The Need For Guru
       
       The insatiable spirit of inquiry, investigation and discovery to make life totally happy and worth living has led man to unravel many secrets of creation and to make his life more and more comfortable.   But, eclipsing all these achievements is the constant fear of old age, disease and death from which no mortal can escape; and all men are mortal! Evidently, man's quest remains incomplete as long as he cannot extricate himself from the clutches of mortality and attain eternal peace and bliss. How can he do it?
        God alone, who is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, possesses these prerogatives of immortality and eternal peace and bliss. If, therefore, man wishes to acquire these qualities, he should attain Godhead.
        How can a mortal gain immortality? How can an ignorant man
acquire knowledge?  It is only possible through the guidance of a teacher, who has already acquired that knowledge. Similarly, the mortal man should seek the guidance of one who has already acquired Godhead; that is; a Guru.

       Sri Hanumath Kali Vara Prasada Babu explains the difference between a Mahatma and a common man thus: Two copper wires one conducting electric current and the other without electricity, looks alike. But the difference can be easily felt on contact. Similar is the difference between a Satyaguru and an ordinary person. Guru should therefore be identified with the universal self and not with the mortal body. One who identifies his Guru with his mortal body can never hope to attain spiritual progress even after taking many births.

Who is Guru?

        Obviously Guru is one who has attained Godhead. He is immortal, and is the very embodiment of peace and bliss. Not only that; he is capable of elevating man to Godhead. Maharshi VedaVyasa, Sri Sankara Bhagavatpadacharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhwa Charya, GuruNanak, Mahavir Jain, Gouthama Buddha, Ramakrishna   Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Jesus Christ, Mohammed and all such Gurus of different times and cults are those who attained Godhead and who took upon themselves the sacred task of elevating man to Godhead.
        Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi says "God and Guru are not different in reality. First a person thinks that there is a superior among all, knowing all powerful God to control his own and the world’s destiny and worships Him or does Bhakti. When he reaches a certain stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom he was worshipping comes as Guru and from outside pushes his mind inside. While being inside as self, He draws him there from within. Such a Guru is needed generally though not for very very advanced souls. God, Guru and self are the same".

        Talking about the role of Sadguru, Sri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa once said "We should not consider our Guru to be a mere man. Before the disciple sees God, he sees the Guru who afterwards shows God, having himself been mysteriously transformed into the form of God. Then the disciple perceives that the Guru and God are one and the same. Whatever boon the disciple seeks, the deified Guru grants. The Guru even takes him to the highest bliss of ‘Nirvana’. Many people, after being tossed about for long, like the rudderless barge, in the shoreless ocean of ignorance, found in Sri Hanumath Kali Vara Prasad Babu such a Sadguru. A true master that he was, he took them all into his fold, showered unbounded love upon them and guided them step by step into the path of realization.

                                                           Jai Jai Gurudev Samardh !