The need for a personal guru

Indian life guru:

There was once a young man who came from a very poor family in China. When he was out for the day his horse ran away. On his return, the villagers ran to his father to express their sadness for this financial loss. "Isn't this terrible?" they wailed. The aged father shook his head from side to side and calmly stated, "Maybe good May be bad."

On the following day, the lad went out to hunt for the missing steed and to his great joy he found a herd of wild horses and was able to bring them back to the village. The elated crowd ran to his father and exclaimed, "Isn't this wonderful news? What great fortune!" The sage like elder again merely stated, "Maybe good May be bad."

The next morning the boy went out into the corral to try to break in a horse for himself. In the process he was trampled and made lame. When the townspeople saw his ruined leg, they ran to his father to convey their grief. The reply was the same again, "Maybe good May be bad."

A day or so later the Chinese army came to take all the able-bodied young men away to war.

(The above story is a Chinese story, originally told some few centuries back, I have heard this so many times from so many people – I thank all of them for keeping me reminded of this story and its philosophy)

In life at every minute we take decisions, many of the decisions that we take are right and many of them are wrong, and many a times we are not sure, and it seems that we could never be sure of the decisions that we take. Educated people resort to analysis as a way of solving problems, especially the problems that we face in our day to day life, I was one among those educated illiterate, one who believed that all problems could be solved by analyzing, now, I am a different person, only time can tell whether this state is a more evolved state or not, but today, I can sit in a position to ridicule the method of analysis in solving problems.

One can now, logically talk about the irrationality in logic, ironically.

We get stuck in circular reasoning many a times, but, for all practical purposes we cannot ignore the process of analysis.

‘Why’ is a very important question, that helps sharpen our intellect, it helps us go deeper into issues, which will also help us in taking the right direction in decision, this process of asking ‘why ‘will help analyze issues, but all the more important is not to ask 'why', there are a host of other things, for which asking 'why' will take you off the course and one may not be able to take the right decisions.

A guru is a person, who should be able to help, as to when and where to ask ‘why’ and when not to, there is an hero, by name Rajinikanth, he is lovingly called the super star of Tamilnadu cinema, he is one of those rare few, that we could see around in this world today, who has been able to win hearts, we see many leaders, we see many politicians, actors, actresses, business people, writers, philosophers, comedians, spiritual gurus, and the like, but when we look at all those who follow them, we can easily find out, that there is definitely some conditions attached in their following, some follow for money, some for power, some for knowledge etc., there is nobody that we could easily see, who shall accept somebody as a guru, leader unconditionally.

What makes such persons so special, how do they get connected so easily, what is that they possess, which makes them get connected like that?

Some pointers in the direction of those questions are, spirituality, warmth in the heart, a supra intelligence which is beyond the intelligence of asking questions and getting answers.

We are now talking about, what Einstein has referred as “Special Nonsense” he had explained that there is something below the level of intelligence, and there is something which makes sense, and there are those which make nonsense. Meaning those are beyond the grasp of an intelligent manner of making sense, but, one can go for higher level of understanding which could reveal that.

It is an important skill to posses, where in one can know what is right and what is wrong, and good and bad, but will not be able to prove them.

At a broader level, life is not all these analysis, nor the success and failure that we respect, after all it is we who have created the concept of accumulation of wealth, by giving respect to the concept of possession, if possession and ego are absent all the games that we play here will come to naught.

So, for the life to become complete, it is not only necessary to play this game well, much beyond this game, we should also be able to concentrate on more serious things like the purpose of the life and the search for our true self, all these necessitates the need for a guru, a guru, who should be able to guide through all the hardships, a guru who should be able to give wise counsel, a guru who should be able to help in developing the right type of relationship, who should have the vision to take things forward.

There are five basic dimensions to our personality, there is that ultimate inner, innate one, which is the source of power, the source of energy, and the source of our existence. That is, the True 'I'.

This knowledge of the true 'I' is the secret of power, success and peace, the way through which one reaches this, need not be the same for all, but the ultimate destination is the same.

This is also not against the normal endeavors of our life, one could both be performing his duties as whatever in this life, and as well be in the search for Self Realization, in reality, this dimension of searching for the true self, will help one in succeeding in this life.