Internal guru and the external guru

In this day and age of spirituality, it is very easy to get lost in the vast amount of information out there in the internet regarding enlightenment. For the true seekers of truth, one is left relying upon google and wikipedia for knowledge, reading countless books by many new-age authors, and more over just web surfing to read more material, and add more comments in different forums, blogs and hubs, until the mental stimulation/entertainment from one website is replaced by another. That was the case for me before I met my guru, and probably for you too. For some of you, that also explains how you ended up visiting my simple and humble hub here. ;-) However you reached this hub page I created, my intention through this hub is to share my experience of confusion, and the clarity parallel with the idea of a spiritual path without and with a guru.

The origin of the word Guru is from Sanskrit, which means "dispeller of darkness". The word has creeped into everyday usage, when referring to a person who **knows** what he is talking about. However, for spiritual seekers, whom I would define as people trying to seek the answer to question who am I , or what is the source of the experiences within my mind, the word guru evokes the picture of a traditional Indian guru, donning saffron robes, with long grey hair pinecone resting above his head wrapped up in rudraksha bead chains, probably chanting some mantras and meditating high up in the Himalayas. Mix up this "spiritual" image with the fact that gurus are dispellers of darkness to get a confusing image of a human being who would teach you the secrets of life, death and the universe. In reality, however, this is gravely misunderstood to fit our own limited perception, and knowledge about Enlightenment.

A Guru dispells the darkness of ignorance within us. The ignorance that goes by the belief that we are an ego. Ego being a set of constructs which defines a **me**. The guru forces us to look at our own limited ideas which we have been holding onto (as if we were born with these things in the first place), which ends up being crap most of the time, and then point us to our true nature of awareness, the silence which observes these constructs and beyond. Hence the guru breaks the shadow of the past, and future created by the ego, and points us towards the present moment. This is the function of a guru, to thus aid in a student's journey towards their true nature of pure awareness, which has always been the source of joy and happiness in our own life. To emphasize this sentence, just think about the last time when you really felt happy for yourself. At that time you were just experiencing the moment, without any judgement or thought constructs created by the ego.

This is a moot point which has been debated by many seekers. I am my own guru, as I have an internal guru within me who is guiding me. So I don't need an external guru in the form of a human being to guide me to the truth of who I am. Most of them begin their path towards truth with this belief. And Most of them end up laughing at it after meeting a true guru.

What is the truth about internal guru ? Is there an internal guru ? Yes there is. All of us are guided by our own internal gurus from a deeper state of intuition, which one can develop through meditation, and other spiritual practices. Our intuition has helped us in uncovering the truth in a lot of different things. BUT.. how effective is relying upon a vague sense of intuition or a silent whisper in our thought filled mind, ALONE, for progressing towards the truth ? It would depend on the spiritual progress of the seeker ( which we have no way of measuring it based on our current knowledge). It is equivalent to asking the question, how good a baseball player will an 8 year old child be without any coach for training him. If the kid is really good at baseball thanks to his natural abilities (intuition) or if he is a gifted child of a baseball player, he could easily do without a coach, and get things done. However, here's the catch : how many gifted children do you really know personally ? (I know none).

This is almost the same case with spiritual seekers as well. If the seeker is really gifted in the spiritual sense, he may experience very good progress in his path towards truth. However, many tend to forget some major points. One: the journey towards the truth is a journey within ourself, unlike the truth searched for in science which is outside of ourselves; two: We cannot substitute opinionated knowledge for the actual experience. We could read tonnes of books on chocolate. But tasting a chocolate is a totally different experience from the one that was felt while reading about it. three: If we knew everything in the first place, why are we searching for something now in the name of spirituality ? All these arguments are simply pointing to the fact that all of us are not gifted, in the **spiritual** sense of the word, which simply isn't taught in schools, and we should be honest about it in admitting the fact that we don't know about it.

