Hinduism:if all human beings are in essence the same then how can there be a Guru ?

Question

Guru is treated as someone higher than the rest ! how is this when we are all in essence one and the same ??? since nobody is higher or lower ..another thing i would like to ask is if thoughts are incomplete then how can words express what we are ? even if we say we are the self then those words are also arising from thoughts that are not complete ..how can we use to describe what is complete from incomplete statements ? such as our thoughts ? the best answer to who we are would then be silence ..do you agree ?

Answer 1

This cant be explained logically. There is a story of a mystic who says ' One fine morning...his late parents...Guru...and God himself appeared in front of his door. He didnt know whose feet to touch first...so he touched the feet of his Guru...since without the Guru...he would not have recognized 'God'.



The Guru shishya relationship is not a dictatorial relationship as mentioned in some of our Purans. It is a relationship of great love and trust. Have you heard about 'Kurma Gurus' ?

Answer 2

I am a Christian and Jesus is my Lord and Savior. However, Sri Ramana Maharshi is my Guru. Jesus is my Sat Guru. Nothing that the one says disagrees with what the other says when talking on a Spiritual.



Now that that is needfully done. What do you mean by essence? That is question, not sarcasm. I think it is too vague in that many people have different meanings for it. I think a better term is, "All is One." and that One is the Self. There is only one self and there is only one life. When the Apostle Paul said in Colossians 3:4, "When Christ who is your life....." He was speaking Literally!



No true Guru would would say that he was higher than anyone else. Maharshi said all are Guru but they don't know it." You ask about words being "incomplete". I've never heard that term but words are no exactly true and they are inadequate to describe the experience of Realizing the True Self, or as Catholic Christians would say, experience Mystical Union with God. Both My Guru, Sri Ramana and myself would agree with you that the best answer will be in silence. I've read that Maharshi only taught in silence.

Answer 3

First of all, I would like to try and understand your question as you are not specific in what you want in your answer. You say we are all the same. What does that mean? Do you mean we are equal?



Physically we are all the same. We all have the same features; a nose, eyes, ears, mouth, hands and feet etc. So in that sense we are the same.



Intellectually, we are not all the same. We all have different IQs and different level of intelligence and grasping of thoughts and ideas. Some of us are brilliant in one subject and some are not. Doctors are diffrent from lawyers and teachers are different from students in levels of intelligence.



So then who is a guru and why is a guru considered different!

Well a guru in essence is not just a mere teacher. A guru in hinduism is a person who builds you as a whole. He or she will lead you on the path for you to be able to survive in the world in which you want to live. There are different kinds of gurus. They are not just teachers. There is no direct translation for a guru in the english language or in western thought.



According to hinduism, God, parents and guru are the most important people in your life and are to be held in the highest esteem. When a guru takes you on as a student, he takes you on the path of life as a whole not just a mere subject and once he thinks you are ready and have completed your education to handle the world, he will let you go. a guru can then ask for his fees and it can be anything he thinks appropriate. He can ask for a grain of rice or he can ask for your thumb.

There is a story about the guru asking for the thumb of his student who was a great archer, but because the guru did not want him to proceed with this path in life, he asked for the student to give him his thumb so he could not ever be an archer again. The guru had decided the student was not to go on that path and the student had to surrender his thumb.



In western view, this would be considered horrific but that is the difference in understanding who a guru is in hinduism. He is revered besides God and is able to ask you for anything. In the western culture, he is translated as a mere teacher and students can throw eggs if they want at the teacher, fall asleep or walk out of the classroom. Students even disrespect teachers in a lot other ways which would not happen to a guru under hindu culture and tradition.



A guru is the ultimate decision maker in your life when you are a student and total obedience is expected of the student.



I hope I have somehow explained to you the meaning of a guru and you can now see the differences in people although we are "supposed to be the same".



You can send me an email if you wish any further information.

Answer 4

A guru is the person who has realized that "all human beings are in essence the same". Because he realises it we go to him so that we too can realise this truth. Guru is the bridge between man and God. And actually speaking, Guru is someone who teaches you about God not about The Britishers coming to India and other topics. (Yeah, i hate history). Though Guru also means teacher the teacher who teaches material facts is an acharya. Guru teaches spirituality.

