper than that, I suppose you could say it's a form of divine intervention, but you still have to be aware of whats happening and of course surrender to that higher power.

4. Treating people as Gurus sounds like finding some sort of wisdom teachers along the path, which can be very helpful. A real Guru is very hard to find and most beings are not even close to being able to recognize one if they happen cross paths. In my opinion, the initial stages of the work could also be described as a type of cognitive inquiry, but the real experience of meeting the Guru is transcendental and totally supported by an inner transmission from Guru to disciple, it's a very mystical experience...! Sometimes it can even happen without ever meeting the Guru in the flesh....by Grace.

I think on many levels Liana is right, a Guru can mean so many things to so many different people, for some it might be a book or a therapist or even a vision to follow, but really the work falls on the disciple.
...This is a very deep subject and as you said it would be nice to hear from more people to explore the range of meanings and experiences.

Thanks for the post...

Om
Prema
Ananda

[Rohit Sharma]

Namaste to all the souls,

It is really nice to see some comments and views as on why we need a GURU. Looking forward to see something more, and also would request all the members what they actually learned from their guru's which can enable other souls also to see the path with more light.

May GOD bless you all with LOVE, PEACE and TOGETHERNESS.

[Niki]

Namaste,

I personally believe that we are simultaneously both student and teacher as we walk along this journey of the soul. Divine guidance comes to us when we are in need of it and by sharing our knowledge--for knowledge is nothing unless you share it, we grow.

In the light and sound of Creation, we are Love...we are One,

Niki

[SUPREETHA]

Namaste,

What can we speak of the need of Guru .... coz we ourselves dont know what are we searching for
it is the Guru who can tell us by making us experience why we need a GURU........

One cannot explain why we need a Guru its a matter of experiencing it...................... Find one and when we have faith on him .... and his teachings just surrender ..

All I can say is dont loose your Master ur GURU if you found one ...

[SUPREETHA]

On this it reminds me of the below article I read some time back


Relate To A Master, Experience Infinity - 11 Sep 2007, 0050 hrs IST ,Swami Kriyananda

A saint in India was wont to say, "I am like a drum: As you beat me, so I sound". A master is not what he appears to human eyes. Yet his human appearance is an aspect of what he is. But he is infinitely more than what he appears. For those who see in him a great and wise teacher, he is that. Those who see him as a dear friend, he is also that.

A master is like a mirror: Whatever qualities we present to him, he reflects back to us: He is whatever each of us wants him to be; at the same time, he is beyond our mental concepts, unshakably centred in infinite consciousness.

Inevitably a master attracts people to him though his one desire is to draw them to God, not to his humanity. Indeed, it is his magnetism that carries the soul on a magic carpet up to the Infinite Light. The devotion a master receives is directed by him to God alone. And he patiently teaches others to direct their love to God also, viewing him as but a window to infinity.

Disciples often focus their devotion on the master as a catalyst for their love for God. By devotion to him as a conscious instrument of the Divine, they open themselves to the flow of divine love. The magnetic presence of a true master, far from impeding their spiritual progress, greatly accelerates it.

Much grace comes through association with a great master, even for people who are only vaguely aware of the gifts they are receiving. The benefits vary, however, depending on the disciples' understanding and receptivity. The disciples' attention can often be directed so much outwardly that they neglect to develop inward communion with him.

There are many ways of relating to a true master. Even a master's own disciples limit themselves in what they receive, as long as they define his greatness in merely human terms. Those who seek their inspiration outwardly receive what eyes and ears can absorb, but not the deeper understanding craved by the soul. This understanding comes only by deep communion in meditation.

The devotee ought to look not only to the master's physical form, but commune with his soul. To take inside the inspiration one receives from out-ward contact, however, is to discover that which truly expands consciousness.

The guru-disciple relationship is not only of inner communion and of receiving, but of self-giving. Only in a spirit of mutuality can divine love be developed. The way to know God is to still the mind by deep meditation. The way to know Him is to live consciously in His blissful presence. The way to know Him is to commune with Him in inner silence, and to fill the heart, with His love.

Superficial disciples make a show of devotion to the guru, but those who are spiritually deep hold his presence in their hearts, absorb his vibrations silently into their souls, and seek his guidance inwardly rather than outwardly in words.

Let us speak little, then, but love much. And let us ever commune ecstatically with the Lord, as the great masters do, in our souls.

[Samuel]

What is a Guru actually is the question we can ask ourself, If you answer that, you can find answers on the above questions, for me is not nescesairy a person, maybe you can describe it as an experience too. But out off this i can say a Guru is someone that offers you an experience where you can learn out, you take your own lesson out off the experience. Without the experience you would never have know or never have come this way.
this is allready an answer too question 1 and 2

for question 3 it is abit harder too answer, I think that a Guru seeks people in need of a sertain experiance, when someone in need of this experiance meets the Guru, he will offer him what he seeks. If you are open, you will learn from this. But how does somone who is looking for that experiance meets the Guru, this is Divine ...

and the last question, I dont think we should follow our Guru too attain salvation, but we should folow what we learned from him or her on your own way

[charles prince]

It is the insight....
kids have idols...and the idols in life change with experience and age...
similarly guru is just like an idol in the present day life....it all depends upon the circumstances in one's life and
man is selfish and he/she will try to adapt someone which can compelete his egoism...easiest way to complete it