Is that the true Guru and the disciple here? Yesterday, I was told how students from a big university treat their teachers with disrespect and disdain. The teacher pleads with his students to come to class the next day so that he could distribute the marks cards. No body cares for the teacher anymore.
Similar situation is faced by the spiritual Masters too. They are treated worse than the school teachers or college professors. No respect is given to them and they are obliged to become crass creatures who beg students to learn. Being Kaliyuga they are subjected to such derogatory life.
Being engrossed in the material world, the disciples today are filled up with their duties to material. Earning their living and raising their family are primary modes of their life. Teaching such disciples is the toughest thing in the world. Since overcoming their bodies and senses, mind and intellect becomes very difficult. On top of it their past tendencies which we call as vasanas has become a modern Gurus nightmare. It has become impossible to do any changes to that. What with so many layers and layers of tendencies and associate karma, it is surely a stupendous task for the poor hapless guru.
In olden times the disciples had to forcibly attend the Gurukul system. They had to stay in the Guru’s ashram and consider the Guru’s family as theirs. They had numerous responsibilities and duties chalked out by the spiritual Master. Let us see in the following analysis what has gone wrong. And of course, if you have a spiritual Master then where do you actually stand.
Do you stay in a real Gurukul or is the so called ashram run like a corporate office today? Do you find that you have to report to someone or buy your food too?
Do you have to live in that ashram by paying for it possibly in dollars or foreign currency?
Is your guru the television media guru or is he living incognito?
Does this guru have a coterie of chamchas whom you have to pander to? Do you have to sell programs and canvas for classes after you finish yours? Just like MLM marketing you are forced to market him or her stuff? Do you have to sell his books and peddle trinkets like amulets and chains? Does he arrive in a fancy car with a gang of gun-totting security persons? Do you find it tough to go near him to take his blessings? Is he available for his teachings or discourses like the one on one’s? Does he give mass satsangs and carries on for hours talking religious stuff? Does he advise any kind of poojas and corrective methods, sacrifices, rituals, offerings, pilgrimages, extreme esoteric methods, recitations, book mugging, etc..
If the answers to most of the above is yes then you have a modern avatar of guru. Now you surely have no clue about any knowledge gained so far. Oh, you studied in his Vedic school? That explains your textbook explanation of the holy books. So such are the holy teachers of today. Need I describe more?
Next we come to the disciples. Assuming they attend some satsang, do they even open the book once again to read what was taught? Do these disciples contemplate on the teachings systematically? Do they apply the same teachings in their daily life? Do they have regularity in their daily lives? Like getting up early in the morning, doing morning ablutions, yoga or pranayama or some exercises? Do they show respect and touch the feet of their Guru daily? How much time do they spend in seva of the Guru? Do they do things as per the instructions of their Master or do they use their mind in thinking about some other things? Are their first thoughts about their own jobs, family, homes, money, clothes, holidays, children, taxes, etc or are they about devotion to Him?
Are they having one on one satsangs everyday? Do they come up with list of spiritually difficult questions? Do they call him respectfully or otherwise? Do they believe this being free teachings, they do not owe anything to Him? Do they think it is His obligations to give perfect knowledge and for them to just nod heads and not put any efforts in knowing or understanding these lessons? Do they think that the learnings are lesser priority in life over other pressing matters?
Now if you check out these few points that I have mentioned here and have some understandings about these questions, then you will surely know that there are neither perfect Gurus nor perfect disciples. To get the perfect Guru or disciples, the divine has to take a form. Manifest form of The Lord Himself is the true Guru. He is the fount of knowledge which is endless and Self revealed and not from another. Then the disciple is the one who truly deserves such a One.
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