Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Not-Quite-Guru -- Who doesn't point to Krishna

The Vedic scriptures enjoin that one who has firm faith in both Krishna and Guru (spiritual master), to him all the meaning and purpose of the scriptures become clear. Obviously the Guru here refers to one who talks only about Krishna and how to take shelter of Krishna. 

Unfortunately in India people accept so many men as Guru. But many of these Gurus accept all the adulation for themselves without at all directing their followers to Krishna. In other words they want to take the place of Krishna. This is cheating, because without taking exclusive shelter of Krishna, one cannot attain the goal of human life - stopping the cycle of birth and death and going back to the Kingdom of Krishna. A Guru is good only to the extent he emphasizes in his words and actions taking to pure uninterrupted unmotivated devotional service to Krishna.

In one sense this is unfortunate because it causes many people to fall into the trap of choosing a kindhearted man who does not talk about Krishna as their Guru. From another angle, this phenomenon also helps one clearly identify those who might be spiritual externally, but are actually still materialistic in their outlook to life and in their goals in life. One can identify the nature of a person from whom or what he admires. If one is not training oneself towards exclusive devotion to Krishna, he has not yet internalized the essence of the Vedic scriptures.

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