How to Recognise a Satguru

 

Photo Credit: Thepranams

How to Recognise a Satguru

There is a difference between a Guru and a Satguru – the difference being that of a teacher and of a Supreme Master respectively. A guru could be anyone – your parents at first, then your teachers, your friends, in fact anyone who teaches you something or the other could be said to be your guru, and you too could be a guru to others. A Satguru is a Master who comes enters a person’s life only when the spiritual seekers urge arises in the individual. For some the urge may be suppressed, but the time may be ripe, even then the Satguru knows that this soul’s time has come and he enters his/her life. Once this happens, life changes, it gets transformed – you become kind of born again.

Your parents give birth to your physical body and the Satguru gives birth to your soul – he awakens your soul and gives you the spiritual experience of the awakening of your soul. In the past, when the Guru-disciple tradition was alive, at that time the disciple’s entire past would be burnt on a funeral pyre; meaning, the disciple who was entering the ashram for initiation had to get rid of all his clothes and belongings, he would lie down asleep as if dead, and the belongings would be burnt – indicating a complete cut off from the past. He would then get up, bathe, and then the Satguru would give him a name to suit his soul’s quality – this soul was now a new person – born again, with absolutely no connection with the past!

We are taught to question everything today because there are so many duplicates and scams which do the rounds – the duplicates look as good as the original till they are exposed. We cannot know the value of anything unless we experience it. A true seeker always questions and tests the validity of anything said by a Guru or Satguru for himself. A person who just follows blindly is not a true seeker, because being blind in spirituality is more dangerous than being physically blind – the harm caused by blind faith could be tremendous. There are many cases where people have undergone great psychological trauma for having false beliefs.

Personal experience is the best experience. So, when I ask you to tell me one way to know whether the person who has entered your life is your Satguru or Master, what will be the answer? My personal experience is that when you are in the presence of a true Master, a Satguru who has attained the state of liberation or void, you do not get any thoughts at all. Your mind becomes blank and you feel a sense of calm, peace and profound love. You don’t feel like saying anything as the peace and sense of void of the Satguru envelopes you.