The True Guru is Within

"It is not the worship of a person that is crucial, but the steadiness and depth of your devotion to the task. Life itself is the Supreme Guru; be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. When you personalize their source, you have an outer Guru; when you take them from life directly, the Guru is within."- Nisargadatta Maharaj

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The following are excerpts from the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi ...

"Question: How is a Guru found?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: God, who is immanent, in His grace takes pity on the loving devotee and manifests himself according to the devotee's development. The devotee thinks that he is a man and expects a relationship between two physical bodies. But the Guru, who is a God or the Self incarnate works from within, helps the man to see the error of his ways and guides him on the right path until he realises the Self within."


"Question: What are the marks of a real teacher (sadaguru)?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Steady abidance in the Self, looking at all with an equal eye, unshakable courage at all times, in all places and circumstances."


"Question: There are a number of spiritual teachers teaching various paths. Whom should one take for one's Guru?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: Choose that one where you find you get shanti (peace)."


"Question: Should we not also consider his teachings?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not a true master. The seeker is already afflicted by his activities and wants peace and rest. In other words he wants cessation of his activities. If a teacher tells him to do something in addition to, or in place of, his other activities, can that be a help to the seeker?"

"Activity is creation. Activity is the destruction of one's inherent happiness. If activity is advocated the adviser is not a master but a killer. In such circumstances either the Creator (Brahma) or death (Yama) may be said to have come in the guise of a master. Such a person cannot liberate the aspirant; he can only strengthen his fetters."


"Question: How can I find my own Guru?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: By intense meditation."


"Question: How then some great persons attain knowledge without a Guru?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: To a few mature persons the Lord shines as the formless light of knowledge and imparts awareness of the truth."


"Question: What is the significance of Guru's grace in the attainment of liberation?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: Liberation is not anywhere outside you. It is only within. If a man is anxious for deliverance, the internal Guru pulls him in and the external Guru pushes him into the Self. This is the grace of the Guru."


"Question: Some people reported you to have said that there was no need for a Guru. Others gave the opposite report. What does Maharshi say?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: I have never said that there is no need for a Guru."


"Questioner: Sri Aurobindo and others refer to you as havinghad no Guru."

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: It all depends on what you call a Guru. He need not be in a human form. Dattatreya had twenty-four Gurus including the five elements- earth, water, etc. Every object in this world was his Guru."

"The Guru is absolutely necessary. The Upanishads say that none but a Guru can take a man out of the jungle of intellect and sense perceptions. So there must be a Guru."


"Questioner: I mean a human Guru- Maharshi did not have one."

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: I might have had one at one time or other. But did I not sing hymns to Arunachala? What is a Guru? Guru is God or the Self. First a man prays to God to fulfil his desires. A time comes when he will no more pray for the fulfilment of material desires but for God Himself. God then appears to him in some form or other, human or non-human, to guide him to Himself in answer to his prayer and according to his needs."


"Question: When loyal to one master can you respect others?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: Guru is only one. He is not physical. So long as there is weakness the support of strength is needed."


"Questioner: J.Krishnamurti says, "No Guru is necessary."

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: How did he know it? One can say so after realising but not before."


"Question: May one have more than one spiritual master?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: Who is a master? He is the Self after all. According to the stages of development of the mind the Self manifests as the master externally. The famous ancient Dattatreya said that he had more than twenty-four masters. The master is one from whom one learns anything. The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in the case of Dattatreya. God, Guru and the Self are identical."

"A spiritually minded man thinks that God is all pervading and takes God for his Guru. Later, God brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in all. Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the master to feel that his Self is the reality and nothing else. Thus he finds that the Self is the master."


"Questioner: I am always at your feet. Will Bhagavan give us some upadesa (teaching) to follow? Otherwise how can I get help living 600 miles away?"

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: The sadguru (the true guru) is within."


"Questioner: Sadguru is necessary to guide me to understand it."

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: The sadguru is within."


"Questioner: I want a visible Guru."

"Sri Ramana Maharshi: That visible Guru says that he is within."