Guru and Satguru

 

Guru and Satguru

There is some confusion in people’s minds about the difference between a Guru and a Satguru. In our life we have several Gurus who teach us a lot of things – beginning with our mother who is our first Guru, followed by relatives, school teachers and so on. The word Guru means a person who takes you from darkness to light – say darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge! We have teachers or Gurus who are proficient in different fields such as sports, different professions, and so on. Throughout your school education you may have observed this – Swamiji has said this many times – the students who respect their teachers have a greater capacity to absorb the knowledge than those who do not have respect for their teacher. The underlying meaning is that if we do not respect the teacher, we do not learn the subject to the best of our capacity to do so, by doing that is the teacher being hurt? No! The student is harming his own educational prospects – but if we respect the Guru, then we increase our own capacity to absorb the knowledge which is being imparted! Thus, all those people who come into our life and help put the light of knowledge of any subject of which we have no knowledge can be said to be our Gurus.

The person who gives birth to our physical body is called our mother – there is only one person who gives birth to us – in the same way the Satguru is the only one who can give birth to the soul by awakening it. If we are to get self-realisation in this birth, awakening in this birth then it is pre-decided as to who will be our Satguru or Realised Master who will be the mother to the soul! But it is not necessary that we are prepared to receive the Satguru in this lifetime, this is because the soul has to advance spiritually to a certain level before the Satguru can make an appearance in such person’s life. For this you need to get your spiritual personality developed to a certain level and then only he makes an appearance in your life. You need to awaken that deep desire to attain oneness with universal consciousness before the Satguru can come into your life and plant the seed of spirituality within you.

The Satguru once he enters your life does the task of creator, nurturer and destroyer – Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh the trinity as per Sanatan Dharma. In India that is why it is said of a Satguru or realised Master – Guru Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo Maheshwara, Gurur Sakshat Parabrahma – meaning that the Guru Himself is the creator, nurturer, destroyer, he is God personified. This means the Satguru gives birth to the soul by making the disciple get Self-realisation, after that he does the work of nurturing the soul by guiding the disciples from time to time through discourses, he also provides spiritual protection and helps them grow. He also destroys the body consciousness and awakens the soul consciousness in a person. The Satguru thus becomes the medium of Paramatma and helps you reach the Paramatma within you. Once you do that, you become your own Guru!