WHO IS A REAL GURU

[Guest guest]

REAL GURU IS THE ONE WHO TEACHES SARANAGATHI AT THE

LOTUS FEET OF LORD SRIMAN NARAYANA

 

On the issue of how to find the right Acharya or Guru,

one must first understand the Artha Panchaka or five

essential meanings of life as illustrated by Sri Rama

Krishna in Digest no 295. First, we need to know what

we want. What is our goal? What is obstruction in

attaining the goal, etc.

 

There are numerous Gurus who could lead us in all

directions. However, if reaching the Supreme Being is

the goal, then we need to understand the means to

reach Him. We all know He is infinite and we are

finite. How can we reach the infinite with our finite

actions? Therefore, the infinite Supreme Being should

reveal himself to us since no finite action can itself

lead us to Him. Consequently, abondoning all fruitive

actions, we have to surrender to Him so that He could

reveal Himself to us. This process of surrendering is

called SARANAGATHI or PRAPATHI.

 

Who is this supreme Being? If He is supreme, He should

be the cause of all causes; He should be the supporter

of everything, and He should be dwelling in

everything. He should be taking out all of our sins.If

He is supreme, He should be infinitely pious (shudha

SATVIK) and should have infiunite compassion(DAYA). He

is called NARAYANA beacuse He is the supporter of

everything and everybeing. He is called Vishnu because

He is all pervading, and He is called Hari becasue He

is the greatest stealer, the stealer of sins. All

satvik puranas with one voice point out that SRIMAN

NARAYANA alone is pure Satvik and has infinite

compassion. He has infinite compassion because He has

Compassion in His heart with the embodiment of

compassion Sri Lakshmi on his chest and therefore He

is called Sriman Narayana.

 

What is the obstruction in reaching Him? The major

obstruction is ahankara or ego that we can acheive our

goal by ourself through our actions like meditation or

through learning (gnana).

 

Therefore, a real guru or acharya is one who teaches

us to perform SARANAGATHI at the feet of Lord SRIMAN

NARAYANA. If some guru is teaching you that you can

attain moksha or liberation by meditation or other

techniques, that means he is not a real guru since it

is imposible to obtain the infinite through finite

actions. In the material world, to achive material

goals, the means and the end may be different. But, to

achive the Supreme Being, the means (upaya) and the

end (Upeya) are the same. Lord Krishna (who is

Bhagavan Swayam) concludes his Githa asking the

individual to [perform SARANAGATHI abondoning all

fruitive activities].

 

The real guru should also be a practicing devotee who

has performed SARANAGATHI at the lotus feet of Lord

Sriman Narayana. As Sri Prabhupada once said, the milk

is good and healthy to drink, but if touched by the

lips of a serpant become poisonous. Similarly, any

Upadesam for liberation is good as long as it is

coming from the lips of a pure devotee. Hering from a

nondevotee is like drinking poisonous milk.

 

There are many more qualities of a real guru. These

and other qualities of a real guru have been

thouroughly discussed by Pilla Lokacharya (almost five

hundread years ago) in his Grantham entitled "Thathva

Shekaram."

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

With thounds of pranams at the Lotus feet of

Jagadguryu SRI SRI SRI SRIMAN NARAYANA RAMANUJA

CHINNAY JIYAR SWamy, I remain,

 

Sincerely

Narender Reddy

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