The word guru has become common, used even in non-spiritual contexts, and has almost become a sort of joke. This word has lost its true spiritual meaning. In Eastern culture, the word guru means God. The guru is a person who has realized himself as the Absolute.
The True Nature of the Guru: Beyond Physical Form
If this person has truly realized himself as the Absolute, he also understands that anyone who seeks the guru, anyone who interacts with him or her, is nothing but the divine because there is only God. To stop putting the guru on a pedestal, you must understand that the guru is your own inner intuition. The guru is your own inner voice that, during meditation and contemplation, helps you reach profound states of consciousness. The guru is the voice of God itself and your own inspiration. If you put the guru on a pedestal and think that a person can replace this inner intuition, problems begin to arise. Where there is duality, there cannot be unity.
The Emergence of Non-Duality: You Are the Guru
The ultimate realization of non-duality is the understanding that you yourself are the guru, that there is no real difference between you and the guru. Therefore, as long as you continue to consider the guru as something different from you, you will not have reconciled all dualities.
For instance, during my inner exploration, I spontaneously discovered meditation techniques and visualizations that I then found in books and videos. These meditation and visualization techniques have been passed down for hundreds of years. If you follow your inner intuition, if you follow this voice that resides within you, you will rediscover the meditations that have already been passed down for centuries. However, be very careful not to confuse the voice of the guru with the voice of your ego or your everyday mind.
A Hypothetical Scenario: The Last Person on Earth
Imagine you are the last person on earth. Imagine there’s no one else to ask for spiritual information. In this hypothetical scenario, it’s obvious that God doesn’t cease to exist just because there are no other people to ask for spiritual information. If you have the will to know what God is, what being is, what spirit is, what consciousness is – use whatever name you want to use – this consciousness is going to emerge within you, and will guide you in your meditation in order to help you realize the Absolute.
The Path to Self-Discovery: No External Guru Required
It’s not necessary to go in search of something external to yourself because everything you need to realize what you are already resides within you. During your meditation, whether you practice Kriya Yoga or any other form of meditation or inner search, listen to the inner voice of the guru, the voice of your own intuition, and practice what it suggests, be it a visualization, a breathing exercise, or a yoga posture.
What I generally see in people who write to me is that they have doubts and haven’t even started practicing. Start practicing Kriya Yoga or any other form of meditation. You’ll discover that your doubts will resolve themselves, that your questions will be answered in your very meditation.
“If you take one step towards God, God takes a hundred steps towards you.”
– Ramana Maharshi
Trust Your Inner Voice
Whatever this inner voice suggests, practice it. If you still feel the need to find a person, a teacher who initiates you into Kriya Yoga or introduces you to some form of meditation or spiritual search, you are free to do so. Everyone is different, everyone has a different personality, everyone has a different character, and there are probably people who really need a guru, a teacher in physical form. However, what I want to warn you against is putting any teacher on a pedestal.