It is often seen that devotees who take up to spiritual life look up to the Guru for all their problems. This is good. Whom will the devotees depend on other than the one who has been accepted as one’s spiritual father?
It is interesting to note that spiritual life revolves around three entities namely the sadhaka, the Guru and Bhagawan. One receives Shiksha (spiritual education) either or both from the instructing spiritual master (Shiksha Guru) and the initiating spiritual master (Deeksha Guru). During the course of one’s spiritual journey one realizes that one’s dependence on either or both of the initiating spiritual master and the instructing spiritual master increases as one invests one’s sincere emotions on them , Bhakti being the path of devotees where emotions play the major part in connecting the individual self to the Universal self. One sees one’s Ishta or Isvara in the form of one’s Guru and when one practices Bhakti through the path of surrender; one slowly matures in one’s understanding of the Supreme Self and starts to understand the nature of the Absolute.
However there is much caution and discretion that one has to implement while laying one’s intelligence and self on the Guru. Although Shastras extol the Sadhguru as the incarnation of the Supreme, it should be understood that the body is made of five elements and the limitations of time, place and circumstances also apply on the Sadhguru. This is an irrefutable fact. This one will surely realize when one tries to see “God” in the Sadhguru. In the initial stages of sadhana such a practice is conducive and useful because the Lord responds through 
the Sadhguru. Yet one will soon realize that the entity called “God” is a horizon-less entity that is beyond any conception. When the sadhaka seeks with an innocent heart, solely with the passion of connecting and loving the Supreme, he moves into a domain where he is left only in the presence of the divine. He realizes at a later stage that more than the dictum that “Guru is everything”, the dictum “Everything is Guru” dawns on him. He is humbled with the immensity of his dear deity descending into every aspect of existence and guiding the sadhaka like a benign father every nano-second of life. The sadhaka is thrown into an incomprehensible ocean of bliss where only the sadhaka is left in the association of his Supreme father, the Lord himself. The sadhaka realizes that the Vedic Shastras only provide tools that indirectly point towards the ultimate and the concept of Sadhguru is simply just a tool!
The experience of our eternal father is so overwhelming that one will observe His presence in every living entity and yet he will be able to decipher that living entities cannot be equated to the Lord. The Lord in form and in His formless aspect only bestows His causeless love when one is sincere to one’s goal alone. One should be very honest in one’s approach and goal and should seek none else other than the Lord. It is with such immensity alone can anyone break the shackles of getting bound to spiritual masters in the long run. One should strive with utmost sincerity in qualifying oneself from just being a follower to one who transcends the limited mundane intelligence of mortals and enter into the land of infinite intelligence. This is only possible when one chants one’s mantra with the mood that “I do not know the ways of the world or the ways of the Supreme. O Lord kindly accept me as your humble servant and guide me like a mother guides her disabled baby”. When one makes this simple prayer and practices to make it a part of one’s very breath , it will awaken the Paramatma in our heart who will guide the sadhaka effortlessly in such a way that one will always remain peaceful and will not be affected by the vagaries of the mind. The more one practices this science, one will be automatically guided by the Lord to tools which will enhance one’s sadhana and place one in a realm where only one’s heart will be one’s guide.
Everyone interested in spiritual science should employ the method if one is eager to attain the finality of all sadhana. One should be careful that one’s mundane intelligence that seeks name, fame, false ego satisfaction, money etc is kept at bay through sincere prayers to the Paramatma and intense longing to love the Absolute. He is a true Bhakta who has realized one’s Guru in both the animate and the inanimate, one who treats the living and non-living with equal emotion considering everything to be spiritual and a representation of the Supreme Absolute. This is the definition of true Bhakti. A true Bhakta sheds tears even when a leaf moves because he is able to see the hand of the Lord through direct perception and not simply as a concept that is buried in scriptures! A Bhakta should try to get relieved from everything that binds him from seeking the Absolute. Worldly things will affect only those whose minds are entrenched in so-called relationships and so-called care for others. A person truly interested in the Lord will simply go after his cherished goal without caring for anyone so that finally he himself becomes an ocean of compassion achieved through attainment of the Absolute. Unless one is simmering inside every moment in one’s heart for the Lord, attaining the Absolute will continue to remain a distant dream that cannot be reached even in a million lifetimes.
The Guru is simply an initial guide. He is not here to carry your useless burden and take you on his shoulder to the Absolute. This has never been possible and it will never ever be possible. A Bhakta should wake up to this reality and thank his spiritual master for his guidance and serve him whenever possible. However that is not the goal. The Goal is immense and tall. It is an easy beginning in Bhakti, but the demands of commitment are tall. We find it impossible to get the audience of a mere mortal, A VIP in earthly terms. So one should imagine what it takes for Sri Krishna the universal father to give one a personal audience. Bhakti to reach its ultimate summit requires great amount of surrender and madness in the heart to attract the Supreme. This is indicated by the lives of His devotees. Having made a start towards Bhakti, one has to sustain the verve, sacrifice one’s mundane preferences and toil hard to keep oneself clean in heart and thought. This is the minimum that one can do. Rest is up to Him!
Charan Pahari 