REMOVER OF DARKNESS, REVEALER OF TRUTH
Looking for a guru to guide your life?
To transcend the mind and reach the ultimate goal, seekers need the guidance of a satguru, an enlightened master who has followed the path to its natural end and can lead them to the Divine within themselves.§
Satgurus are the masterful guides and mystical awakeners who bring us into the fullness of spiritual life. They are initiated swamis of recognized spiritual lineages. Sages and satgurus are the most honored among holy men, beings of the highest attainment. The guru helps the devotee to hold his mind in focus, to become pointedly conscious of thought, word and deed, and to cognize the lessons of each experience. Without the guidance and grace of the guru, the devotee’s mind will be divided between instinctive and intellectual forces, making it very difficult to resolve karma. And only when karma is wisely harnessed can the mind become still enough to experience its own superconscious depths.§
Every Hindu needs a satguru, a preceptor. The satguru is as much a part of Hinduism as are the temples, as are the Vedas and our other great scriptures, because not everyone can see for themselves. They need someone to see ahead a little bit for them and to keep them on the right track and in the right mood. The guru guides and also shares a bit of the heavier burdens, if one is fortunate enough to be dedicated enough to have a guru who will lend his powers in this way. But each aspect of the karma, the outgrowth of the dharma, must be passed through by the disciple, creating as little as possible of a similar karma on this tenuous path of the repetition of the cycles of life.§
MORE TOOLS FOR SEEKING
A PRECEPTOR§
- Prepare yourself on the inside. Just as a flower opens its petals and draws the honeybee, so the mature disciple’s sweet soul will attract a spiritual guide.
- Study the teachings of the living satgurus, to determine which among them teaches the philosophy of your heart.
- Speak with a guru’s followers. You will know him by knowing them. the goal. Expect the process to take years, not months.
The guru may take unto himself, into his nerve system, some of the heavier areas of your karma in the same way your parents performed this function for you perhaps unknowingly. The guru helps the devotee to hold his mind in focus, to become pointedly conscious of thought, word and deed, and to cognize the lessons of each experience. §
There are many gurus in the world today who speak English, teach and preach and bring forth the Sanatana Dharma. What you need to have is a guru that your soul is akin to. The best way to choose a guru is to observe those that surround the guru and question them as to their spiritual advancement. Have they gotten more from their guru than just learning how to sing and eat? In today’s world, we observe people putting in more time and energy and study to buy just the right computer and the correct screen to go with it and just the right automobile. But they rush into ashrams, accept gurus into their lives, accept a spouse into their life, without any kind of research at all which would precede it. We find people today trying to qualify themselves, find just the right university to enter which they’re there for a few years and then they’re out. They don’t qualify themselves even at all, or even think about it to enter an ashram or to study with a guru or to take on a spouse for a lifetime. So, meet as many gurus as you possibly can, and then when you do find one, give your entire heart, loyalty and dedication and be co-operatively intelligent in performing the sadhanas. §