Answer 5

in essence a child, a young man, a middle aged man and an old man are all human beings but at each stage a young man knows more than a child due to experience, similarly a middle aged man is more knowledgeable than a young man and an old man could be much wiser. So although in essence we all are a part of God and our true essence is our soul or spirit, but while in human form we are in different stages of spiritual evolution. It needs a true Guru to dispel the darkness of ignorance from the mind of a disciple, true Guru is very difficult to find and it is easier said than done that you can be fortunate to find a Guru. At the same time if one can find Guru, it would be easy for him to find liberation from this eternal miserable cycle of birth-life-death-re-birth.

Answer 6

Even in Panaentheism, where nothing is deified higher than anything else, since everything is related into a oneness, there is no statement that this relation with oneness makes everything equal.



Now if you want to talk about the Hindu social caste system that is sometimes implemented, and holding a Swami or Guru to a level of Brahmin in society...well that's plain old elitism...and a bad thing.

Answer 7

Key term is "in essence." There are clearly great differences between individuals at the physical level, and at the mental and emotional levels as well. So the essence is something deeper than that. Presumably a guru is able to help people find that essence in a way that most of us cannot.

Answer 8

All persons can do is wish/pray and use mind, words and action in an attempt to pass away the international a dash better than whilst we entered it. All species on earth are under pressure to kill. Evolution takes an prolonged time. The Human Species has been right here for the blink of a watch because of the fact the Earth progressed from its molten state.

Answer 9

Titles names have associated religious social, racial nd political affiliations. Although Om, Yahweh, God are titles for the source of creation, the WaheGuru is a Sikh term and therefore a non hindu, islamic, jew. By this revelation those groups deep seated in their envy of one faith who seems to be blessed with a greater purer clarified truth by their covetousness seek to silence any who laud any Guru that is not of their group and by some ideologies not only evolved but polemically at odds with their own doctrine.



Sikhs evolved from Hindus and Muslims, by the very separation there remains some sort of animosity amongst the extreme and acrimonious groups of the belief system to undermine what is not of affiliated and integral to their own agendas.



Religion by its sacred scriptural truths and love of God as Supreme and Universal Spirit should thereby not be against other religions upon that path at varying degrees of evolution, Unfortunately hatred and sin like a cancer permeate the minds of one group and with a common ground of hatred rally against any individual lauded as Guru or faith set above in its ability to produce a more socialised and ethical people than their peers.



Hatred per se should be eliminated where it arises. The sanctity of the mind, home, community, society and land is sacrosanct to a peoples freedom. If all valued the freedom of others as they do their own what a beautiful truly free world this would be. As a Sikh Mother I see the followers of all faiths struggling as householders, thinkers, to survive and find happiness in their daily ordinate lives. I could not realistically hate or detest any human soul. Yet the media incites little more than hatred in a subtle and tactile fashion.



Yes in this world are the lost and seeking, the struggling to survive, the contented and happy, and rarely the luminary in the true spiritual sense. It is not for lack of spiritual presence or intellectual wisdom or prowess. rather there is a nasty group of extremists who begrudge anyone not submitted to the insidious will, of mob mentality, of the orchestrators. The Sikhs are a minority faith and have endured many attacks, 2012 looms, why perpetuate the hate where other more hateful and cunning groups hover over the mind and society of each.



The Philosophical belief system base their life and faith on truth Philosophical sanctity of human dignity. The major religions tend towards a deity worship reliant upon the subjugation of God to empower the group religions than the proliferation of truth and humanity in the purest essence of what it is to love the primal source of creation that is Truth as the Great Parent.

PrimaLunamal Om as Guru Saint Messiah Prophet isHeathr for the height of wisdom and humanity quotient than simply one who serves the mob or prevailing majority will. That the noble and true is sacrificed at the alter of the ignoble sinful and downright morally corrupt is the peoples stupidity or stupoured state and gains them the leaders their ignorance and selfishness so deserves.



Any statement considered incomplete is open to scrutinty analysis and discussion unless purposely muted to supress Truth. It is the oppressors and suppression that humanity battles against, for the Gurus and Saints are free spirited and incorruptible supernal beings.

