Monday, 30th October 2017
After publishing my article In Search of God, Not of Priest...(Monday, 23rd October 2017) I received a number of comments and queries comparing Guru with Priest. I have understood that many have the misunderstanding that a priest is a Guru. That is why I am giving the clarification through this article.
When you are in the young age, you want to find out models in life. A Guru is the perfect role-model for you in the society. The one who shows you an example of his/her teachings through his/her life can be called as the Guru. The one who practises what he/she preaches is Guru.
There are teachers in the society who share information regarding several subjects. They pass information, but you cannot make them models in life. There are trainers as well. They train you in skills like driving, swimming etc. But the Guru is different from them. Guru inspires you to lead a valuable life, not through talks, but through his/her life itself.
You will be stuck in many occasions in life. It is Guru who leads you forward through his/her own living example. Your emotional management, thought process & management, relationship management, financial management, knowledge management and many such aspects are formed through seeing others as your models. If you live with a person who manages his/her finance perfectly, that might become an influence in you. You get such influence from a good person, it is positive. The influence can go negative as well. The one who gives you positive influence through his/her practice is Guru. When you see a drunkard, if you want to be like him, it is not a positive influence. Because it won’t give you permanent happiness. So he is not Guru. When you work with a colleague who is perfect in delivering his duties, suppose you are influenced by him. This influence helps you to develop a good quality in you. He can be called Guru.
Liberation (moksha) means to be permanently free from sorrows. A Guru is the one who through the example of his/her life, influences you to attain such a freedom; ie permanent freedom from all sorrows.
The Nature works in you through insights. When you develop strong insight, you can see things perfectly, understand the Nature of them and through knowledge, can go deeply into the significance of them. This will help you to function well. When you function well in life, you can be successful in various fields of activity. That is the way to permanently liberate from sorrows. Know the world and its sufferings to liberate from them. (It does not mean to run away from them. You have to deal with the sufferings and unhappiness in life. That is the only way. But the insight and wisdom make you strong enough to face them and to help others to manage things effectively.) So the insight in you is the real Guru-element. That insight is called the Inner Eye. Such influences through which the insight is strengthened can be called Guru. Guru deepens your insight.
You must be very careful when you choose your role-models. There is a practice among youngsters; they choose some film-stars as their role-model. The image of a film-star is false creation. Even their outer appearance is not the real. Can you expect to gain real insight when you accept a pseudo image as your role-model? Do serious research on the person before accepting him/her as your role-model. Your role-model works as a Guru in the matter of insight.
Guru stays in your memory constantly to influence you to do works properly, to think properly and manage things around you skillfully. So Guru is a need in life.
A priest is a part of religious rituals. They deliver religious services on your behalf and get paid for them. Priests lead the people towards dependency. You are mesmerized and temporarily get some peace through rituals. But, when you are disturbed next time, you have to do it again. That is dependency. It is better to avoid that in life, if you prefer internal freedom.
Liberation from sorrow or Moksha is acquired permanently through wisdom.
Wisdom is acquired through action or Karma. The Karma does not mean the religious activities. Karma means the value based deliverance of your duties in life. The teacher may teach well. Farmer may farm in his/her land properly. And the rest. The knowledge and purpose must follow the work. Wisdom as an after effect of work, brings permanent satisfaction in life.
Permanent Satisfaction / Liberation from Sorrows – through Wisdom.
Wisdom – through Observing, Reflecting and Analyzing your Experiences.
Experiences – through Functioning with purpose and knowledge in day-to-day affairs.
Success in life - through Perfect functioning.
(Short time / temporary satisfaction – through religious practices.)
After publishing my article In Search of God, Not of Priest...(Monday, 23rd October 2017) I received a number of comments and queries comparing Guru with Priest. I have understood that many have the misunderstanding that a priest is a Guru. That is why I am giving the clarification through this article.
When you are in the young age, you want to find out models in life. A Guru is the perfect role-model for you in the society. The one who shows you an example of his/her teachings through his/her life can be called as the Guru. The one who practises what he/she preaches is Guru.
There are teachers in the society who share information regarding several subjects. They pass information, but you cannot make them models in life. There are trainers as well. They train you in skills like driving, swimming etc. But the Guru is different from them. Guru inspires you to lead a valuable life, not through talks, but through his/her life itself.
You will be stuck in many occasions in life. It is Guru who leads you forward through his/her own living example. Your emotional management, thought process & management, relationship management, financial management, knowledge management and many such aspects are formed through seeing others as your models. If you live with a person who manages his/her finance perfectly, that might become an influence in you. You get such influence from a good person, it is positive. The influence can go negative as well. The one who gives you positive influence through his/her practice is Guru. When you see a drunkard, if you want to be like him, it is not a positive influence. Because it won’t give you permanent happiness. So he is not Guru. When you work with a colleague who is perfect in delivering his duties, suppose you are influenced by him. This influence helps you to develop a good quality in you. He can be called Guru.