If you had the chance, would you like to have Einstein mentored you physics on a personal level face to face ? YES !!! He was the physicist who was on the cutting edge of physics at his time. The external guru is much more than an Einstein in the spiritual journey towards the truth. Being under the guidance of an external guru is like having the entire physics itself come as a human being, and teach you physics at a personal level. Hence the external guru is an expression of the truth itself, as I have mentioned it here. Having physics itself coming to teach you about physics is much much superior than having Einstein teach you about physics :-)

Many people just don't GET this concept. Only when they have different experiences in their own life, will they come to this conclusion. Until then they will rely on their intuition, and more confusion to progress an inch when they could easily have traversed a mile by surrendering to the external guru. That's how it has been for me. I was looking stuff online, talking with other seekers of truth, chanting mantras I came across on the internet, seeing videos of so called enligthened beings, and what not. When life was going good after I became **spiritual**, I was convinced and almost became a fanatic by trying to convince everyone else that my beliefs were the best..Then I met my guru, and things started to change. My guru was forcing me to look at my own limited constructs or ideas that I was attaching myself to, and jailing myself in. **My** **ideas** about **spirituality** and **truth** started to break down, and I was beginning to see the dirt that I was holding on to as myself. In the process of letting go of these constructs, and mind, I have begun to experience peace, and balance in my life, and thanks to my previous experience during ignorance, a sharp sense of what it is to walk the path towards truth. The path guided by honesty, integrity , transparency, and sacredness. Each word could have never felt so pregnant as its felt now.

Ramana Maharishi, who advocated the path of self inquiry was a gifted spiritual being. Hence the path he had traversed towards truth can never be known fully through books ( can't taste chocolate through words my friend). People bring forth his words on self inquiry as means of salvation, as an intellectual way to attain realization, which is far from reality of what he was advocating. He emphasized the need to have an actual living guru for progressing on the journey towards truth, effectively.

Sadly, and needless to say, as has been the case throughout the history of may, there have always been people who are claiming to be what they simply are not. The infamous Nityananda Sex scandal has created a lasting impression in our minds, as to how low a self proclaimed god man can become. In such a scenario, the thirst for truth could make us blind to what is really happening, or to the very intuition which was warning us -- something isn't right here .One should always be willing to be honest, and wise in choosing a guru. One should see how many students under the guru has become realized, and should clear up any questions they have about the path shown by the guru, They should talk to students on the path, and ask them how much they have really progressed under that guru.Be clear of any kind of doubts. Of course, truth be said, even though we are not in a position to judge whether they are realized or not, we can always examine their actions and see if they are actually doing what they are saying. If the guru isn't being transparent, then there is something which he is trying to hide. If he is saying something else, and doing something else, then one shouldn't be blinded to believe that he is still speaking truth. I used to watch a lot of Nityananda's videos myself, before I met my guru. I used to wonder why he had to use a curtain before and after every satsang

Finally, I get to summarize what I have said here in this hub. I began by showing you that the guru is a human being who dispels the darkness of ego within us through the light shined by the guidance. The internal guru, or the silent whisper within our mind, is helpful, but not really beneficial if relied upon it alone amidst the confusion we have created for ourselves, and also thanks to our limited experience of what truth really is. Hence the need for an external guru who is resting in pure consciousness can expedite our progress in letting go of the collection of beliefs we call our ego, and thus point us towards the truth of awareness that we really are. However, we shouldn't be blind and jump into the bandwagon without an honest investigation of what the guru is offering to us.

The pic below is that of my guru, Guru-G. She says realization is very ordinary. And doesn't make her special relative to any other human beings, as any human being can attain it. Regardless of skin color, race, sexual inclination, and all other ego constructs. The picture below shows how ordinary she is, for she is a living buddha who is drinking a starbucks coffee :O)

P.S. I haven't tasted realization. Upon tasting it I have been told that there won't be an I to claim it. The hub comes out of the gratitude I have towards my guru for the clairty she has given me through her guidance. Hence I have shared what I felt like sharing from my path.until now :-)

The links below are the websites of my guru, who is a kundalini guru. The books in amazon are the works authored by her, and her student.