The real gurus

[Guest guest]

Dear Raghu,

At 09:21 AM 10/3/02 -0700, you wrote:

Remember, the West is ruled by Saturn, a Vatta

increasing, windy, detached,

planet. The people are more or less like that. They are not so into

feeling

connected. Fierce independence would be more appropriate to

understand.

That's why, here, things have developed the way they have. It's why

there

are no more lineages, Gurus, etc., in the West, really. It doesn't

work

here. It's better to offer something, have a price, and give the

exchange,

and put all things into that.

Trying to set up Brahminical system of free teaching, and other things,

even

the so called Sampradaya you're trying to get going, calling teachers

Gurus,

personally, I think it's a mistake. The term Guru here now has become

VERY

tainted. You are almost harming your friends by encouraging this

word.

I understand your points, and in fact - between you and me - I like the

gutsy, tell-it-like-it is rhetoric. Yes, truly it appeals to me,

Raghu. In fact, you are right in saying, that much of the

failure of Indian teaching in the western countries has to do with too

much adherence to traditional customs, systems, the letter of the law,

most of which cannot be implemented due to a certain kind of mentality of

western people.

However, in my opinion, it is a mistake to throw the baby out with the

bath-water, and not see the wisdom of such systems, or to seek the

connecting threads between east and west. What is a

guru? Because the indiscretions of certain persons going under the

title of guru has created suspicion about the credibility of a certain

teacher/student paradigm, does not mean that we should run in fear from

it an not understand exactly what that means. Now, here's an

example: My guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami

Prabhupada, was the most vocal and successful international proponent of

Vedic knowledge of the 20th century. Were it not for his assumption

of the role of "guru", none of us what have a clue about

anything Vedic, what is truth, what is Asat, or non-truth, and

further how the heck to get out of this predicament of repetitions of

birth and death. This is the contribution of a true guru, and

whether you admit it or not, your current existence arose out of his

love, his compassion, his mercy- before- judgment, and his unlimited

willingness to risk it all, and come to the west to teach.

So what does "guru" mean? Before telling everybody that

gurus are bogus, and now we need to adopt that good 'ol free wheeling,

bohemian, hang loose, philosophy by which we used to live in the 60's -

irregardless of the fact that everybody was confused, spaced-out, and on

some form of drug or the other in order to simply maintain existence -

lets try to understand it, and see how we can implement it.

THREE KINDS OF GURUS

1. Siksha guru: It simply means a teacher - period

-that's it. No assumption of greatness, no power over the people,

no mandate of service - just a teacher. Get it? If I

understand the meaning of Siksha guru, then what's the problem whether

someone has that after his name, or PhD, or MA, or whatever.

2. Diksha guru: This requires that the guru is a

fully-realized soul, and can guide the disciple to enlightenment and

Moksha (liberation). Few people are qualified here, yet some do

from time to time: your guru, mine, and their predecessors, for

example. So most of the gurus, therefore, fall in the Siksha

category.

3. Chetah guru: It means the manifestations of

all-pervasive Spirit (Paramatma) existing in the hearts of all living

beings. Thus, there is only one Chetah guru. Sorry, no

applicants here.

So why we should call the Siksha guru "guru", and not the more

familiar word "teacher", because there is another level

of qualification that belongs to this position, apart from simply

his being responsible for the transmission of knowledge. He/she

lives and conducts himself in such a manner, as his *example*

demonstrates the truths being told. That's it - no assumption of

greatness, no artificial accolades, you can follow, or not -that's

up to you.

So my question to you is, if the definitions are that simple, why not

make people aware of what the guru word is? Are you afraid of

something, Raghu? Think about it: you present a

fair-and-balanced approach, something like the Fox News channel, yet you

scourge the word guru, Vedic traditions, or anything related that might

be sacred to some, and very useful I might add, as if not applicable at

all. Guru is also a position of respect, but respect which is

earned, not which is demanded. Look around, and you'll see: there

are some real gurus, although they feel humble to call themselves as

such, just like I'll bet that little guy from Texas now sitting in the

White house (I like George Bush, by the way) feels humble to be called

"the leader of the free world", the universal acceptance of

which of course is up for grabs.

SATYAM VS. ARUDHA

The truth of a person is his "Satyam", whereas the duties/roles

he must play as part of a worldly position, are his "Arudha",

or image. You have to be able to distinguish one from the other,

while defining the character and ability of a specific individual, and

then decide to follow or not. Normally, the Satyam of a guru, is

deep faith, devotion, and an all-embracing acceptance of all that is, as

part of the Divine Lila, or play. His Arudha, is a person who not

only teaches, but sometimes disciplines, sometimes admonishes, while at

all times, coming from a position of love. The two appear separate

much of the time, but if you look for the links, you will find

them.

So, the bad taste in the mouth of some regarding the word

"guru", is only due to the fact that people who know the true

definitions of such, and who are living as such, are not speaking

out. You know much in this areas, Raghu, gosh, there is so much

knowledge that sits under that head of yours, but you do not share it

because some area of your own issues around freedom, acceptance, prior

abuse, make you reject that part of your past. Now that you are

healing, that's excellent, you need to implement the past too - fair and

balanced - and make that part of your paradigm, otherwise the world will

be missing out on the levels of great knowledge and teaching potential

that you indeed are capable of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert A. Koch, Vedic Astrologer

Faculty Member, SJVC and ACVA

visit

<http://www.robertkoch.com>

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http://www.jyotishdiscovery.com

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Ph: 541.318.0248