Hindu Voice UK, August 2008

Seeing the exploitation brought on by some so-called gurus (many of whom have been outside any real tradition), there has been a tendency to want to reject gurus altogether. Some people have thought that the modern age will allow people to teach themselves or follow inner guides and that gurus are a thing of the past.

However, if we examine the matter deeply we see that teachers are as important in the spiritual field as in other domains of life. We have many different teachers during the education we receive in life and attend many schools. If teachers are not necessary, why don't we just leave the young to educate and teach themselves? Are teachers dispensable in other walks of life? Can a person learn the piano, or learn modern physics without a teacher? If teachers can be dispensed with in other fields of life, then perhaps they are dispensable in the spiritual realm, but not otherwise.

Inner guides can be important sources of wisdom and inspiration but they do not eliminate the necessity for living teachers. The mind can easily invent an inner guide according to its desire or prejudice. Such an inner guide cannot question us or challenge our preconceptions the way a living teacher can.

If we are honest we see that we all have spiritual teachers, that we all benefit from some sort of external guidance be it in the form of books, talks or one-to-one dialogue. Some of us may require prolonged personal contact with a teacher. For others a short contact may be enough (if it is accompanied by a long term practice of the teaching). What we don't need is personality cults of gurus, whereby we turn the teacher not into a guide of our practice but some external hero figure on whom we develop an emotional dependency.

The real role of a guru is to help us understand ourselves. The real teacher is merely an instrument along the path of Self-knowledge and does not make him or herself important as a separate entity. To respect and benefit from spiritual teachers does not mean to become dependent upon them, to imitate them, but to strive to discover truth for ourselves.

In seeking a teacher we must look to learn from the place where we are. If we do so we will find that there is always the appropriate guidance available for us. However if we have an inflated idea of our spiritual potential, then we might not find anyone we think to be good enough to teach us. In seeking gurus, moreover, we must not be caught by the net of name and fame. A true teacher is not necessarily going to be famous or charismatic in terms of this modern materialistic and sensate society. The greatest teachers are often unknown and have very few disciples. They may not even formally function as gurus at all. But all that they do serves to teach and demonstrate the higher Truth.

Adapted from the book “Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition”, by David Frawley