Why a Guru Is Necessary-PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Why a Guru Is Necessary

We meet little teachers in the beginning through our vague desires to know truth. But the GURU (or Preceptor) is the living embodiment of scriptural truths and is the agent of salvation appointed by God in response to a devotee’s demands for release from all the bondage of matter. It is very difficult to choose the right path from the many religious paths and varied religious opinions. Most people who wander from church to church seeking intellectual inspiration never find God, for intellectual inspiration is necessary only until one begins to “drink” God. Otherwise, intellectual inspiration (when it forgets to taste God) is detrimental to self-realization. It is more easy to follow a living, breathing, talking man (who lives truth) than a mute scripture. If a saint has reached his goal, whether by the shorter Yoga route, or by the long-winded spiritual-prayer way, he experiences actual self-realization. Anyone following him certainly would reach the goal by using either method. Unlike ordinary prayers, real prayers, which alone can bring conscious response from God, must be offered in meditation, intensely and for many hours continuously until Divine response comes.
The signs of a Guru

The signs of a GURU are as follows: his eyes are still and unwinking whenever he wants them to be so; by the practice of Yoga his breath is quiet without his forcibly holding it in his lungs; his mind is calm without effort. If a man has eyelids that blink continually and lungs acting like bellows all the time, and a mind always restless like a butterfly, and he keeps on telling you he is in cosmic consciousness , laugh at him. Just as a man cannot pretend that he is sleeping while he continues to run, so one with restless eyes, breath, and mind cannot convince you, who know better, that he is in cosmic consciousness. Just as sleep manifests in the body by certain physiological changes, so the muscles, eyes, breath, all usually become still during cosmic consciousness. No GURU can be developed alone by years of study in the intellectual factory of a theological seminary, which deems it has attained its ends when it confers B.D. or D.D. degrees. Such titles can be won by men of good memory, but character, self-control, and intuition can be developed only by knowledge of advanced psycho-physical methods of self-realization and deep daily meditation. 

Secret of Religion

The secret of true religion lies in the cave of stillness, in the cave of wisdom, in the cave of the spiritual eye. By concentrating on the point between the eyebrows and delving into the depths of quiet, one can find answers to all the religious queries of the heart. A disciple should tune in with the will of his GURU. Such tuning in of your habit-led and whim-guided will with the wisdom-guided will of your GURU is far different from mechanical obedience to an unspiritual guide, no matter whether he is traditionally, religiously, or socially elected. To follow the blind unthinkingly is to fall with them into the ditch of ignorance completely. To follow the awakened, if you are blind, is to reach the goal without danger. How can you take away the blot from your brother’s eyes if there is still a blot in your own?

Freedom of Will

Very few people truly know what freedom of will means. To be compelled to do things by the dictates of your own instincts and habits is not freedom. To be good because you have been so for a long time and to refrain from evil because you are accustomed to do so is not freedom. When your will is perfectly free to choose good instead of evil anytime, anywhere, because you really feel good, you will know real happiness: then indeed are you free. Evil gives only sorrow. When the influences of heredity, prenatal and postnatal habits, family, social, and world environment, all cease to influence your judgmentwhen you can act, guided only by your highest inner intuitive discrimination-then only are you free. Until then, the way to all righteousness lies in tuning in your whim-guided will with the wisdom-guided will of your GURU. Harnessing your will to wisdom, you will cease to be swayed by prejudice and error, for you will then always be guided by righteousness.

Find and Cling to Your GURU

Hence, the first requisite in your spiritual path lies not entirely in going to church services and being a passive member, satisfied merely with listening to sermons, but also in finding your spiritual GURU who will discipline you and take a personal interest in your spiritual welfare and lead you as far along the spiritual path as you wish to go. Having found him, follow him closely, obey him with intelligent devotion, and practice what he teaches you; thus ultimately you will attain your highest goal.