The Guru and the Disciple
25
in your mind that she is your wife. Will she really become your
wife? Does it work that way? Does that mean you are married to
her? Will it be acceptable if you do not undergo the rituals of a
marriage ceremony?
Questioner: Say, for example, a guru migrates
permanently to another country and I want to believe in him as
my guru. Can I not keep his photograph and think of him as my
guru?
Dadashri: No, you will not get anywhere doing that. A
guru is someone who shows you the path. A photograph cannot
show you the way so that guru is useless. If you become sick, and
you worship the photograph of a doctor, will your illness go away?
Who is your Guru?
Questioner: Gnan has manifest within you, did you have a
guru too?
Dadashri: I have not met a living guru in this life. Whom
can you call a true guru? A true guru is the one that is living and
present (pratyaksh). Otherwise, all these are merely photographs.
Lord Krishna would be useful if he was living. But people sell his
pictures and people buy the pictures and frame them. In this life, I
have not had the decided experience ‘this is my guru’ about
anyone. One can only be defined a guru if he is living and present
for you, and you absorb his teachings with unmatched intensity
(dharan), such that over a few months there develops a guru-
shishya (master-disciple) relationship. I have not developed a
relationship like that with anyone in this life; I have not met a living
guru in this life.
I had more bhaav (attraction with devotion and reverence)
for Krupadudev (Shrimad Rajchandra), but because he was not
present, I could not accept him as my guru. Whom would I accept
as a guru? The one who is present, the one who gives me direct
aadesh (directives and instructions), the one who gives me