The Spiritual Master
Tue, 01/29/2008 - 20:22 — admin
MICHAEL: What is the meaning of guru?
TEACHER: Guru means spiritual master. A guru is a living entity whose knowledge is not limited by the four defects which infect the conditioned living entities. Therefore, the knowledge he delivers is also free from the defects of knowledge acquired by the ascending process. It is not material knowledge.
If the Vedas are analogous to books about a foreign place which were written in that foreign place itself, then a bona fide guru is analogous to a foreign minister or ambassador who has been sent to your country from a foreign land by the president of that land to tell you whatever you want to know about that foreign land and about the president himself. A foreign ambassador is not actually a resident of the country he is visiting, but is a resident of the country he is representing. Similarly, a bona fide guru is actually a resident of the spiritual world, and he actually knows the Supreme Person quite intimately. As such, we can receive authoritative information about the Supreme Person from him, and actually he is present here within the material world explicitly for that reason. The guru is the transcendental via medium by which one can approach the Supreme Person.
To understand shastra, one must have a spiritual master who can help explain it to him.9
MICHAEL: How can I distinguish a bona fide spiritual master from an ordinary person?
TEACHER: In the Vedic literatures, the qualifications of a bona fide spiritual master are described in detail.10 The subject is one which we could spend a considerable amount of time on, but I don’t think that’s necessary right now. Presently, our business is to establish the fact that such personalities actually do exist.
Before going on to the third point, let me first mention in passing that we can also gain information about the Supreme Person from sadhus, i.e., sincere persons who have dedicated their lives to serving and understanding God. Although every sadhu may not necessarily be a perfectly-realized spiritual master, he can nevertheless provide us with information about God up to the point of his own realization.
The chief historical proponent of such “I am God”ism philosophy was Sripad Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya lived and preached throughout India in the eighth century. The preaching of Shankaracharya and his followers was so strong that, practically speaking, it drove Buddhism out of India. Today, throughout India and the world, Shankaracharya’s teachings (or slight variations of them) are still having a tremendous influence on people.The Spiritual Master
In Calcutta, India, for example, we can see the ridiculous sight of a starving, sore-infested man meditating on the side of the road: “I am God. I am God.” In America and Europe, you’ll find many so-called yogis and gurus who are directly or indirectly in Shankaracharya’s line of “I am God” ism teachers.
~Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (Chris Butler)
Science of Identity Foundation
MICHAEL: What is the meaning of guru?
TEACHER: Guru means spiritual master. A guru is a living entity whose knowledge is not limited by the four defects which infect the conditioned living entities. Therefore, the knowledge he delivers is also free from the defects of knowledge acquired by the ascending process. It is not material knowledge.
If the Vedas are analogous to books about a foreign place which were written in that foreign place itself, then a bona fide guru is analogous to a foreign minister or ambassador who has been sent to your country from a foreign land by the president of that land to tell you whatever you want to know about that foreign land and about the president himself. A foreign ambassador is not actually a resident of the country he is visiting, but is a resident of the country he is representing. Similarly, a bona fide guru is actually a resident of the spiritual world, and he actually knows the Supreme Person quite intimately. As such, we can receive authoritative information about the Supreme Person from him, and actually he is present here within the material world explicitly for that reason. The guru is the transcendental via medium by which one can approach the Supreme Person.
To understand shastra, one must have a spiritual master who can help explain it to him.9
MICHAEL: How can I distinguish a bona fide spiritual master from an ordinary person?
TEACHER: In the Vedic literatures, the qualifications of a bona fide spiritual master are described in detail.10 The subject is one which we could spend a considerable amount of time on, but I don’t think that’s necessary right now. Presently, our business is to establish the fact that such personalities actually do exist.
Before going on to the third point, let me first mention in passing that we can also gain information about the Supreme Person from sadhus, i.e., sincere persons who have dedicated their lives to serving and understanding God. Although every sadhu may not necessarily be a perfectly-realized spiritual master, he can nevertheless provide us with information about God up to the point of his own realization.