, which only a seriouis Gurus-Intellectual and Spiritual

N K Srinivasan

The word 'guru' ,in general , means a teacher, a preceptor or a

'spiritual guide.'. In Hindu circles,a guru is placed on a high

pedestal.He or she is above ordinary teacher or trainer or

preacher.

The literal meaning of 'guru' is " one who dispels darkness or

ignorance', here spiritual ignorance is meant.

In Hindu system of gurus ,a guru takes the responsibility for

the spiritual growth of his disciple or 'chela' for his entire

life.Therefore a guru selects a student with great care, and

not the other way around--a student selecting a guru as one

would select a thesis advisor for Ph D work in any university.

This concept of a guru is hard to understand in modern context,

particularly for westerners. For the western mind, a life-long

relationship or bond for learning or training is unpalatable or

impossible as most relationships are short and serve only a

limited purpose. [It is seen in marital relationship as well.]

So the kind of Guru-sishya relationship as practised by

venerable Hindu gurus is hard to understand or appreciate for

many western minds. This leads to all kinds of 'problems' in

Gurudoms as seen by westerners...we have the tendency of

shopping for gurus and guru hopping and having even a chain of
gurus. Most orthodox Hindus will frown on this tendency, as

very little gain in spirituality is possible in such

circumstances.

Who is a real Guru?

In spiritual matters, a Hindu would say that only a Guru who

had attained self-realization or has knowledge of Atman is fit

to be a guru.Only he or she can light the lamp of spirituality

in the heart of the disciple or chela.This was stated clearly

in "katha Upanishad': Atman [Self] ,when taught by an inferior

person is not comprehended;------;but when It is taught by him

who has become one with Atman,there can remain no more doubt
about It".

Where to find such gurus who are realized beings or

persons,commonly called "satgurus" by Hindus?

While it is easy to find lecturers, preachers and teachers who

may expound on the Gita or the Upanishads or various advaitic

texts ,it is indeed difficult to find realized masters as

teachers or gurus in the real sense.

Most of the time, westerners do not seek spiritual gurus at

all, but only those who can satisfy their curiosity about Hindu
philosophy and perhaps,teachers who can introduce them to Hindu

thought and some practice.Such masters or 'gurus' are available

in plenty in almost any region.

Hindus have solved the problem of finding such satgurus in an

easy and natural manner. If you are sincere in your pursuit of

spirituality, a guru will be sent to you. Providence or God

will ensure that. !

What this means is that you will be prompted or given intuitive

leads to reach a teacher even though he might live in relative

obscurity . All that is needed is a spiritual longing or thirst

for knowledge of Self or Atman.

This assertion has been verified many times in Indian spiritual

lore when the disciple contacts a teacher or guru in strange

ways with very little planning .

This is quite different from the western approach of seeking a

guru after looking up in yellow pages or guru ratings column or

reading articles about different gurus. This Hindu approach

also shuns the commercial means adopted by many gurus of

eastern or western origin.

A real Hindu guru is above caste,creed and even religion ,and

would accept any worthy student or chela as his disciple. He

may test him or her in many ways before accepting a chela. You

just cannot enroll in a session with such gurus, even though

walking along with him or joining his bhajans or group singing

or listening to his lectures may do some good and may put you

in the proper track.

There are several instances of great gurus accepting chelas

from other religions or from 'outcastes' in Hindu system.An

illustrious case is that of Swami Ramananda taking Kabir as his

chela even though Kabir was a muslim. Kabir became a great

saint and mystic later and initiated a sect called 'kabir-

panthis'.

A guru may train a chela in Jnana marg or path which is

spiritual inquiry, based on Jnana Yoga or along Bhakti or

devotional path. A great guru can take you along either route

depending on your mental tendencies and previous practices. In

Hindu system, even though the paths are well defined, a great

Guru can steer a chela in either way. It is pointless to argue

which path is superior or faster, as both paths are equally

effective and equally hard to follow. [There had been endless

arguments on this point especially among philosophers and gurus

of lesser stature.] In fact, a sincere chela would leave such

questions to Guru himself and would follow the path and

practices suggested by his or her guru.

It is important to note that the paths merge imperceptibly at

some point of growth of spiritual intent in a chela.

