Guru: Remover of spiritual darkness
What is a Guru and why use one? In the Western World a Guru comes with a negative connotation, an esoteric Eastern person that makes you surrender your ego, and to realize the humble love within you. This idea is a threat to the Western culture that is very much body, mind ego focused. In the book Conversations with God III Neale Donald Walsh gets this download from source “There is a lot of negative energy in the West on the word “Guru”. It has almost become pejorative. To be a “Guru” is to somehow be a charlatan. To give your allegiance to a “Guru” is to somehow give your power away. Honoring you Guru is not giving your power away. It is getting your power. For when you honor the Guru, when you praise your master teacher, what you say is, “I see you”. And what you see in another you can begin to see in yourself. It is outward evidence of your inner reality.”
A Guru is someone who sees you for who you truly are, they see the diamond that is covered in dirt and mud. The stickiness of life that blocks the true essence of who you are. In Sanskrit Gu: means darkness and Ru: typically means remover, thus meaning “the one who removes spiritual darkness”. The guru is a spiritual teacher, a mentor, a light worker a forguiding light on the path of spirituality.
Many years ago I got this email from Jeffery Armstrong at the VASA Vedic Academy of Sciences & Arts, a local spiritual teacher in Vancouver, his teachings are in depth teachings of the Bagavad Gita.
The Difference between a Guru and a Teacher!!!!!!!
1. A teacher takes responsibility for your growth. A Guru makes you responsible for your growth.
2.A teacher gives you things you do not have and require. A Guru takes away things you have and do not require.
3. A teacher answers your questions. A Guru questions your answers.
4. A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil. A Guru requires trust and humility from the pupil.
5. A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey. A Guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey.
6. A teacher is a guide on the path. A Guru is a pointer to the way.
7. A teacher sends you on the road to success. A Guru sends you on the road to freedom.
8. A teacher explains the world and its nature to you. A Guru explains yourself and your nature to you.
9. A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego. A Guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego.
10. A teacher instructs you. A Guru constructs you.
11. A teacher sharpens your mind. A Guru opens your mind.
12. A teacher reaches your mind. A Guru touches your spirit.
13. A teacher instructs you on how to solve problems. A Guru shows you how to resolve issues.
14. A teacher is a systematic thinker. A Guru is a lateral thinker.
15. One can always find a teacher. But a Guru has to find and accept you.
16. A teacher leads you by the hand. A Guru leads you by example.
17.When a teacher finishes with you, you celebrate. When a Guru finishes with you, life celebrates.
As I write this post a synchronistic email just arrived in my inbox titled ” The help of a true Guru” from the Self-Realization Fellowship. Is it a coincidence that I have been told the great master Paramahansa Yoganada has been around lately? The following are Yoganada’s writings:
A true guru is one who knows God…and therefore is able to lead others on the path to their own liberation and ascension.
The guru helps you to uncover the soul within and to guide its upward climb to everlasting freedom in Spirit.
When you are moving blindly through the valley of life, stumbling in darkness, you need the help of someone who has eyes. You need a guru. To follow one who is enlightened is the only way out of the great muddle that has been created in the world. I never found true happiness and freedom until I met my Guru, he who was spiritually interested in me and who had the wisdom to guide me.
The true guru has no desire to place himself in the hearts of others, but rather to awaken in their consciousness the consciousness of God.
To understand the secular knowledge available in a school, you have to learn from a teacher who knows it. So also to understand spiritual truths it is necessary to have a spiritual teacher, or guru, one who knows God. Even if you cannot be in his physical presence, or even if he is no longer incarnate on earth, you must follow the teaching of such a teacher if you would find God.