Guru need not be in human form

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Day by Day with Bhagavan________29-10-45 AfternoonDilip Kumar Roy, singer and author, who is on a visithere from Sri Aurobindo Ashram, asked Bhagavan, "Accordingto the Maha Yoga you say that the sages have not said anythingto contradict each other. Yet, we find one advocating bhakti,another jnana, etc., leading thus to all sorts of quarrels."Bhagavan: There is really nothing contradictory in suchteachings. When for instance a follower of bhakti margadeclares that bhakti is the best, he really means by the wordbhakti what the jnana marga man calls jnana. There is nodifference in the state or its description by attributes ortranscendence of attributes. Only different thinkers have useddifferent words. All these different margas, or paths orsadhanas lead to the same goal. What is once a means becomesitself the goal. When that happens dhyana, bhakti or jnana,which was at one time a conscious and painful effort, becomesthe normal and natural state, spontaneously and without effort.30-10-45 AfternoonDilip Kumar Roy read out a poem in English composedby him on Bhagavan and sang some songs before Bhagavan.Later he asked Bhagavan, "While all say Guru's direction isnecessary it seems Bhagavan has said a Guru is not necessary."Bhagavan: I have not said so. But a Guru need not alwaysbe in human form. First a person thinks he is an inferior andthat there is a superior, all-knowing and all-powerful God whocontrols his own and the world's destiny, and worships himor does bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomesfit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshippingcomes as Guru and leads him on. That Guru comes only totell him. `The God is within yourself. Dive within and realise.'God, Guru and the Self are the same.Roy: But in Bhagavan's case there was no Guru.Bhagavan: The whole world was my Guru. It has beenalready said that Guru need not be in human form and thatthe Self within, God and Guru are the same.Roy: I once asked my Gurudev (i.e., Sri Aurobindo) aboutthis and he said, `A spiritual Hercules like Bhagavan needsno Guru'.Bhagavan: Everything in the world was my Guru. Don'tyou know that Dattatreya, when he was asked by the king whichGuru had taught him the secret of bliss, replied that the earth,water, fire, animals, men etc., all were his Gurus and went onexplaining how some of these taught him to cling to what wasgood and others taught him what things he should avoid as bad.