The importance of a guru in one’s spiritual quest

There is a question I have been frequently asked over the years. “Guruji, why do I need a teacher or guru to practice yoga and meditation”?

This question lingers in many minds, so I shall answer it for you today.

Yoga is union with the divine. In preparation for this union our spiritual scientists have defined certain practices. To do this preparation, and do it right one needs right guidance. Think of learning to drive a car without guidance. You may or may not learn to drive on your own, but you certainly run the risk of dents and damage to the car in the process of learning.

In yoga and meditation, you’re handling ‘YOU’. You are the car, the driver and the one driven. Therefore, getting the fundamental preparation right is crucial, for which a master is essential. There on, exploring the infinite possibilities is based on one’s physical and mental capacity and the Atman.

Learning meditation is not difficult, but reaching a state where meditation can happen is. Because meditation isn’t an action, nor is it a state of ‘doing nothing’, it’s a state of ‘non-doing’.

It is easier to reach the state of meditation under a guru’s guidance along with several other positives like concentration, clairvoyance and above all, the benefit of good sleep-- the cure for most mental and physical ills. Without the right guidance, one gets forever stuck in the concept of meditation practically driving oneself away from the real experience of experiencing the self.

This state within the body and mind where meditation happens is not to experience something outside of oneself, it is to experience something within, which is you itself, the Atman. It is the beginning on the path of trying to release oneself from the cycle of death and birth.

The real experience of the self is where one raises oneself to achieve oneness with the divine, Advaitam; the absence of duality, not non-duality. You are one with everything and separate from nothing. With the physical body, taking the effort to reach this state where you will never get back to the physical form is real liberation or moksha; the highest teaching of every form of yoga.

The first step towards this supreme state is guidance of the right master.

How does one find the right master? As the seed in contact with wet soil sprouts, so will a master appear when a student is earnest in his intention to seek liberation, rather than finding answers to current situations.

Nature has no choice in either!

Wishing you a life of peace, success and happiness.

Aham Brahmasmi!!

— Shri Aasaanji is a non-religious, contemporary Spiritual Master and the founder of the Atmayoga Foundation (Institute for Inner-Science and Self-Transformation) www.atmayoga.in