The trees provide cool shade and sweet fruits equally to all whether they have fostered them or harmed them. They teach man this lesson of equal mindedness. The mountains, by bearing heat and cold, wind and rain alike, teach man not to care too much for the body. The birds take no thought for the marrow and are content to live on what they can get. They teach man the lesson of contentment and indifference to the future. The departed convey the message of the impermanence of life and its pleasures. Nature thus teaches man in many ways to give up ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and look upon God as the supreme preceptor.

Although Nature has been teaching these lessons from the beginning of time, man has not learnt to give up the ideas of ‘my people’ and ‘others’ and to develop the sense of oneness and equality of mankind and realise his divinity. Trees are foremost among teachers. By attachment to the body and developing self-conceit, man forgets the lessons of Nature and wallows in selfishness. The mountains by their indifference to cold or heat; are teaching man that he should bear joy or grief with an equal mind and strive to realise God. Pleasure and pain relate only to the body. The Atma is unaffected. This is the lesson to be learnt from the mountains.

We are seeing people being born and people dying in spite of all this is seen, or heard or experienced, man is unable to get rid of the delusions relating to the body. Hence he is caught up in the coils of bodily attachment. He does not learn the lesson of the impermanence and fleeting nature of physical existence.

Nature (Prakriti), which is constantly teaching these lessons, is the true preceptor. The Cosmos is a University. God is the cause. The Cosmos is the result. God pervades the entire Universe. Nothing can exist in the world without the power of the Divine. The Universe is a manifestation of the Divine. (D3 , p. 144)

All are entitled to receive God’s grace according to their merits. It is like drawing upon a bank according to what you have deposited with it. There are three ways of getting money from a bank. One is drawing on your deposit. In spiritual terms, this means realising the fruits of your past actions. The second means is raising a loan on the security of your assets. This corresponds to the grace you get by your current good deeds. The third means to get money from a bank is to have a good surety to the loan you wish to raise from the bank. Spiritually, this corresponds to securing God’s grace through the medium of a Guru (preceptor). Who is the Guru? He is Divine dispeller of the darkness within you. The Divine Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara) have been described as Gurus. This implies that the Divine should be regarded as the supreme preceptor, who can destroy the darkness of ignorance. Forgetting this basic truth, people run after men wearing the ochre robe who profess to impart a Mantra and stretch their palm for money. This is not what is meant by Guru. Install God in your heart. The vibrations that emanate from the heart will elevate you spiritually and confer divine wisdom. This wisdom has been defined as Prajnana (Constant Integrated Awareness). To acquire such wisdom you have to keep your mind pure as a mirror, using Shraddha (earnestness) as a cloth, dipping it in the water of Prema (Love) and wiping the dust on the mirror (in the form of bad qualities).

This wisdom cannot be acquired from books. It has to be got through self-examination and self-correction. (SG, p. 12)

A true Guru (spiritual preceptor) is required to reveal the real nature of Divinity. Such a Guru has been equated with the Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The devotee who regards God Himself as his Guru will not have any difficulties. Today many who are looked upon as Gurus utter the mantras (sacred formula) in the ear and stretch their palms for money. For everything they do, they expect money. Such Gurus are ‘badha’ (harmful) Gurus and not ‘bodha’ (enlightening) Gurus. The true Guru is like an ophthalmic surgeon. The latter removes the opaque film in the patient’s eye and restores his natural vision. The Guru also should remove the veil of ignorance and attachment that blurs the vision of the disciple and restore his natural spiritual vision. (SG, pp. 17-18)

The Guru must exhort the individual self to realise the Universal Self. On Guru Purnima day, we must revere with grateful hearts such Gurus who have consummated liberation for many. They are the highest Gurus.

There are in the world many other types also. There is the Guru who gives you a Mantra (sacred formula), tells you its potentialities and directs you to repeat it sincerely and steadily. He is the Decca Guru, the initiation into the Mantra is called Diksa in ritualistic parlance. He assumes that his duty ends with the gift of the mantras and the command to use it with conviction and care. He does not direct the pupil to master his senses or guide him to march forward and attain that victory. For the pupil the Mantra is a formula to be repeated in a parrot like way. He might not even know that it is a precious gift, but without the Sadhana (spiritual discipline) of self-improvement, the gift has no value at all.

The Mantra-granting Guru is the Diksa Guru (initiating preceptor); the personality-recasting Guru is the Siksha Guru (guiding preceptor). It is this latter Guru that is reverentially praised in thousands ways in the holy texts. He removes the faults in vision and destroys the darkness of ignorance. He reveals the Atma to the individual and makes him free. (SG, pp. 26-27)

Who is fit to be a Guru and who is fit to be a shishya (disciple)?

If we examine the Gita, we will know whether we are the ideal shishyas (disciples) or not. In the Bhagavad Gita the shishya is Narottama (the highest among men), the Guru is Purushottama (the Supreme Person); the shishya is a Mahatma (high-souled), the Guru is Paramatma (the Over-soul); the shishya is Adarsha-Murti (an ideal person), the Guru is an Avatar-Murti (incarnation of the Divine); the shishya is a Patradhara (an actor), the Guru is Sutradhara (the director of the play); the shishya is a Dhanurdhara (wielder of the bow), the Guru is Yogeshvara (the Lord of Yoga). It is this type of Guru-shishya relationship, which illustrates the ideal combination. (SG, pp. 35-36)

You are your own Guru. You need not seek him elsewhere. The so-called Gurus of today seek to impart some mantras and receive fee-offerings as Guru-dakshina on Guru Purnima day. The Mantra is whispered in the ear and the palm is stretched for an offering. This is what happens today. It is not the proper sign of a Guru.

You are a Guru unto yourself. All potencies are within you. This is indicated by the Gayatri Mantra. You have to feel at all times your inherent divinity, which is also present in everyone. When you help or feed someone you must feel that the Divine in you is feeding the Divine in others. (SG, p. 64)