Liberation (moksha) means to be permanently free from sorrows. A Guru is the one who through the example of his/her life, influences you to attain such a freedom; ie permanent freedom from all sorrows.
The Nature works in you through insights. When you develop strong insight, you can see things perfectly, understand the Nature of them and through knowledge, can go deeply into the significance of them. This will help you to function well. When you function well in life, you can be successful in various fields of activity. That is the way to permanently liberate from sorrows. Know the world and its sufferings to liberate from them. (It does not mean to run away from them. You have to deal with the sufferings and unhappiness in life. That is the only way. But the insight and wisdom make you strong enough to face them and to help others to manage things effectively.) So the insight in you is the real Guru-element. That insight is called the Inner Eye. Such influences through which the insight is strengthened can be called Guru. Guru deepens your insight.
You must be very careful when you choose your role-models. There is a practice among youngsters; they choose some film-stars as their role-model. The image of a film-star is false creation. Even their outer appearance is not the real. Can you expect to gain real insight when you accept a pseudo image as your role-model? Do serious research on the person before accepting him/her as your role-model. Your role-model works as a Guru in the matter of insight.
Guru stays in your memory constantly to influence you to do works properly, to think properly and manage things around you skillfully. So Guru is a need in life.
A priest is a part of religious rituals. They deliver religious services on your behalf and get paid for them. Priests lead the people towards dependency. You are mesmerized and temporarily get some peace through rituals. But, when you are disturbed next time, you have to do it again. That is dependency. It is better to avoid that in life, if you prefer internal freedom.
Liberation from sorrow or Moksha is acquired permanently through wisdom.
Wisdom is acquired through action or Karma. The Karma does not mean the religious activities. Karma means the value based deliverance of your duties in life. The teacher may teach well. Farmer may farm in his/her land properly. And the rest. The knowledge and purpose must follow the work. Wisdom as an after effect of work, brings permanent satisfaction in life.
Permanent Satisfaction / Liberation from Sorrows – through Wisdom.
Wisdom – through Observing, Reflecting and Analyzing your Experiences.
Experiences – through Functioning with purpose and knowledge in day-to-day affairs.
Success in life - through Perfect functioning.
(Short time / temporary satisfaction – through religious practices.)
convincingly explained.....
ReplyDeleteThis article is an eye opener.The actual definition of Guru is now clear.What can be done to develop a strong insight?...Is it possible through Saadhana? So far Guru is personified atleast in our mind. But now i think even our positive thoughts( thoughts fro a trained enlightened brain) are also considered as GURU.So search for a GURU is actually creating a strong insight by ourself.The injected facts from books and life and experience of great people can help us create a strong insight? Can we have an article regarding what really insight is? and how can one develop it? Is it the sound of inner conscience or self? Anyway thank you so much for making us think creative..............
ReplyDeleteInsight cannot be 'created'.
ReplyDeleteInsight is the messages from Nature reaching you through your own heart. The messages from Nature are continuously sent to you. But you are not 'listening' to them. Your attention is to the outer world. So you are not listening to those valuable messages.
A poet, artiste or scientist, try to listen to the voice of Nature from his/her heart. He/she is able to have an insight who is ready to 'listen' to the Nature through heart.
There are two steps to develop the habit of turning towards your insight.
Step 1. Be silent at heart; emotionally and thought-wise. Try not to think for the time being and keep a harmonious Bhava of emotion inside.
Step 2. Listen to the messages coming from your heart, Naturally, without any small effort from your side.
These 'suggestions' you get from your own inside is actually the Guru-element in you. But you have to do deep and sincere research before accepting it as it is. Because your 'habituated ideas' also may appear in the form of insight. 'Habituated ideas' and 'insight' are two different things. It is necessary to discriminate between them before completely depending on your insight. There comes the help from a real Guru, who has the experience of doing these research in his/her life.
Anyway, the search for the Truth is important.
Because, the insight is the experience of Truth as it is.
"Liberation means to be permanently free from sorrows". Can we say it is like MANAGING our sufferings/feelings positively?, or face them with balance of mind?
ReplyDeleteI like to note down this part of the article.ie :- ..nicely written about ..What is liberation? And how it can be possible? Logically explained..Thank you
You are not able to MANAGE your sufferings. You can only face them with a balanced mind. MANAGING your thoughts and emotions will help you to face any situation in life effectively. That skill of your mind is called Moksha or Liberation. If you attain that skill, by constant Observation and Management (OM), you will be able to function well in day-to-day activities, to be successful in all aspects.
ReplyDeleteThe essential skill is the balanced approach towards difficult situations. The attitude is to be transformed. The incidents around you might be the same. But your attitude changes. Then the whole experience will become different. That is the method.
Positive attitude can be developed gradually through Observation & Management (OM).