Guru is a Sanskrit terms that means grave (serious) and dispeller of darkness. Traditionally, in India, any respectable teacher of any subject may be called a guru. I am, of course, concerned with the guru as a spiritual teacher.

We all need and make use of teachers whether we recognize it or not, whether we like it or not. Parents, relatives, friends, teachers at schools, coworkers and neighbors all provide various forms of education. They supply us with facts, myths, stories, teach us morality, care and help us at times of physical and emotional need, teach us how to be in this world, provide direction in life. Spiritual teachers, however, offer us an uncommon educational opportunity. They train us to abandon comfortable thinking in favor of clarity of thought. They point to the transitory nature of this world and teach us how to deal with such ephemeral (relative) reality. Ultimately, they guide us to the Divine (Absolute) Reality beyond.

Dismissing the need for a spiritual teacher and imagining one can be one’s own teacher is usually a sign of emotional immaturity and spiritual myopia. Such people show their disregard for this obvious need by their criticism, ridicule and denial. Even very thoughtful, well-read and educated people indulge in such behavior. The human teacher is necessary for several important reasons. Most people are in need of guidance at least at some point in their lives, especially in youth. Most people, even very bright and sincere ones, are not perceptive enough to know what to do with their spiritual path without competent assistance. Most human beings will look up to someone and it best be a godly, honest person.

It is within human nature to revere and love. Devotion is the way emotional, archetypal and spiritual energy is transferred, especially in adolescence and young adulthood. Once we admit we are destined to revere, we can and should use our rational minds and direct our love toward positive and away from negative images and role models. (As we think, so we become.) If we are going to adore and worship any way, let it be in a useful direction! Is it not better to worship a saint dedicated to serving humanity rather than a movie or rock star dedicated to self-congratulation, drugs and plastic surgery? What is celebrity adoration anyway but a search for heroes and leaders to revere and follow?

This natural human need to revere and be devoted to someone can be redirected to expedite spiritual evolution. To get to the final destination of the spiritual journey (enlightenment, liberation or union with God), one has to learn to seek, i.e., develop love for the Divine (the Supreme Being, Spirit or Abstract). It is difficult for the human mind to search for the Indefinable Abstract directly because it is accustomed to dealing with definable, finite, material objects. In tantra, this problem is understood well and the disciple is guided through the medium of spiritual practice to develop devotion for a symbol, such as a sound (mantra), an emblem (yantra), an idol of a deity (murti) or the living physical form of the guru. Later, when the mind acquires sufficient focus for conception and perception of the Abstract Divine, the disciple will naturally be able to transfer that love to God. The guru’s form is the most potent symbol and meditation upon it is the most expedient means for self-realization because it is the most intimate, immediate anchor for the mind in its search for the Divine.

Ultimately, the symbols we use in spiritual practice are not important by themselves. They are convenient mental pointers to the singular goal of spiritual practice—the Divine. One is a method, another is the goal. Nevertheless, we become intensely attached to our particular way and at times judge and torment those who use different religious systems. This bonding to our spiritual family is more intense than our connection to our worldly parents, siblings and relatives because we share a lot more than mere genetics with them. We share our interests, the teaching, the symbols and, most importantly, the purpose of spiritual practice (God) and the intensity of our love for the Divine. And our guru is the obvious patriarch or matriarch of our spiritual family.

All spiritual aspirants pass through a period of intense emotional attachment to the body and mind (personality) of their teacher. In fact, guru yoga, i.e., meditation on and identification with your teacher, is so important precisely because its very emotional intensity pushes a student over the edge and makes it possible for him or her to separate samsara (world of the relative) from nirvana (world of the absolute) and then merge them in the ultimate spiritual stance. Then the student experiences his or her guru and the Supreme Being as one and the same entity.

In other words, our understanding of and relationship to our guru and his or her teaching changes as our spiritual practice deepens. Initially, the guru is a spiritual coach and a person who imparts the all-important initiation, through which he or she introduces the Spirit to the disciple (inspiration), imparts moral direction and gives a meditation system to practice. Gradually our master evolves in our minds into a leader of his or her mission and then a symbol for his or her teaching. Eventually the form of the guru transforms into the symbol for the Divine Itself. Then, ultimately, we identify our guru with our innermost Divine core, for the Guru (with big G) has been guiding us from inside from time immemorial.

