Some people find the idea of a guru difficult to digest,
“Can’t I have a relationship with God? Why do I need to restrict my approach to
God through a guru?”
The guru doesn’t restrict our relationship with God – he
reinforces it.
We all have an innate and inviolable relationship with
Krishna. That relationship can, however, be obscured or covered when we turn
away from him. Turning to him is not just a matter of intention – it is also a
matter of redirection.
A lost person doesn’t just need to desire to go home, but
also needs to know the way to go home. Similarly, all of us are lost souls
being disconnected from Krishna due to our desires to enjoy material things.
These desires have created an inner darkness within us that
prevents us from both seeing Krishna within our heart and seeing the contours
of our inner territory in our journey back to him.
The spiritual master provides us guidance that illumines the
inner territory. By pointing out based on scripture the pitfalls and the
pathways, the guru helps us perceive spiritual truths culminating in Krishna,
as the Bhagavad-gita (04.34) exhorts.
Being told to choose a particular path may seem restrictive
for those who don’t want to go where that path leads – and even for those who
don’t have any particular destination to go to. But once a destination is
finalized, sticking to a path is not restrictive – it is productive.
Similarly, once we understand that Krishna is our ultimate
destination, then the guidance of the guru, far from restricting our connection
with Krishna, reinforces it. By the expert mentoring of our spiritual guides,
we learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep us away from Krishna and how
to make decisions that take us to him.
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