How to get a right Guru, where to find and where to go for him, have been the problem of many. This is matter of somewhat frustration to a man who wants to solve the puzzle of life and of beyond. A true Guru is like a diamond deep in the ocean, not approachable easily until one learns to swim and to dive deep down. The Gurus sitting on the shore luring and attracting aren’t the real ones, they themselves need a Guru.

The Scriptures say, “when you are ready a guru will find you or will come to you.” The first condition of getting a right guru is to prepare oneself, to make worthy, so that a Guru came running attracting to you. A Guru needs the right disciples as one needs the right Guru. Why should a Guru collect the garbage when someone isn’t prepared? Even he does collect and invests his energy, his whole effort will go futile, if someone isn’t prepared, how can he understand anything?

Prepare yourself

This preparation is none but the purification of life-style, habits, thoughts and emotions by discipline, right discrimination, right knowledge and its practise, adopting the ways of truth and unconditional love, understanding the self, balancing mind, emotions and actions, and of course devotion and dedication.

Have patience

Just keep on working with unending energy; learning, assimilating, and making use of right knowledge. The good things is, this preparation will save you from the bad Gurus, perhaps you would know more than them while preparing yourself for the right Guru. And the key factor is, “have patience,” the day you will be fully prepared the right guru will be appeared just before you, because he needs you too, as you need him.

Like “love” this is another confused word, since it has come to dictionary its exploitation increased in thousand folds. This word is a mix of ‘Gu,’ and ‘Ru’; Gu means ‘darkness’ and Ru means ‘Light’; one who dispels the darkness (ignorance only) by showing light (divinity) is called a ‘Guru.’

When we put the word ‘Deva’ behind it, it becomes Guru Deva; Deva means an illuminated being; hence ‘Deva’ gives more exact meaning — an illuminated being who dispels ignorance by showing light.

The work and purpose of a Guru
What could be his purpose other than showing light? What else he would do instead? His work is to teach and guide those spiritual aspirants who go to him. In one way, he is like a parents who take care of external needs, and other way he takes care of internal needs. A Guru is fulfilling in every way!

What does a Guru want in return?
He wants ‘nothing’ is return. He just fulfills his work, the purpose of his life, when one goes to him and remains in contact with him. This contact doesn’t mean at physical level but at spiritual level, at devotional level — a Guru is with his disciples eternally.

What does please a Guru?
Though he is unattached but when he sees the seeds he planted in the disciples’ hearts are growing, making in trees and fruits are coming to them, overall they are turning unto light and becoming like him, it immensely pleases him.

A Guru is a boat not the Goal!
A guru is an instrument of transformation, one who is with him will be transformed. He is like a boat which helps to reach the goal. He is a catalyst. He is a guide. He is a superman! He knows more than you then you know about yourself. The purpose of his life to help the travelers pleases him, and he really helps to reach them from one shore to another. And he deserves immense credit and gratitude for that!

When one feels one’s latent desires (tendencies) could be fulfilled by someone else, this accidental (maybe frequent) occurrence, this intuitive probability, is called a CRUSH. The juice of it, just imaginary in the beginning expecting a worthwhile result — though outcome is just uncertain!

Is it good?
Every uncontrolled thing does harm! It’s just not about CRUSH but about everything.

Then, how to control it?
Keep a check on the hidden desires and a moral way to fulfill them. Second, understand that habits are acquired, try to change your point of concentration. Third, if your CRUSH is too strong and you realize it can break your moral codes and can fall you in your own eyes then just Meditate, Meditate and Meditate!

If we define what is will-power, it is a power to stick with the self made choice. When this power is weak, a choice becomes irrelevant.

Will-power and Ego

The first sign of Ego is, it doesn’t have ‘flexibility’ if it bends it breaks. The second sign of Ego is, it ever wants to ‘win,’ anyhow! in the case of ‘loss,’ it also breaks. The third sign of Ego is, it is very ‘subtle,’ one needs the crude ways to destroy it completely, even if one thinks it has died it raises its head again and bites.

Will-power with ego, they are deadly combination; may lead anybody to illusion, delusion and suffering to self and to others.

“Before exercising Will-power, one must kill the Ego!”

Advantage of Will-power

It helps anybody to keep his or her promise alive: if one thinks one wants to meditate one hour daily and strong will-power behind it, then s/he can meditate daily for life time.

It helps to stick with the truth: our Scriptures are filled with the truth, but most of the time one reads, remembers momentarily then forgets. Will-power helps to integrate the truth in the blood and to exercise it in the day to day life.

