About Guruji

In Indian spiritual tradition, the Guru is the dispeller of darkness — a living embodiment of divine wisdom who guides the seeker from ignorance to truth. Param Pujya Shri Ravi Shankar Ji Maharaj himself sat at the feet of his Gurudev, Brahmrishi Devraha Baba, before taking on the mission of guiding others.

Why a Guru is Needed

The Sanskrit root "Gu" means darkness or ignorance. "Ru" denotes the remover of that darkness. Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is a Guru. Only he who removes our ultimate darkness, known as Maya, and who inspires and guides us on to the path of God-realization is the true Guru. Students also refer to their school teacher or college lecturer as guru. The connotation of the word guru in this case is one who imparts temporal knowledge (Apara Vidya) and is thus accordingly offered respect. A spiritual aspirant, no matter how brilliant, can never attain such knowledge by his own endeavor. This is stipulated in the Shrimad Bhagwatam in which Jadbharat reveals to king Rahugan:
"O Rahugan! One cannot attain knowledge of Atma and Paramatma by performing penance, sacrifices, renunciation, Vedic study or worshipping deities of water, fire or the sun. But when the dust from the feet of a satpurush (God-realized Guru) sprinkles on our heads, then we can surely attain this knowledge." In essence, one can only attain salvation by serving the satpurush. Treading the path to God-realization by one's own efforts is likened by the Katha Upanishad as walking on a razor's edge. Adi Shankaracharya echoes a similar injunction: "If a person, despite possessing: a handsome, disease-free body, fame, a mountain of wealth, and even if he has studied the Vedas and all other scriptures, and has himself composed many scriptures, but has not surrendered himself at the feet of a Guru, then he has achieved nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing."

The Guru's Mission

The Guru embodies not only the Saguna (characteristics) but also the Nirguna(quality) of the Supreme Being, and so to that extent the Guru is approachable and accessible to man's needs and comprehension. Guru's mission: The Guru's mission appears to be two-fold. The first and most important concern of the Guru is to awaken, elevate and transform the seeker. The second and final purpose of the Guru is paradoxically to help the disciple seeker to transcend this state of complete dependence on the Master, which dependence the Guru himself had taken such pains to foster. The final spurt of realizing his true identity with God is exclusively the Seeker's job.
"A guru is a person who can really show you the true nature of your mind and who knows the perfect remedies for your psychological problems. Someone who doesn't know his own mind can never know others' minds and therefore cannot be a guru." The syllable gu means shadows The syllable ru, he who disperses them, Because of the power to disperse darkness the guru is thus named.
– Advayataraka Upanishad 14—18, verse 5)

Who is a Sadguru?

Beyond Names and Forms

Guru has been addressed in numerous ways in different languages; spiritual master, divine person, sadguru, saint, maharaj, mahatma, mahrishi, pope, fakir etc however the essence of all these nomenclatures is one and the same. People are heard saying that we don’t need a guru because guru is our soul and resides within all of us. In its essence this is true however once again their understanding is a mere philosophical construct without any premise which only comes from intuitive experience. One who says so is speaking out of his ignorance and egoistic nature and the one who is aware of the true nature of being becomes silent with utmost respectfulness. If guru is already within you, then knowledge of the true nature of being is at its peak in the individual. If an individual is on the right path then he will be full of wisdom otherwise its nothing more than egoistic showcase of facts and theory.

Surrender to the Divine

When we fully surrender ourselves to someone outside our being then it results in building an all encompassing devotional state of mind which spreads its divinity ornamented with positive qualities of eternal love, patience, perseverance, respectfulness and forgiveness. There is not a speck of ego that remains in such a state, only eternal love and such a being receives the privilege of being one with God through the grace of his guru. An analogy would be to compare knowledge to soap and devotion to water. If there is just water then you can still remove the bad odor from your body without soap. But without water howsoever expensive the soap might be, it is useless and cannot be used for any purpose. When the two are mixed in right proportions then the refreshing aroma of non attachment emanates effortlessly and blesses us with the experience of eternal blissfulness. Its not that no-one has ever reached God without the help of a guru. Gautam Budha is a direct example of this fact however his destiny was full of pure and brilliant deeds in the past which resulted in his attainment of godliness through a deep state of wisdom. You will also find numerous cases of such yogis and sadhus who became disoriented because of lack of direction from a guru and ended their search with failure. Hence it is evident why the need of a guru has been stressed upon. An individual is like a piece of paper which initially gets wet under the effect of worldly desires and finally is destroyed as a slurry however if he is a disciple of a sadguru or has his blessings then the showers of grace will save him from the burning heat of desires and will always give him eternal happiness. Guru tests the faith of his disciples in numerous ways, many do pass such tests and many do fail however the reflection of a true disciple is one who keeps his ever lasting faith, trust and devotion towards his guru and follows his word believing that every act of his guru would be for the betterment of his own future. Such disciples are released from the ongoing circus of life and death and get established in a state of eternal bliss. Many people come to me from different regions, caste, community and many of them have all the worldly pleasures at their disposal. All of them have to go through my intense examination so quite often many of my disciples and devotees complain that I have a preferential treatment for certain people and this is not fair. However when I make them go through the systematic testing cycle for a certain period many of them fall through and distance themselves from me, many get angry and annoyed. Then people start blaming me that I don’t belong to anyone. The truth is that I belong to everyone and no one person solely belongs to me. I am only interested in your upliftment and success and no one becomes big or small simply because of the process that I follow. Everyone who is with me will have to go through that process at a certain time and only those who maintain strict discipleship will be successful and move ahead, the rest will be left behind. Wherever there is development there will be words of praise as well as condemnation meaning any disciple who has the right character, follows the right path, performs right deeds and has an evolved thinking would get a much higher dose of condemnation. This should not agitate him because this play of words of praise and condemnation is a mere element of the overall process that is employed by his guru. A disciple who doesn’t get disheartened, doesn’t fall into the clutches of negativities like inferiority complex, anger etc will one day assimilate the highest ideals taught by his sadguru to achieve eternal state of blissfulness.