How to Find The Real Guru?
During Astrology Teaching Classes and other sessions, one question is being asked many a times to me which is “How to find The Real Guru?” I feel that I should address this question now in as much detail as possible because this is a common concern these days. Let’s cover this article in following points –
Who is a Guru?
What is the need for Guru?
The Real Guru.
Real Disciple Vs Real Guru.
Dangers of Searching for Guru.
Guru is inconceivable.
Some of the Characteristics of Real Guru.
Conclusion.
Let’s cover all the points’ one after the other –
Who is a Guru? – I have earlier written two articles on a similar topic as to who is a Guru? - https://www.astrosaxena.com/Guru and https://www.astrosaxena.com/Guru2. This article may be considered as sequel of this series. Apart from everything mentioned in these two articles, I can add that The Guru is like embodiment of God or we can say that God in physical form is Guru. Osho puts it nicely that Guru is bridge between Disciple and God. As per Osho, Guru is a person who has your hand in one hand and God’s hand in another hand and can make disciple meet with God.
What is the need for Guru? – Now, why there is even a need for Guru? Can’t we live our life without a Guru? Someone said to Osho that Jiddu Krishnamurti says that there is no need for Guru. Osho replied that even to know this much, you needed a Guru like Jiddu Krishnamurti. Even this is not your own knowledge.
As I understood in my journey as disciple so far, Guru is needed to surrender our ego. Guru’s only job is to thrash your ego on daily basis so that we can evolve in our lives from ego-consciousness to God consciousness level.
This reminds me of a preaching of Osho where he said that –
“You want me to live a socially acceptable life. You want me to be moral as per the standards of this Society. You dont want me to be controversial.
Not that you have some great concern towards me or in my development as an individual but you want all this so that when you tell in society that your Guru is Rajneesh, then people should praise you that what a great moral Guru you have!!! So, you want all this to hear that praise which will lead to your ego satisfaction.
As a Teacher, my only job is to destroy your ego.”
So, we need Guru in our life to surrender our ego to that person. How is it going to happen? It is when you accept someone as Guru, now you have to live your whole life as per his wishes. You can’t say No to your Guru. At least this is what should be. If you are saying No to your Guru then actually you never accepted Him as your Guru. Some Hypocrisy was going on.
But this is threatening to Ego, right? To live whole life as per the wishes of another person. Doing what Guru thinks is right for you? This is the biggest difficulty and challenge to Ego and this is also the most important function of Guru.
Now, there is another concept which says that Guru should be a Living Guru. It means that you should accept a person in physical body as your Guru. Ideally, it should be the case but there are contrary views too.
Recently, I was reading this book named Love Everyone on Neem Karoli Baba. Neem Karoli Baba and Osho both are of the view that if disciple is truly surrendered to Guru then it doesn’t matter if Guru is in physical body or not. Even a Guru who has left his body centuries ago can come in astral form to guide his devoted disciple in times of need. This is what I always felt. Many a times it happens that I am thinking about something whole day or for days altogether and then suddenly I find Osho’s preaching on same topic and it clears all my doubts. So, if a person is unable to surrender to any living Guru then even a Guru in non-physical world can be of great help but main condition should be that disciple should be totally surrendered.
How to know if the disciple is surrendered or not? In above example, if I found that Osho preaching which gave me guidance then I must start working on that guidance. If I think that it is fine, I listened it but why I need to follow it in practice then I am not surrendered to my Guru.
This is what is actually happening in this world. In one preaching, Osho said that people beat an alive Mahavira but worship a dead Mahavira because dead person can’t do anything. An alive Guru is going to change you.
The Real Guru – Now, if we see closely then this term “The Real Guru” itself is incorrect. There is no need to add Real before a Guru. A Guru is supposed to be Real. What I am trying to say that if a Guru is not-Real then consider that He is not Guru at all.
Real Disciple Vs Real Guru – Now, the main concern here – How to find The Real Guru?
What is wrong in this question?
This question is focused at Guru from Disciple. Disciple is thinking that I know that I am real and perfect but it is just that I need to find a Real Guru.
