Every Teacher is Not a Guru

Teachers help one learn or hone a skill. Of course, as one becomes more proficient, other variants of teachers like mentors, coaches, and counselors become more relevant. Teachers are often indispensable if one wishes to perfect a skill in the least possible time with the most efficient use of time and energy.

A spiritual master - Guru - helps one make spiritual advancement and is absolutely indispensable if one wants to attain spiritial perfection - pure love for the Supreme Lord.

In modern times any expert or popular teacher is refered to as a Guru. This equation leads to the undesirable watering down of the position of the spiritual master or Guru. Dedication to a teacher is not absolutely indispensable for mastering a skill. No doubt teachers are invaluable, but there are many notable skillsmen who are self-taught to a large extent. These include singers, actors, dancers, writers, sportsmen, and so on. But a Guru - spiritual master - is indispensible; because he doesn't teach skills, he changes hearts.

A Guru guides his disciple in developing the disciple's relationship with the Supreme Lord. This relationship deepens as the disciple's heart becomes cleansed of selfish desires for godless enjoyment. And the heart is cleansed by submissive service to and sincere inquiry from the Guru. In fact, one's relationship with the Guru naturally extends into one's relationship with the Supreme Lord. The Guru is a very intimate dear devotee of the Lord and the Lord accepts one's relationship with Him to the degree one develops his relationship with the Guru.

A teacher, no matter how kind, learned, or austere, is not a Guru if he is not intentionally taking his disciple closer to the Supreme Lord by his teachings. But every genuine Guru is the best teacher because his very existence is to guide his disciples to an eternal ever joyful relationship of love with Sri Krishna!

The Social Gathering

Social get-togethers are memorable and warmer when in the presence of widely and genuinely respected loving elders. They are even more enchanting when people express their gratitude openly and downplay their mutual differences of opinions.

Otherwise social events are typically shallow formalities attended out of social pressure. Even if attended willingly, if devoid of the warmth of loving elders and heartfelt gratitude, social functions are like any other means of popular entertainment meant for passing (i.e. wasting, killing) time. Most of the times they degrade into gossip parties where nothing more enlightening than relatives, politics, sports, television, and economics is discussed. Despite coming together physically, people attending these gossip parties hardly feel the bond of togetherness - because there is no strong common ideal that binds them together. The ideal of "let's enjoy together" focuses not on togetherness, but on enjoyment.

There are a few occasions where social events are enlivening due to the warmth of relationships and the open expression of gratitude. Typically on these occasions the heart is overjoyed seeing the mutual affection flowing all around. These are the real social gatherings.

This principle applies at an even deeper level. Such gatherings are even more meaningful if centered around not just family relationships, but on our relationship with the supreme lord. If we accept the lord as the most loving and respectable person in our life and family, then no social gathering is warm enough without him. If we don't accept the Lord as such, any social gathering, no matter how pleasing to the heart, is merely a polished version of the shallow formal gathering. It might enliven us, but will do nothing to enlighten us.

From today, let's accept the supreme lord as our most respectable dearest relative and our best and most loving friend.


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The Independence Way

Happy people make a progressive nation.

Unhappy people are seldom willing to contribute to make other things better. They are too concerned about finding happiness in their personal lives. Ironically, most leaders pretend to believe that things make people happy. So a lot of energy goes in making unwilling unhappy people work hard to make things. But things don't make people happy. So the dreary hard work continues endlessly with happiness nowhere in sight.

Contentment brings happiness, not things. Content happy people are more inclined to contribute to bigger causes, are more charitable, are more willing to make sacrifices for others, are more willing to help the needy, are honest leaders, are less demanding, are more accommodative, and so on.

Contentment comes from systematic cultivation of spiritual life. A devotional spiritual life fosters service attitude and a genuine desire to make people happy. This dynamic contentment derives its power from a deep relationship of love and service towards the Supreme Lord.

The cherished goal of all nation-lovers should be to increase the happiness quotient of their fellow countrymen. Things play their part, but contentment is the very foundation of happiness.

This Independence Day let's start our freedom struggle against unhappiness by beginning our spiritual journey - a journey down the independence way.

The Tool of Laws

Another angle to the notion that "things just exist" is to say that "laws just exist" and that laws explain the order and intricacy found in nature.

When we pluck a stretched wire, it produces a sound. The pitch of the sound depends on the length of the wire. All this is governed by laws. But to say that laws explain rhythmic melodious music is naive. And to say that chance brings together laws to create music is a humongous leap of faith unacceptable to a logical and honest mind.