Western Scenario --Intellectual and spiritual gurus

It is hard to call many of the teachers and sat-sangh givers as

gurus at all, in the Hindu sense. Yet, some observations can be

made about recent situations when many have come to the

arena--- preaching and teaching advaita or nonduality as well

as devotional paths in the west , hoping to lead seekers along
the Hindu paths,which are indeed universal and can be practized

by anyone in any corner of the world with sincerity.

A bit of historical perspective may be useful here.

Swami Vivekananda came to the USA for the Chicago world

exposition in 1893. He made a huge impact in the western mind

by his sincerity, charisma,his oratorical skills and the divine

fervor which he derived from his master, Sri Ramakrishna. He

preached in broad outline the Vedanta and its methods; he

founded many Vedanta centres with his brother monks who are

doing great work in spreading the Hindu philosophy and train

many persons. The monks of his order, Sri Ramakrishna Mission,

have brought spritual light to thousands of westerners.

Next in importance, in the historical sense, was the arrival of

Paramahansa Yogananda, in 1920, who trained many western men

and women into yoga-- [a combination of Raja yoga and Bhakti

yoga ]and who founded Self-Realization Fellowship [SRFin

LA],indeed a church with impressive record and spread. His

book "An Autobiography of a yogi' is a classic in this field.

Some of his disciples had great spiritual awakening and could

in turn light many lamps of spirtual hearts.

In the early 1960s, we had a flood of yogis and masters

professing lot of high achievements in spirituality. The most

well known were Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who taught transcendental

meditation or TM -- a simple effective technique for

neutralising stress in modern lives and giving an inkling of

sublime feelings; Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada who brought the

Bhakti or devotional cult of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Bengal

[with dancing, chanting of "Hare Krishna" mantra] and other

religious practices. There were countless others with different

brands of yoga, a combination of physical aspects called "hatha
yoga' with sprinkling of meditation

and devotional practices. Many of them fell by wayside because

of commercial practices unlike ashrams in India or internal

squabbles or sexual promiscuity of gurus and their close

followers.

In the 1970's and 1980's there were many 'gurus' of

questionable claims who had learnt a few academic things and

professed to turn the western ,gullible seekers on with their

spritual powers. Acharya Rajneesh, a Jain professor with

smattering of Hindu philosophy built an empire in Pune and

Oregon ,USA, pandering to the lower instincts of young seekers

and amassing huge wealth,including a stable of 90 Rolls-Royce

cars.!Swami Rama with some pranayam practices built his yoga

institute with some sanskrit knowledge, and yoga practices.

Some gurus mixed yoga with tantra of perverse methods,[called

in India, Vamachara practices] to titillate the senses and draw
more devotees. Many of these yogis were discredited with

several court cases for criminal offfences and financial

impropriety.

After these forays by such gurus, there came the devotional

gurus,focusing on bhajans and songs, claiming many supernatural

powers of healing and clair-voyance. Some even 'materialized'

hand-held objects or trinkets to lure the devotees. They built

financial empires of billions of dollars, while doing some

social service back in India. Their personal behavior was

questioned by many devotees and soon they were either

discredited or operated in small circles. Of course, meanwhile

they had amassed huge wealth with cheap means.

The latest stories about Sathya Sai Baba who passed away a few

weeks ago, is an eye-opener for many sincere seekers. He even

claimed that he was the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba who

lived and died as a fakir in the Sufi tradition.!

Intellectual Gurus

There was disenchantment with all these gurus, yet westerners

needed some direction along spiritual paths in the Hindu

tradition.Can we follow a purely intellectual tradition without

the trappings of Hindu forms of worship or hymns and so on?

Hindu philosophy is a highly developed spiritual endeavor

,spanning at least a few thousand years.There are different

streams of thoughts and approaches with different mix of

reasoning or devotion or physical control. Advaitic or nondual

philosophy appeals to the intellect but is not easy to

practice. Atma Vichara or self-enquiry which was advocated by

Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi [of Thiruvannamalai , a place close to

Chennai, in South India, called just "Tiru" by many
westerners]appears easy, nonsectarian and seems to require very

little preparation or training.