Let’s understand this from this story from the same book, Love Everyone –
So, Ram Dass was influential in bringing fame to Neem Karoli Baba in the Western World. When people came to know about Neem Karoli Baba through Ram Dass, they travelled from USA to India. Many of them never had enough money to travel. So, they sold-off their properties, Cars etc, they hitchhiked the whole of Europe and crossed Indo-Pak Border during 1971 war. This route they took became popular as Hippie Trail.
Now, what I am trying to say? They never met Baba, they just heard something about Baba from Ram Dass and they were ready to put everything they had on stake. The question never came into their minds whether Neem Karoli Baba is real Guru or not?
One thing was sure that they were Real Disciple.
There was another incident with Osho when a person said to Osho that people don’t respect Guru these days. Osho replied by saying, you won’t have become real Guru else respect happens automatically. You won’t have to ask for it.
What I am trying to say that we all are focused at other person rather than ourselves. A disciple is checking if Guru is real or not as if he is sure that he is real. Likewise, a Guru is checking if disciple is right or not, as if he is sure that he is right. As I see, if disciples focus on being the right disciple and Gurus focus on being the right Guru then everything will be sorted out.
Another thing is that as we are different levels of disciples, we also have different levels of Gurus. Rest assured that you will get Guru which you deserve. So, if I get any fake Guru then maybe I am also a fake person then only I can attract such a fake Guru in my life.
Osho says one more thing that this whole crowd of Gurus or Gurudom is existing now just because of lazy disciples. If disciples start doing all the things which Guru is telling then Guru automatically becomes answerable and if he is fake then his shop can’t function for long time. This is what happened with Gautam Siddhartha when he started in spiritual life. He followed every single instruction given by every Guru he met and then asked him as to why results didn’t come as promised? This closed down many shops of fake Gurus.
So again, the message is that we should focus on becoming Real Disciple rather than finding the Real Guru.
Dangers of Searching for Guru – Then there are some clear dangers of searching a Guru for self. What are the dangers? Well, who is searching? You only. Whom you will like? The person like you only. In that case, how your Guru can be any better than you.
Understand it like this. If I am searching for a Guru then my mind has made some criteria for him. He should be like this or that etc. And if I happen to find a person like that then it is only manifestation of my egoistic desires. How can that person destroy your ego and take you beyond your mind when he himself is creation of your own mind. If I am searching for a Guru with some criteria in mind and I find him then all he can do is to satisfy my ego and mind because he is creation of same.
Understand it from another angle. You think that you need a Guru and that Guru should be better than you obviously. Then let that Guru choose you. He has the wisdom to judge whether you are ready to be his disciple or not. At lower level of wisdom, how can you be the judge that this person is my Guru?
This is why they say that Guru comes into life when Disciple is ready. I can say from my own experience that I never thought in my dreams that Osho is going to be my Guru but when time came, I was ready and receptive for him. As I see, this is the only job of disciple. Be ready and receptive for Guru. Don’t go on searching for him because you can’t find anyone better than you.
And this is what is happening these days. On daily basis, people call me Guruji on every social media platform but when they don’t like my views in some articles or videos, they issue a threat that if I continue to speak or write like that then they will un-follow me.
Again, I never told anyone to follow me. I never claimed that I am Guru of anyone but if X person says that I am his Guru then he has to fall-in-line with my views rather than wishing that I will fall-in-line with his views. Actually, this is what is happening in this world. So-called Gurus are becoming Followers of their Followers. They know that if they say something which makes you angry then they will lose their Followings.
This is just the result of a Disciple searching a Guru with a criteria and trying to change his Guru as per his criteria. Somehow, it is not going to work with me.
So, don’t search for Guru. Your Guru is waiting for the right time when you are ready and receptive to enter in your life. Your job is just to be ready and receptive.
Guru is inconceivable – Another reason why we should never go for search is hat we are searching Guru as per criteria made by mind and Guru is beyond our mind. Guru and God are inconceivable. We can’t even imagine what they can do. A small story which was told by Osho in one of his preaching is here to give you the idea of inconceivability of Guru and God is here –
There is a story about a Sufi fakir. There were two fakirs who stayed opposite each other. The disciple of one of them, approached his guru and said, "The Sufi next door is spreading all kinds of stories about you. He even maligns you and spreads horrible rumours about you. Why do you not set him right? Why do you not say something to him?"
