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the Guru and you
> From: griffin@gate.net (The Answer is to Question)
> I don't understand the emphasis on following a Guru. I've seen this in a
> few other articles as well.. the idea that one can find God only by
> devotion to a Guru or through following a set of teachings. If one's
> "job" as it were is to "see God," then can we not do that directly, or on
> our own? Is God really limited to showing himself through the Guru only?
> If God is truly everywhere, why not seek him in direct experience?
Very good question.
Conditioned living entities have the propensity to make mistakes, to
cheat, and to become illusioned (there's another one in this list of
4, but it slips my mind right now). All of these tendencies are
non-conducive to spiritual consciousness. Therefore, one is told,
in all the Upanisads, the Gita, and so forth, to approach a Guru for
learning about God. That is the only duty of the Guru, not to cure
some material distress or to bless people with wealth or to claim
Godhood status or to learn magic or to give electric shocks or any
of the other popular items that some unscrupulous "Gurus" do.
The demigods, who have much better senses than we do and who have great
power, also have a Guru (Brihaspati). As an example to all others, Krishna
(the original source of all spiritual knowledge) took a Guru (Sandipani
Muni) when He came to this planet.
And another thing to keep in mind -- the Guru must also have had a Guru
too, and before him another Guru, and so forth to time immemorial. Otherwise
they are teaching some modern doctrine, not the Sanatan-Dharma of the
Vedas. For this reason, you are advised not to put faith in books
written by modern politicians (only in modern India does the concept
arise of someone being a top-rank politician and thus getting the right
to comment on scripture). By following the unbroken disciplic
succession chain (sampradaya), one can be certain that the teachings
are identical with the original source; otherwise, there will be
flaws in the teachings.
Lord Chaitanya said that one need not be a brahmana or a sannyasi to
be a Guru -- anyone who knows and teaches love of God is to be considered
a Guru, even if born in a degraded family. Mahaprabhu's sampradaya
line is a siksa-line (Guru by teaching), not a birthright-line or a line
on diksa (initiation) alone. Of course, the diksa Guru is usually the
primary siksa-Guru as well, but that is not always the case. There
has been more discussion on the details herein on the newsgroup
alt.religion.vaisnava
> take care,
> Kris
Yours,
Vijay