It requires intelligence to pluck the strings at the correct places at the correct moments to create well-designed music. Similarly merely laws do not explain the order and intricacy found in nature; intelligence does.

The universe is not governed by the rule of laws brought together by chance; it's governed by an intelligent being expertly wielding the tool of laws.

The Basis of all Existence

Creation, with all its orderly systems and intriguing intricacies reasonably points to an intelligent creator. To avoid acknowledging an intelligent creator, some scientists, philosophers, and even spiritualists propagate many imaginative theories. One of them states that nothing was created, everything just exists.

Even this attempt of keeping intelligence at bay fails. Because intelligence is a prominent feature of existence. Intelligence exists, and it controls other features of existence. For example, a dog is intelligent enough to circumvent uintelligent physical obstacles to  find the source of a scent. Similarly humans are intelligent enough to pick up an unintelligent instrument to pen down imaginative theories about how the pen originally came about.

If everything just exists, then intelligence also just exists; it's not a product of chance. Intelligence is a personality trait. If intelligence just exists, so does personality; personality is not a product of chance.

Personality is a manifestation of consciousness. Thus consciousness just exists. It's a fundamental feature of existence, not a product of chance. Since the posessor of consciousnesses can control unconscious objects and even other less powerful conscious elements, it's highly reasonable to argue that one supreme person exists who controls all else.

Yes, the Supreme Person exists without requiring anything else to explain his existence. The process of spiritual life is to discover that supreme person who, being most powerful, is the very basis of all existence.

Intelligence is a personality trait

Intelligence is a personality trait.

There are two ways to look at things. One is to say that there are no signs of intelligence in what we see; any indication of intelligence, no matter how strong, is merely coincidental - by chance. Another way is to acknowledge that chance cannot explain the indications of intelligence we see.

Energy does not have intelligence; energy in itself cannot create sustained order in a system. Intelligence controls energy. Chance cannot create laws, only intelligence can. Chance cannot even break laws; then how can it be a force superior to the intelligence that can create laws?

Intelligence is a personality trait. A person has intelligence.

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Oh My God! Re-answering the Questions – PDF E-Book

Oh My God! Re-answering the Questions – PDF E-Book

This book acknowledges questions raised by this movie and provides well-informed and logical answers to the most essential ones.

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/oh-my-god-re-answering-the-questions-pdf-e-book/

A review of the book is here

My Review of the Movie below:

The Hindi blockbuster movie "Oh My God" has left deep impressions on many. It concludes that God exists, but denounces all traditional means of attaining Him.

The traditional means of spiritualizing ones life have been misused throughout history by cheating opportunists who commercialize religion and rob all religious and spiritual practices of its essence. While the movie rightly bashes such cheating religionists, it fails to emphasize that selfless religionists and spiritualists exist. Although the movie proclaims the existence of God, due to this one-sided presentation the movie can have the following undesirable consequences:

1. Those who are already atheists, will find a glamorous reason for remaining so.

2. Those who have faith in God, but are not serious about going deeper into spirituality, will find a glamorous reason for stagnating on whatever spiritual platform they are on.

The spiritual practices like chanting the Holy Names of God, visiting and worshiping in temples, executing the Vedic rituals, donating for a spiritual cause, and so on, provide a variety of ways in which one can stay in touch with God and make steady progress in dedicating more and more to His service. Such spiritual contact, along with study of the scriptures and association of devotees, is a joyful way of making tangible spiritual advancement. By denouncing all these time tested means, the movie is drowning all means of spiritual salvation for the masses. This is a great disservice to God.

The take-home message demeaning "Idol Worship" is a blanket statement which is so naive that only a pitifully uninformed can make.The Vedic scripture is full of detailed and elaborate sections on worshiping the form of God with love and devotion. Such worship does not have any of the negativity that the phrase "idol worship" connotes. To equate the two is to equate the Vedic authority with fools. Lord Krishna Himself instructs the process of deity worship in many prominent Vedic scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

Overall, this is a very well made movie, and perhaps even with good godly intentions. It raises relevant and valid questions about the prevalant state of religious commercialization. But many of the answers it provides are based neither on sound logic nor on a reasonable understanding of religion and spirituality. It's a movie which seems to talk favorably about God, but makes it very hard for its viewers to turn to God in earnest.