The fakir told him, "Why don't you go and find out yourself? But do not ask him in haste for priceless things are not told to a stranger. If a traveller, walking on the road asks a question the answers are only good for the road." "Then what shall I do?" The disciple asked.
"Go and serve him for a year. Try to be as near to him as possible. Win his confidence. Then some day, seeing the right hour and opportunity put him the question."
For a year the disciple served his Guru's enemy. He won his confidence and was very close to him. One night as he was pressing his legs, thinking the moment to be opportune, he asked him, "Why do you speak against and abuse the fakir across the road? What is the secret?" The fakir replied, "I shall tell you since you ask but tell no one. I am his disciple. I am forbidden to give out the secret. You better go and ask him yourself. Remember, these things are not spoken about to a stranger. Try to be as near to him as possible."
Now the poor disciple was in a dilemma! Thinking him to be the Guru's enemy, he had set out to solve the mystery and this man turned out to be his Guru's disciple! He went back to his Guru and served him devotedly for two years. Then one day as he was bathing the Guru and nobody was about, he asked him, what the mystery was.
The Guru said, "He is my disciple. I have specially placed him there to spread false and derogatory rumours about me. Those who believe the false rumours, do not come to me for they are false. This saves my precious time, which I utilise on those only who are really the seekers of Truth. Those who turn back by rumours alone, are not genuine seekers. This is my own man and he has served me as no other can. He has saved me from hundreds of useless seekers."
This story is enough to give us a message that we can’t search for the Real Guru. We have to be ready and receptive and wait for the Real Guru to come in life.
Osho also says that if you cannot understand some areas of your Guru’s life or some of his actions or words then it is fine because those are the things which are beyond your conceivable mind and through those things Guru will help you to raise your consciousness to a higher level and go beyond your mind.
Some of the Characteristics of Real Guru – But we still want some traits and characteristics of a person who can be recognized as Guru. As I see, following can be the main traits or characteristics of an enlightened Guru. Important thing is that an enlightened Guru will have these traits/characteristics but everyone who has these characteristics may not the enlightened Guru. They can be faking these traits too –
• He will not be afraid of death because He already died on the day of Enlightenment.
• An Enlightened Guru is never looking for huge number of following. In most circumstances, you may not even know him. Understand that He is already enlightened and realized God. What else can be a higher desire to realize? So, He can be living the most low-key life. Actually, there is no need for Him to even stay in physical body anymore. The only reason why He is staying in this world is out of compassion so that he can guide people like us.
• As we can see from story above, he won’t mind even taking defame on himself to keep number of Real Disciples to minimum so that He can work on them seriously.
• He will talk about the whole humanity. He will belong to the whole existence rather than a country, caste, religion or a sect. He will talk about all religions and welfare of whole world. This is what is biggest difficulty in following or accepting a Real Guru. Suppose I belong to X religion and my Guru starts praising Y religion someday then it will hurt my ego. Likewise, I belong to A country and my Guru starts praising another country which is an enemy to my country then it is going to hurt my ego.
• He will be far away from politics. He will never tell you whom to vote or whom not to vote. He sees politics as the biggest evil to humanity. If a politician wants to leave politics and want to become his disciple then it is fine but a Real Guru will never enter into Politics of any kind. Politics and Spirituality are opposite to each other. Spirituality is about uniting people whereas Politics sustains itself by dividing people.
• He is always testing his disciples. You need to be on your toes, if you are around your Guru. Even the most generic of statement from him is spoken in order to test you.
• Wherever He is, that place becomes beautiful. Nature comes to that place with all its beauty.
• He will do everything possible to destroy your ego.
• You will start seeing things from a completely different perspective.
• He will bring freedom and independence to you. Even if you want to leave Him one day then He will be happy to let you go.
Conclusion – Although I have given these traits and characteristics but it again puts the other person in focus. As I said, we need to focus on self. As a disciple, my only job is to become Real Disciple. If I become a Real Disciple then Real Guru is bound to come. Then not only your Guru but you will also exhibit these traits sooner or later. That is the moment when disciple is ready to be Guru and that is also the moment when Guru’s job is over and he should leave you in search of new disciples who are waiting for Him.
Dedicated to my Guru Osho Rajneesh.
Thanks,
Swami Premanand Bharti
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