Stories of the people who exercised strong Will-power

Giri Bala: this woman used to eat a lot in her childhood ever after her marriage this habit continued. And became an object of fun and mockery. Stung by the comments of her mother-in-law and others, one day she decided she would never eat anything, and she willed so intensely, God arranged for her a teacher who made her learned a secret yogic exercise, and later on she never ate. That yogic exercise helped to feed her body directly from the ether.

Gautama Buddha: when he has tried number of meditation techniques for a number of years and nothing happened to him. He sat under a tree and willed that either he will die or will get ‘self-realization.’ Everybody knows he got self-realization!

Paramhansa Yogananda: to end his spiritual pursuits, his brother once challenged him ‘if he could go to Vrandaban using transportation, visit there, feeding himself the food at lunch and dinner, and to return safely using public transportation — but he would be given no money at all. Thus his faith in God, and how much God helps him — will be checked. With strong Will-power Paramhansa Yogananda took the challenge. And God arranged nice people around him in that way he got everything, money to transport, nice food with love, and a bundle of currency too. When he returned he poured the money in front of his brother. His brother was shocked! And accepted the ways of Paramhansa Yogananda. (Before starting the journey Yogananda was duly checked, and he carried a friend along with whom witnessed everything miraculous!)

The secret

The saints or mystics, who reached so high, had immense clarity (discrimination) and strong Will-power. These two things gave them the wings to fly higher and higher!

They are: Vedanta, Yoga, Sankhya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Nyaya and Buddhhism.

1. Vedanta
Stress upon non-duality, ‘God is me and I’m God,’ ‘Thou art that,’ ‘Everything is Brahma (God),’ ‘I am that.’ (recent popular teachers: Maharashi Raman, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Poonjaji, etc.)

2. Yoga
Stress upon ‘God can be achieved through purifying and strengthening the body,’ Pranayam, Asans, Bandhas, etc., come in it. (further reading: Patanjali Yoga Sutra)

3. Sankhya
Stress upon ‘dual aspects,’ Purusha and Prakrati. Purusha is divided into soul and supreme-soul (God) and Prakrati into Satoguna, Rajoguna and Tamoguna.

4. Vaisheshika
Stress upon physics and chemistry and their subtle aspects, including five elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether), time, mind, dimension, soul and their mutual connection. It is true that creation started from electric and magnetic particles.

5. Mimamsa
‘Action oriented,’ stress upon ‘karma,’ thus on rituals, worship and ethics etc.

6. Nyaya
Stress upon ‘logic,’ doubt as a way of inquiry. It has its own rules and guidelines.

7. Buddhism
Stress upon ‘world has suffering,’ ‘cause of suffering,’ ‘suffering can be put away,’ ‘there are means and ways for that.’ No doubt, it came from Gautama the Buddha.

Heard of many people ‘they were more happy when they weren’t on the spiritual path.’ Spiritual path is like entering in a war (spiritual warrior) and keep on fighting until you win; if you leave fighting, you lose! Spirituality is a path of intelligence, here, a person starts becoming more aware, more sensitive and more wise. The things which earlier he overlooked in ignorance starts disclosing and zooming themselves; the life which he just watched from one angle, now he starts watching from all the angles, 360 degree.

Hurdles
The greatest hurdle comes when the right questions arising in one’s mind don’t get the answers.
The second greatest hurdle is to find a right guru who could satisfy the thirst of right questions. (Those gurus are great who tell their disciples that they can’t learn everything from them, they keep on sending them to other gurus to have exposure and learn variety of things of life.)

Confusion
With the confusion anyone can believe or disbelieve anything, truth doesn’t need to be believed or disbelieved. And mostly our beliefs and disbelief are “hollow,” their foundation is baseless, based on confusion.

Confusion on spiritual path is deadly! If it isn’t analysed and derived properly, it can lead to anywhere, accidentally.