As we abandon entangled relationships (codependency) with the relative world, we gradually realize that our teacher’s perfection is not in his or her mind or in his or her body. It is in his or her knowledge that he or she is a spark of the Divine. We are, of course, all enlightened deep within according to Eastern philosophies, but a self-realized master knows this beyond doubt. His or her unity with God is no longer a fantasy, an intellectual condition, or a result of philosophical musing.

We approach and engage a human guru precisely because he or she is the link between impersonal (spiritual, invisible, abstract, absolute) and personal (mundane, visible, concrete, relative)—because he or she is the vehicle of the Divine in the accessible, human form. We must learn, however, to separate the kernel from its shell. On one hand, the guru is an expression of the Universal Teacher Principle working through his or her own body. On the other hand, he or she is a person struggling with all the realities and ordinary problems associated with being human: working to make a living, becoming tired or sick, dealing with loss and grief, etc. In the final analysis, the only aspect that a disciple must heed to (and revere) is Guru as Universal Teacher Principle—an aspect of the Divine. From such a perspective, Guru (with big G) is impersonal but for the sake of those who are not yet able to relate to the Absolute directly, through a living person It manifests Its power to transform lives.

The nature of the guru as the link between absolute and relative is very subtle, indeed. The authenticity, nature, and function of this link are always suspect from the perspective of the ordinary world and the logical mind. Even the very existence of this link is an open question until we ourselves develop a bit of such link. Actually, learning not to confuse the Mundane (Samsara, Saguna) with the Divine (Nirvana, Nirguna) is what much of the spiritual path is about—and dealing with your teacher’s inherent duality is not an exception.

Both from the Western perspective and from a moral standpoint, the human guru’s perfection is a vague, inapplicable notion, a fallacy. All gurus I have come across, including my master, have committed apparent mistakes. All of them had an ordinary, albeit powerful and intense, personality with all the associated human neuroses. I no longer believe that anything an "enlightened guru" does, no matter how bizarre or morally wrong, is a manifestation of enlightenment. Such viewpoint may be sustainable in Asian societies but not in the West. The disciples, particularly in the West, need to go beyond a simplistic view of their guru as perfect in every way. Likewise, gurus need to abandon their pretense of overall perfection and go beyond wielding complete power.

People raised in countries where guru-disciple relationship is part of the cultural lore, such as in Asia, view and consequently approach spiritual teachers in more realistic ways. They have better cultural tools to distinguish (1) when their teacher is being a medium of God and thus passing Divine edicts, (2) when the teacher is trying to get his or her human needs met (which is legitimate because he or she has a life too) and (3) when the teacher is just fooling around (as all human beings do).

All said, it is nearly impossible to ascertain a guru’s authenticity through any mental medium, such as external discussion and inner dialogue or via a lecture, seminar, telephone or Internet. Such inquiry has to be done in person and felt in the innermost core of your heart, which must be first trained to listen and respond accordingly. When you meet your destined teacher, his or her mere presence will temporarily suspend your doubts, awake the Divinity asleep within you (kundalini) and force you into a spiritual state, which will inspire faith and, as you rise above your confusion, momentarily show you the Way. Such experience can be compared to searching for something in a dark, unfamiliar house during a thunderstorm: it is pitch dark but when the lightening strikes, it illuminates the room and then you know which way to go, even when it is dark again. And yet, such clear signs may not transpire at all because of the presence of excessive fantasy, skepticism and emotions. Then you will have no choice but to rely on your logic and gut feeling as well as cultural and linguistic circumstances and personal compatibility with your prospective teacher. Ordinary seekers can and do accomplish much with ordinary teachers. Persistent effort can transform anyone—there are no hopeless cases...

Ultimately, if you truly want to know a prospective teacher’s qualifications, begin by doing the spiritual practice as he or she prescribes. Your transformation (or lack of it) due to that teacher’s advice is the best testimony of the teacher’s authenticity or hypocrisy as well as your shared destiny with him or her or lack thereof. A trial of six months or a year is reasonable to test your prospective teacher’s teachings.

So let me deliver the final blessing in the true tantrik spirit: Abandon all your inhibitions, drop all your doubts and plunge into love for your teacher and his or her mission. In fact, merging with his or her lifework, forget your limited self and float with joy toward earthly heaven, while in this body—now and not tomorrow!