Do We Need a Spiritual Guide?

It does not matter which way you go; you need a guide. It is not that you cannot work alone. If you work alone, you have to go through a lot of trial and error, which can take a long time. Hence, you need an authentic guide who has gone through the details, subtleties, and nuances of the spiritual journey. It is a journey within that is as vast as outside. One may lose oneself in the inside world, too. But how to find a true and authentic guide? Not too difficult. A true guide will always ask you to be independent in your search. He will not make you dependent upon himself. He will guide you in approaching your inner guide. His job is to introduce you to your own light, and that’s it. The true guide is not there to enslave you. He will help you know where to look so that you can discover on your own. See how many people pray to God, how many meditate, and how much transformation comes in their lives? The true guide will help you to get the knack of meditation. And once you discover the meditative way, you are free. Now you know that you have your own guide within you. The true guide will treat you equally. He will not think that you are somehow inferior to him. He knows that there is essentially no difference between you and him. Once, he was also asleep like you. His eyes are open now, and the same is going to happen with you soon. He will provoke you to ask this question: if God is omnipresent, then how come you cannot approach Him? How come He is available only to a few holy ones? No, it is not true. It does not make any sense. You need to be a little confident, a little trusting. You need to be a little prayerful. He will inform you that we are all servants to God. We cannot make God our servant. God is not there to fulfil our desires and wishes. And how naïve we are when we, instead of asking for His presence, ask him to fulfil our petty, little desires. He will inform you that nothing can fulfil us except His presence. So why waste time? Why should one come to terms with reality? God is not residing in heaven. He is nearer to you than your jugular vein. He will make you aware of satanic tricks and beguile. These are all satanic ways that bring God away from us. You suffer from unnecessary guilt. You think that you are too sinful to clean. No. This is not so. God’s presence removes all darkness, all sins, no matter how big and vast they seem. The door of repentance is always open. Do not become hopeless of His mercy. Do not get caught by satanic doubts and illusions. You are a man of God, and you should join His party, not that of Satan. Invoke to God, day and night. Sit with the lovers of God so that you may absorb some of their vibes. The authentic guide will discuss the meditative way of life with you. He will guide you to your own inner fountain of freedom and bliss. He will help you learn how to catch the knack of meditation. Meditation is not an act of sitting with closed eyes. Nor should it focus on one’s breath to gain more concentration. He will draw to you the distinction between concentration, speculation, and meditation. Meditation is neither concentration nor speculation. It is rather to discover the flame of inner awareness. There is an awareness within us that does not get corrupted by any illusions. It is a light that instantly evaporates all our darkness of ignorance and confusion. The real task is to figure out this flame, which cannot be achieved through concentration and speculation. Concentration helps in strengthening our focus. It implies duality, in which one concentrates on something. It is good for our survival. But it does not help us to explore the existential dimensions. Similarly, speculation also does not help here. Speculation implies the recycling of given data from thoughts and memories through our imagination. It does not reveal the truth. Rather, it leads us away. We can build philosophical systems, theories, and novel stories with its help, but it will not help us land on the existential terrain. For that, only the meditative approach works. With concentration, you can focus on your breath, thoughts, or emotions, but it will not help you realize what lies beyond breath, thought, and emotion. It will help you to become more focused, and you can achieve many material successes with this ability. But it will not obliterate you. You will still be there. The authentic guide will help you to understand these differences. He will inform you that you are the real problem. As long as you are there as a person separate from your being, you will not come out of your ignorance and misery. Hence, neither speculation nor concentration will help you. On the meditative way, the seeker is the problem. He looks and searches every nook and corner of the world, yet he does not look at himself. The authentic guide evokes this insight in you. He asks you to try another way. Just see who the observer is there? Try to see what lies behind you? And that makes the difference. In both concentration and speculation, you are not seen, and as long as you remain invisible, the darkness of ignorance prevails. Hence, we need a third eye, an eye of pure awareness not corrupted by any kind of influence, past memories, or imagination. The authentic guide will inform you that only truth can see the untruth. You cannot differentiate truth from untruth with the help of another untruth. You need to discover the truth first, and then, with the help of that, you can look around. False will automatically be judged and perceived through the eyes of truth. Therefore, there is no need for any fancy speculative systems and theories, nor is there a need to imagine anything novel and fantastic. You need just a meditative approach, that is, the authentic teachings from an authentic guide. On God’s way, you have to defy Satan with the help of His grace; on the meditative way, you have to dispel your ignorance with the help of the inner flame. On God’s way, we talk in terms of sin and virtue, on the meditative way, that of ignorance and awareness. Different paths and terms lead to the same destination and meaning.

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