How to Be Your Own Guru

Image: Pixabay.com

Can you recall a teacher you have studied under or met in your life whom you can call a true guru? One who not only taught a subject - but guided you through the ups and downs of life? Do you know someone who is up there among the highest mortals, imbuing you with their intelligence and helping you grow some of your own?

In the ancient Indian culture, the Sanskrit word 'guru' means one who shows you the light.

Some traditional pictures depict gurus sitting under the banyan or peepul tree, surrounded by ardent disciples listening intently to the often-bearded figures (the Buddha, the Jain Tirthankaras and a few others, however, are usually shown clean-shaven and radiating wisdom).

Such gurus could expound on the science of archery or the dilemmas of a king as easily as the ethical questions arising in the mind of a spiritual seeker.

Alas, in our current age of electricity, smartphones and artificial intelligence, trying to find a true guru sounds like a dumb idea. Why, haven't we already seen too many babas - bearded or otherwise - falling prey to the lure of lust and lucre? And while these 'fake gurus' are often glib-talkers who have mugged up tons of religious literature, listening to them involves more pain than pleasure - forget about spiritual delight.

Rather than radiate wisdom, they exude wealth.

Instead of simplicity, their appearance reveals affectedness.

No thatched huts and long walks for them - but a retinue of confidants officiously commanding the Mercs and the Audis to take them to their mansions often as palatial as their egos.

Enough madness.

Where does that leave you, a seeker in search of a spiritual guru? How on earth are you going to find a divine persona to show you the light and guide you on a path you can proudly call your dharma?

It doesn't look likely in this largely chaotic, greed-infested world where anyone you may repose your faith in today could turn out to be just another impostor tomorrow: there are too many of them in the swindlers list!

(Also read: My Experiments with Sudarshan Kriya, Pranayama and Meditation)

What, then?

Who, where, how, when?

Now, just do as I say. Stand in front of a mirror. Take a deep, penetrative look at the face staring at you. Frown, smile or make faces for a while if that helps. But come back to the gaze. You gazing at you - like never before.

Do it for a few seconds, minutes, hours...length of time does not matter, strength and sincerity of the gaze does. (But hey, don't do it for days or weeks, okay :)

What words come to your mind, what thoughts? How do you regard yourself when seen in the mirror like this perhaps for the first time?

Now do another thing. Sit down in a relaxed pose, close your eyes and think thoughts of yourself.

Both in front of the mirror and while sitting with closed eyes, try and sift through the major attributes of your personality. The defining moments of your life. Your decisions that mattered to you and to those around you who you loved and cared for.

I am reminded of a famous quote of leadership coach and author John Wooden: "The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching."

As you look deep inside yourself and no one but you is watching, you will find a rare clarity emerge. You will know, in hindsight in this 'exercise' - which can gradually turn into here-and-now-wisdom and maybe foresight over time - you will know why those decisions and choices turned out the way they did.

You will know the warts in your thoughts and not just on your face. You will know that perhaps the little things gave you more joy than the big rewards - and the problems that once seemed insurmountable are all but gone now (That there are new problems now is another matter).

More important, you may realize how foolish you were to blame others or fate for your own doing.

Spending more time like this in the honest reflection of your thoughts will help you see the power of your own inner light.

In fact, most of us know - through intuition and traditional wisdom passed down the generations irrespective of religious leanings - the ever-presence of such an inner light in the core of our being.

While our upbringing, the social and economic environment we live in, and the life imperatives we have bound ourselves to, may have some impact on the brilliance and the frequency of 'visibility' of this light, it is my belief that the light itself is integral and essential to us.

I tend to be in agreement with Mark Twain's words: "In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice."

This inner light imparts a keen sense of perception, of what is right and wrong at any given moment, what one should or should not do in certain circumstances. It can indeed prod us to higher, better versions of ourselves - much like the collective wisdom of open source programmers these days can shape a beautiful piece of code.

Guiding yourself by your own inner light is perhaps how you can be your own guru.

So, why not give it a try?

Happy Guru Purnima to You!

Sex and the Guru

Faith and sex are tricky things. At a distant point in the history of India, Indians could handle both with ease, confidence, and even panache. Is it not the same country that gave the world the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Kama Sutra?

Alas, in the hodgepodge, blaring, impatient, poor, grimy and confused India of today, the vast majority of people have lost their sense of faith, sex and much else.

Now, much of what we call faith exists in the form of archaic or (seemingly) incomprehensible rituals that the countless multitudes of this country “practice.” And the practice is largely orchestrated by semi-proficient pundits, maulvis, gurus…

And as for sex, the less said the better. It is visible either through a ballooning of the population or the (often) crass pelvic thrusts of a Bollywood gone bonkers.

When the two forces are mixed—faith and sex—what you get is an explosion that shatters the fragile fulcrum of both. That is what happened in the recent case of Asaram Bapu and the allegations of sexual excesses on the erstwhile revered guru.

In the ancient times, the golden age of true rishis, munis and siddhas, people could see, emulate and worship their examples. Those gurus were able to live their entire lives in sattva and tapas. Sometimes, they also showed weaknesses. But they either chose to atone for their follies and sins on their own, or they were punished adequately through divine interventions and other means. The ultimate faith of people in the ability of the human form to achieve the highest ideals of godliness was finally restored.

Today, you have the courts and the media, and the constant clamor of the masses to punish the perverts, the wayward gurus who are taking undue advantage of people’s “blind” faith.

So, while the people’s faith in earlier times was based on exemplary lives, divine conduct and compassion of the highest order, these days the faith hangs precariously from a flimsy thread of haze that extends far into the forgotten centuries.

In matters of sex, we seem to be faring even worse. For most Indians it is a dirty word associated with taboo, decadence and, of course, population. They may secretly crave for it and quietly approve of the titillation that Bollywood and the media & advertising industries afford them, but they remain unaware of their own glorious past and its interconnectedness with everything divine. They have allowed it to become an instrument of shame rather than a means of higher aspirations and fulfillment.

With the current miasma of abysmal ignorance, gut-wrenching poverty and horrendous corruption, it is difficult to imagine how one could restore India to the sexual, spiritual and abundant well-being of the past. Of the heritage and culture we so often quote in the media but of which we happily continue to remain neglectful…

Thankfully, there are a few, too few I would say than we need, who are taking the pains to bring the lost sense of wholeness, true faith and balance to our lives—through studies of the ancient Indian texts and practices, through Yoga, through the power of Chakras enshrined in the human body, through the limitless potential of the mind. Ironically, more research and work in these areas is happening in the Western world. So, while the majority of Indians are busy aping the worst of West, a few souls in that very West are dedicating their lives to reclaiming the best of our magnificent past.

What can we do to minimize our reliance on fake gurus for our intake of faith? How can we persuade ourselves and others to take the long and arduous road to seeking a true guru rather than fall prey to the get-blessed-quick lure? And even if we don’t find a real guru, why can’t we be our own guru?