This advaitic method was rediscovered by many ,leaving aside

the intense practice RAMANA HIMSELF FOLLOWED AS WELL AS MANY OF

HIS EARLY DISCIPLES, as an intelectual process. Soon many minor

'gurus' emerged,who were mainly teachers taking some texts,

including Ramana's "Upadesa Saram" and text -torturing them.

Elaborate commentaries and explanations are possible filling

volumes of texts or miles of tapes.One writer calls

this "advaita disease or rash" spreading like an epidemic.

For these teachers and 'modern gurus', some stamp of approval

or certification is required , as one gets certified as a

cardiologist or barber.

H W L Poonja, affectionately called 'Poonjaji' or Papaji ,

living in Lucknow, India, became a leader of some sort.

Poonjaji had spent some time with Bhagwan Ramana in early

years. His maternal uncle was the great saint-preacher Ram

Tirth. Many former devotees of Rajneesh or Osho flocked to

Poonjaji for his wise remarks on Advaita or Ramana. One can say

that he is following the lineage of Ramana because he or she

had heard lectures of Poonja who led a simple life and had his

family life.It should be noted that Poonja's interpretation of

Ramana's teaching and practice may vary a lot from pure

advaitic methods.But that does not matter because Poonjaji was

a disciple of Ramana at one time!

Another great advaitic master who led a very simple life in a

crowded apartment in Mumbai was Nisargadatta Maharaj.He was a

beedi [cigarette] vendor and a householder. He was found by

many seekers, including Maurice Frydman who was close to

Ramana. Nisarga explained many things in a subtle manner hoping

to clarify the methods of Advaita to western minds.A good

number followed him.But it was not easy to understand much of

what he said, and his approach is hard to follow; further he

spoke no English.

At this stage, a former bank executive and one who can speak
Marathi,the language of Nisarga,came on the scene.His name was

Ramesh Balsekar. Ramesh was savvy, educated in England

and could explain many things nicely about Advaita. He held

daily free sessions in his house in Mumbai.Soon he became the

main exponent of Advaita for the western audience. Someone even

compiled a book called "Gospel of Ramesh Balsekar". Balsekar's

interpretation of Advaita was much distorted though he was

a sincere person in trying to teach that tough subject--the

Advaita.

Meanwhile some masters like Swami Dayananda Saraswati ,

a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda ,went back to traditional

approach of explaining scriptures with proper chanting and

intonation .This method presupposes intense introspection

for which the listener may not be trained for.This approach is

safer,mainly because one interprets the scriptures as was done

in Sankara's time[ Adi Shankara-- 788-820 AD];But Upanishads

and the Gita repeatedly tell us that we cannot know Brahman by

scriptures, though scriptures may help to pave the way.

Soon enough many western 'gurus' or sat sangh givers appeared

on the scene,giving regular lectures for a fee or seminars, on

Advaita with this hotch-potch understanding and text torturing

, received indirectly from Nisarga or Ramesh Balsekar or

Poonjaji or other such gurus.

It should be noted that in the process, the whole approach has

become an academic exercise or intellectual approach with

nothing of spiritual inkling present. This approach is similar

to one learning art through art history lectures and colorful

slides, not even visiting a local museum, or seeing some of the

paintings of masters in Met Museum in New York or the Louvre in

Paris or the Hermitage in Russia.

Once this process of intellectual guru training is

instituted,through sat-sanghs and retreats for a few days,

there could be no shortage of gurus of intellectual style, to

satisfy the curious students and to claim that one is getting

trained in the 'lineage' of great masters of India.

This is unfortunate because this process has failed to grasp

the meaning of Hindu approach to spirituality through Jnana or

Devotion which requires intense training of the mind under a

real satguru with discrimination[viveka] and

dispassion[vairagya]. The path of advaita or nonduality or any

of the devotional path requires cultivation of mind with Viveka

and Vairagya, which only a serious master or guru can inculcate

in an aspiring student. This is missing with the group of

intellectual gurus on the scene. It is pointless to talk fo

lineage after such training; well--a physics student can also

say that he is in the lineage of Galileo or Newton or Faraday

or Einstein, because he uses their equations or formulae.

A deeper approach to spirituality in the Hindu tradition is

called for before even an attempt of advaitic practice or atma

vichara can be undertaken. The intellectual gurus meanwhile can

turn out more of such teachers, perpetuating a knowledge

process without insight or intuition.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------