Answer 10

Guru is not a ordinary person . A guru is one who is self realized and who mastered the knowledge of brahman . who can guide ordinary persons into that path . so that's why guru holds highest place . lord krishna says , self realization is possible only for those who seek guru feet and doing selfless service to him . .

Answer 11

Guru being enlightened, is above other human beings. He is one who is close to God and serves as a ladder for ordinary humans reaching God. This remains sole purpose of Guru in life.



Ordinary human beings have many other purposes in life and realization of God is almost a last priority for them. They are body centered people and rarely understand that God exists. However they are not atheists, and keep doing rituals to please God. Though this is useless as rituals are acts without understanding meaning.

Answer 12

Guru means who have realized the God by Sadhana.You can also experience God by the Sadhana,no doubt about it.

Answer 13

Pure water, calm water reflects. Impure water, turbid water cannot. Similarly pure consciousness and calm composed consciousness reflects through the omnipresent and can see the truth as it can see within every atom with its presence in every atom.

An impure consciousness, cannot reflect that. An impure consciousness is impure because its activities are material, earthly, mundane, belonging and pertaining to the body and its pleasures and desires, which are called and considered as sins depending upon the quality of thought and actions. When the impure consciousness is able to reflect upon itself and withdraw from wordly activities and confine to the upliftment of the spirit within, into pure soul and pure consciousness, it passes the realm and level of the path-shower who is called Guru whose stature is in between the level achieved and pure consciousness called God. Therefore a yogin who has began his journey in the spiritual path need a Guru who is advanced and who possess a more purified Soul. This is a short cut. Self seeking have dangerous pitfalls and the travel and journey would be lengthy with chances of getting lost.



The cases of people who have kept the God as Guru like Shiva or Krishna and directly seeking directions are not rare. Meerabai in her Bhakthi Yoga had Shree Krishna as her Guru and beloved, and gained Moksha Prapthi. All human beings are in essence source and basic material but not of same quality.



The Cosmic consciousness from which we disintegrate or differentiate, or evolve or get created on its own, is the purest of the pure consciousness. And that purest of the pure consciousness when metamorphosed itself into lower elements like Air, Fire water and Earth, and thereafter nuclear fuse in the form of five great spirits,(Panchamahabhootas), become various living cells, and organs and beings. It deteriorates from a state of Nirguna (devoid of qualities) into a state of quality. A state of quality is disqualification as the highest quality is Nirgun or devoid of qualities. Anything devoid of qualities only can conjoin back with the source.



A human being with Earth having thamas(darkness, ignorance, laziness) as its quality cannot join back to cosmic consciousness. Water with coldness as its quality cannot join back to source, Fire with heat and light as its quality cannot join back to source, Air with movement as its quality cannot join back to source. It is only Ether (space, nothingness,Nirgun(devoid of qualities) when purified to pure consciousness stature can join back to source. That is the pure soul and the passage of Spiritual Yogin is to achieve this purity of Soul inorder for it to join back to source.



The Guru like a father teaching a son to walk can do the same job at the spiritual level. A father does it to child at the physical, emotional and moral level, a Guru does it at the spiritual level. Self is different from thought. Thought is an activity of the combination of Ether with Air. Self is only witness to thought.



Self can join with Cosmic Self or God only if there is a thoughtless state. Thought should be dropped for self to connect with God. Thought in fact is the only obstacle in the way of God connecting with Man. What we try to achieve during meditation is to drop the thought so that God can connect with man. The Micro consciousness can connect with the Macro consciousness. In deep sleep we gets connected as the thoughts are dropped. Therefore the cosmic energy is charged in the human being which give him strength for the work next day. A sleep-less man is an energy-less man. Thoughts are incomplete and imperfect because thoughts are formed from the data fed by the five senses. The five senses are incomplete and imperfect and is designed to material level existance and not for spiritual level of consciousness or existence. Therefore it is important that the five senses are shut down before one enter into the realm of spirituality.



Silence is the language of God. God communicate every second of our life with us through silence. God needs no language to speak to us. A Sun gives life to every life on Earth, but does it speak to the life on earth or the death it created during a famine or drought. It does not , because a Karmayogi if he wile away his time on speech, or thought, he cannot be doing the Karma. Karma is continuous, without thoughts, without speech but only action continuous and eternal. Sun is the Karmayogi.