Since thousands of years we have many gurus who teach us
about life and its values. They have been showing us how to live a good life,
how to free self from anger, greed, jealousy and such other human natures which
are considered hindrance in spiritual journey. Have they succeeded in this? Even
in recent times, they are offering meditation and other spiritual courses to
attain something which is mystical, unknown, beyond thought or transcendental.
However, in today’s spiritual market, meditation has been confined to get mind
relaxation for a while. People are so stressed of their life that they consider
meditation as a tool to get some recreation. Is this the purpose of meditation
and is it what gurus are offering us? If meditation is for just relaxation, it
can also be achieved by listening music or any means.
Why do we go to guru, because they lead us to reach to
something new, something totally different? Or we want to fulfill some of our
temporal needs through them. Is this our selfishness which pulls us towards
them? Someone needs job, someone wants to get cured, and someone wants
salvation and so on. Desire to get better in life is good thing and everyone
must put their efforts to gain all prosperity of life what he/she wants. However,
why do we believe on gurus to fulfill our desire and needs, what makes them to
be the adviser of your life? I am not talking about students who need teachers
to study subjects, of course they need, but when one is enough conscious and
educated to take decision of one’s life then why we approach gurus, if someone
thinks that he is not capable enough to take some decision then he can go and
consult some expert in that field to take advice for his/her betterment. For
any health issues you can approach doctor, for financial issues CA, for
property, relation, crime and other issues advocates are there, and so many
other experts for various fields. In what area guru is expert?
Any experience cannot be shared exactly the way it is
experienced; it might be spiritual experience or any other. Experience loses
its meaning when described in words. Systems and paths have been created to
pass it generation to generation, and today gurus are utilizing those systems
and paths to fulfill their psychological and physical needs.
People of this era must understand the need of spiritual
seeking and way of seeking. These modern gurus will lead you nowhere. Whole
religious system, spiritual paths are only meant to provide the solution of
human race’s problem. Therefore, any system that does not improvise human life
and which is not relevant in recent time must be discarded.
We must believe in something before we start seeking,
because if we believe in nothing it will be impossible to start with. Before we
believe on some creator, guru or someone else we must believe in our self, we
know that we exist and we are aware of this. Now once we are sure that we exist
and aware, we can start our search by using our thought, intellect and
reasoning. Anything in which we should believe must be based on evidence and
logical approach.
Anyone who is visiting gurus must ask these questions to
himself, what he wants from guru, what he has not achieved that he can get
easily without any effort with grace of his guru, and how does this system
work. Once you start thinking in this way you can find simply if guru is
required in your life or not.
Nice observations...but dont you think you have done a quite narrow demarcation of what a teacher or on a broader perspective a mentor means to one's life? By giving a general term of guru for someone yoh refer to when faced with a problem you have given it a religious inclination.
ReplyDeleteThere's a huge difference between being educated and becoming a wise person.
With wisdom comes the natural instinct of making the right decisions on your own. But being wise happens gradually and is not as quick a progress as education. Humans are social animals with an immortal soul and our true means of life lies in some bigger missions which in order to fulfill our basic needs and desires we tend to forget. Meditation or confiding to a spiritual organization (with our decision making instincta still on) is juat an attempt towards understanding the bigger picture which helps us not only to bw relaxed for that short span of timw but also helps us to deal with our daily situations in a broader perspective.
Yes, religious gurus or quacks are definitley a menace to the society today but unless we are wise enough will we be able to judge for ourselves what is wrong and what is right.
And getting involved in some activities other than indulging in achieving just materialistic things will definitely help us to make thw right judgement.
Nicely written piece of work though. I enjoyed reading it. :)
Regards,
Asmita
without reader there is no author. thanks a lot for your comment and time. I must consider your valuable inputs.
DeleteNo doubt, people (probably mainly in India), are wasting huge amount of time in joining sessions with such Gurus and keep on waiting endlessly to get their issues resolved by their Guru's blessings or they might get salvation without knowing its meaning or its need. I've seen numerous people getting lost in name of spirituality and getting disconnected or ignoring actual roles in their lives. Such people are becoming so helpless that they have partially or totally lost their own logical reasoning powers, conscience and also COMMON SENSE and just want to run from their problems by blindly following a GURU as if only his blessings and devotion towards his orders & sayings can only help & will show them the right path which no one can find himself alone. Learning any technique like Yoga, meditation (in any form) or at some point of time in someone's life, one may have to re-learn art of good living etc. is fine, 'for a while' but spending more than a considerable amount of time whole year and every year in the name of mastering that art and in turn becoming inefficient in their daily lives and then feeling proud of it is WASTE, PATHETIC and being SELFISH.
ReplyDeleteExcess of anything is bad.