(I come to thy refuge, after having committed the crime.
I meet the Guru, the Lord; and thus I fulfill my destiny).
The body goes through birth, childhood, youth, old age and death and a sense of discontent, incompleteness and loneliness pervades the whole lifetime. One tries various means of fulfilling oneself but their efficacy does not last. Discontent outlives any distraction.
In the search for a lasting solution to this conflict and sorrow, one seeks guidance from those who seem to have transcended it themselves.
In the Eastern traditions, the Guru is accorded the highest place in the visible existence. The Guru is the one who leads one from illusion to reality, from darkness to light and from death to deathlessness.
Even Krishnamurti admits that in the end the mind has to rest in the knowledge of its own bondage and helplessness. The investigation of one's pain and bondage, and the ways in which they arise and get established, is done by the one who is oneself in bondage and so cannot be complete. The total vision of the problem seems to be a great necessity, but how is one to get there? The usual awareness of one's thought processes and reactions is by thought itself. It might be possible that by being aware of the partisan nature of this awareness and investigation, one comes closer and closer to pure awareness.
In the past, there have been enlightened men who had no known Guru. Gautama the Buddha, Ramana Maharishi, Guru Nanak, even probably J Krishnamurti himself. So it is certainly possible to be free without a visible Guru. But each of these teachers themselves have given guidance to seekers throught their lives and have not merely kept to their selves. They have shared their insights and spent tremendous amounts of time and energy on resolving the doubts of genuine seekers. In other words, they have themselves been great Gurus.
So certainly the human presence of a Guru is not absolutely necessary, but it does seem to be of enormous value. Ramana Maharishi and Guru Nanak have stressed repeatedly that it is only the grace of the Guru which effects the final release.
How is a seeker to recognize a true Guru? Today there is a multitude of people who offer guidance on the spiritual path and there is great diversity in their teaching.
First of all, a Guru is being sought because we wish to reach a state of freedom, love, happiness and peace. Hence, the Guru must have himself reached that state in order to guide another. So, the first yardstick with which to measure a Guru is his outward state and behaviour. Does he seem to be at peace, does he radiate a loving presence, does he seem to be content and happy with the state of the world and his own circumstances? Is he free from material greed, acquisitiveness, hankering after pleasures of the senses and of the mind, from sensory habits and from opportunism? Is he free from having regrets and shame, from a sense of burdensomeness and listlessness, from complaining and fear? And so on...
He is unconcerned with amassing wealth, propagating his teachings, holding meditation camps, he does not give any path to reach the absolute, he demands nothing less than total dedication and an abandonment of self-concern, and he is persistent in reminding one of one's self-deceptions. He knows what you really want.
He is not interested in building a following, he is not interested in building ashrams and centres, he is not interested in recording his voice and in getting himself photographed, he is not attached to a particular place or to a particular disciple.
The Awakened One partakes only the purest and the lightest foods.
He has extremely high standards, and a great sensitivity towards quality.
It is readily seen that it is therefore necessary to be in close presence of a Guru for some length of time (at least a few weeks) in order to gain a true picture. A hasty positive or negative conclusion may prove to be wrong.
Though the above criteria will weed out a great many of self-proclaimed Gurus, to me they are not sufficient. There are a great number of advanced souls who have broken free of these superficial bondages but are still not free from delusion.
The next stage of evaluation is to see how staying near the Guru affects oneself. Is one's own mind more at peace, is one more loving, more sensitive, more open and vulnerable, more honest and truthful, more and more content with just being and not dependant on any outside enjoyment, less egoistic, less angry towards others, ...?
Usually these two sets of criteria suffice to recognize a true Guru.
By my personal experience, however, I would point out one more criterion which to me seems the central point. It is seen that the above criteria relate to a healthy and extremely great state of mind. This present criterion is very hard to apply, but it indicates whether the teacher is free from false identification with the body and the mind:
The seeker has to very carefully watch the activities of the Guru and see if there seems to be a touch of indifference, a feeling as if the Guru is not really there (not in the ordinary sense of being absent-minded, but while being fully there, as if there is another presence which the world cannot touch), as if he is not really bothered about what is going on (whether a talk or an activity), as if he is merely acting a part. The eyes of a true Guru do not take interest in the outside world, they seem to be pointing inwards. They do not dilate at the seeing of a seemingly interesting object or person. His hands and feet move with great precision, with purposefulness, but as if moved without volition. He does not engage his body in purposeless actions. He does not seem to react from conditioning but is unpredictable (not in the sense of being mad, but in being creative, fresh while being totally sane and rational.). He does not seem to entertain himself in any possible way.
And whether such untouchability continues unabated throughout the day, no matter with whom the guru talks to, what the guru does, ...
I have met such a man,
and he has said that the ONLY real mark of a guru is that he is beyond lust. That, he said, is all. All else is merely a side-effect.
His core is untouched by visible existence. It is a great joy, a joy beyond description, to meet such a person. One feels as if the dreams of all humanity have finally culminated in his existence, as if his being justified the whole travail and pain of the universe. His eyes look at you and you see your destiny in them, ...
May your thirst lead you to such a man.
The true proof of your Longing for the Eternal is that you will come across him, eventually. What you make of that grace, is another matter.