The Guru and the Disciple
41
It is like this; there are two kinds of gurus. One is in the
form of a guide, meaning we have to follow him. He walks ahead
like a leader or a monitor. He is called a ‘guru’. Do you understand
the term ‘monitor’? It is someone we follow. If we come to a fork
in the road, he will decide, ‘No, not this road. Let us take that
road.’ So we walk on that road. You have to follow him, but he is
always in front of us. He does not sway from the route.
The other is a satguru. A satguru is someone that liberates
us from all our worldly suffering, because he is liberated himself!
He does not keep us as his followers. And the guru is someone
we have to trust and keep following. There you must not use your
own brain and wisdom and you must stay sincere to the guru. The
degree to which you are sincere with him is the degree of peace
you will experience.
The need for a guru starts from the time we begin school to
the time we reach the door of spirituality. A guru can take us all
the way to spirituality but we cannot enter into the gate of Atma
Gnan (knowledge of the Self) with the guidance of a guru since he
himself is looking for it. What is Atma Gnan? Atma Gnan is to be
in front of the Self. The satguru helps bring us directly in front of
the Self.
So there is a difference between a guru and a satguru!
The meditation within a guru and a Satguru
People have not understood the term ‘guru’. People in India
have not understood whom to call a guru! People refer to anyone
wearing saffron colored robes as a guru. If one quotes even a few
words from the scriptures, people call him a guru; but that is not a
guru.
One man told me, ‘I have made someone my guru,’ so I
asked him to explain to me what his guru was like. Anyone who
does not have artadhyan or raudradhyan is a guru, (Artadhyan
- adverse internal contemplation due to presence of kashaya that