Great Confusion
Knowing anybody’s mind and telling him about his past and exact incidents: this is the most terrible weapon some people use and call themselves some saint or a guru, and ignorant people fall to their feet. They are mental tricks actually, nowhere spirituality in it! And it’s a “crime” to enter in someone’s mind without his permission. Though spiritual people also check but they do check the “karmic body” of a person and help him to make it lighter to expedite the spiritual progress.
Using spirits: some people use spirits as a tool, to know somebody’s past, to commit evil, or to save from evil. And ordinary person doesn’t know what is going on, when the spirit leaves him, he becomes “zero.” In this spirit game, his consciousness doesn’t improve but he looks like a saint or a guru.
Occult: in India, the things like — Mohan (giving fatal attraction), Vashikaran (controlling someone), Stambhan (blocking, e.g., mind, progress, etc.), Videshan (inflicting dispute b/w two or more people), and Maran (Killing someone, e.g., sending spirits, giving him fatal diseases etc.); and there are more terrible ways by using energy and spirits negatively. There are two kind of people in it: one who uses the negative side of occult by harming others, and other who uses the positive side by saving others. As occult is an energy manipulation, like a knife, a doctor uses it to save life and a murderer uses it to take life. But the people expert in occult is not the spiritual gurus. The things which don’t increase the consciousness and raise the wisdom don’t come in spirituality.
Metaphysics: meta-physicians aren’t the spiritual gurus either. Using and training mind in particular way isn’t the spirituality, mind can do wonder if it is trained properly but it has no use as far as spirituality is concerned. Astral travel, Crystal ball gazing, Teleporting, and Telekinesis, etc., all of them though impressive but do nothing to raise consciousness.

A beginner’s mind

has lot of questions, until they solved he remains confused running hither and thither and reaching no where, like a man who wants to reach at the moon and looking for a ladder from everywhere. Earlier a seeker used to live with his guru to solve his puzzle of questions, whatever used to come to him, he used to go running and ask, most of the great gurus lived with their gurus for years, this way they were ripen bit by bit. In a case, when a competent guru isn’t met, the beginner’s mind becomes more troubled in ‘what to do?’ and ‘what not do it?,’ and ‘what is right?,’ and ‘what is wrong?’ With a spiritual guru it is a surety that he will save if any error is occurred, but when one is one’s own guru — the path is on the razor’s edge. There are few in the history who became their own guru and trod the path, it needs an immense courage, either do or die. But with the beginner’s mind which wants world’s attractions on one pocket and self realization on the other pocket, it’s like both hands suspended in each pocket, and more confusion because ways aren’t clear. A single thing needs undivided attention, and all the energy, it needs both the hands in one pocket, going for just that, let it become the top priority.

- Find and ever stick with what motivates you.
- Each day entirely new things will help you expand. If you don’t have, find, discover or invent one!
- Who are you in your eyes and heart? Think deeply on it?
- When did you first realize you have vast potential and creativity inside you?
- For how many things (you have done) are proud of ?
- Which things are needed to make your life more worthwhile?
- With how many people you are connected by heart?
- What’s the level of sensitivity you feel with flowers, animals and children?
- Have you ever cried or fought for truth?
- What’s the best quality in you makes you pole apart?
- What’s the single top priority of your life, and what are you doing for it? What’s the level of intensity for it?
- What are you doing to make life more satisfactory and meaningful?
- How many times you learned from mistakes?
- What’s the first thought in your mind when you wake up, and the last thought when you go off to sleep?
- Can anybody (specially younger ones) learn from your life?
- What’s the most blissful day/s you ever had? What were the reasons behind it?
- Do you work daily (taking any part of time) for self improvement?

It doesn’t mean not to have exposure of other paths, exposure helps a seeker to select a path which best suits him; like a student who chooses that particular career out of several career options. All paths are good! As different types of food satisfy the hunger, same way each path helps to reach the goal.

Exposure of other paths, helps ‘not to stuck with what doesn’t suit,’ it’s like options are always there, go and test, if it works then do until the goal is reached.

However, Gnana and Devotion, these two elements are foundation of every path; both gives clarity and intensity.

The people who say ‘their path is the best,’ simply they don’t have understanding and exposure of other paths — all paths are best in their means! I think, before treading any path (because it takes a life-time for a single path) it is always best to have exposure and study of other paths.

The reason?

It frees the “sense” of attachment. The “sense” is the consciousness. Where there are senses, the consciousness is! When senses are free, the consciousness is free to expand.

For some yogis, camera doesn’t work, if someone tries to shoot their pics they just come a blank, and nothing else! Is this a miracle or what? The science beyond science an ordinary mind doesn’t understand call it a ‘miracle.’ The reasons not coming into a camera maybe one of or all the followings:

They have fixed their identity beyond the body, their body works in entirely different way, though it is existent (illusion) to others but non-existent to them.

Their will power is so strong without their permission no one can have a spy on them.

Their body vibrates with the higher rate and it’s just impossible to a camera to capture that.

The Lahiri Mahasaya was one of those yogis whom picture was never captured unless he desired so, he used to say something like he had merged in Brahma (omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God) and how could people capture the picture of Brahma? Below is said to have the only one picture which he had permitted to capture.

Lahiri Mahasaya