Guru: The Scriptural Basis

Shedding some light on an often-misunderstood concept.

By Satyaraja Dasa

As traditionally understood, there are three kinds of guru in spiritual life: (1) the siksa-guru, who gives instruction; (2) the diksa-guru, who initiates with sacred mantras; and (3) the caitya-guru, the Lord in the heart, who is properly accessed through the other two.

Krsna dasa Kaviraja Gosvami, the author of the Caitanya-caritamrta, informs us that these three manifestations are identical to Krsna :

guru Krsna -rupa hana sastrera pramane guru-rupe Krsna krpa karena bhakta-gane

"According to the deliberate opinion of all revealed scriptures, the spiritual master is nondifferent from Krsna. Lord Krsna in the form of the spiritual master delivers His devotees." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 1.45)

siksa-guruke ta’ jani krsnera svarupa antaryami, bhakta-srestha,—ei dui rupa

"One should know the instructing spiritual master to be the Personality of Krsna. Lord Krsna manifests Himself as the Supersoul and as the greatest devotee of the Lord." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 1.47)

Here, the Sanskrit word for the Supersoul, or the Lord in the heart, is antaryami. Other texts refer to Him as Paramatma. Some people feel they can call upon this form of the Lord at will, but it is actually quite difficult. Sometimes God may communicate directly with us, but that is rare. More often than not, we mistake our own conditioning and wishful thinking for the Lord's communication. Therefore, spiritual adepts instruct us to verify our perceptions with God's representatives—the first two kinds of guru described above.

Krsna dasa Kaviraja Gosvami writes:

jive saksat nahi tate guru caittya-rupe siksa-guru haya Krsna mahanta-svarupe

"Since one cannot visually experience the presence of the Supersoul, He appears before us as a liberated devotee. Such a spiritual master is none other than Krsna Himself." (Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 1.58)

Clearly, then, one must take advantage of those great souls who act as gurus in this world. Therefore it is critical to distinguish between legitimate teachers and charlatans. Thus, the Mundaka Upanisad (1.2.12) teaches us how to identify the guru:

tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham

"To learn transcendental science, one must approach a bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession. The bona fide spiritual master is fixed in the Absolute Truth. . . ."

This verse contains more information than one might at first think. Not only does it highlight the importance of accepting a spiritual master—using the imperative case (abhigacchet: "must accept")—but it mentions two major characteristics of a bona fide teacher of spiritual sciences:

(1) The word srotriyam indicates one who is proficient in Vedic knowledge (called sruti, or "that which is heard"). Traditionally, the student developed such proficiency at the feet of a master, and it was understood that one could not access this knowledge in any other way. Thus, a genuine guru must come in a historical succession of teachers, known as a sampradaya ("lineage"). The Puranas speak of four genuine sampradayas connected to Krsna : the Sri Sampradaya, the Rudra Sampradaya, the Kumara Sampradaya, and the Brahma Sampradaya. The Puranas also mention the four prominent systemizers of the teachings of these sampradayas: Ramanuja, Visnusvami, Nimbarka, and Madhva. A true spiritual master should come in one of these four lines.

In addition, the knowledge the guru teaches must be in accordance with sastra (the sacred texts) and sadhus (previous gurus). This is all part of the first item: srotriyam.

(2) The second characteristic—brahma-nistham—means that the guru must be "absorbed in transcendence," having traversed the path of spiritual illumination under the guidance of qualified teachers. By referring to spiritual authorities and traditional sacred texts, one should be able to discern whether or not someone is enlightened. The guru's main concern must be God and the spiritual pursuit. He or she has no other interest. The bona fide teacher's passion for the Supreme should be self-evident, thorough, and contagious.

Other Types of Guru

Besides these three types of guru, the Eleventh Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam speaks of twenty-four others. They appear in the beginning of a section called the Uddhava-gita, where Krsna’s devotee and cousin Uddhava meets with Krsna just prior to His departure from this world, asking Him for spiritual instruction. Krsna begins His reply by saying,

atmano gurur atmaiva purusasya visesatah yat pratyaksanumanabhyam sreyo ’sav anuvindate

"An intelligent person, expert in perceiving the world around him and in applying sound logic, can achieve real benefit through his own intelligence. Thus sometimes one acts as one's own instructing spiritual master." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.7.20)

In his commentary, Srila Jiva Gosvami specifies that this intelligence that arises from within, when properly utilized, inspires one to find and follow a spiritual master in the external world (gurv-anusarane pravartaka ity arthah). Thus, the twenty-four gurus outlined in the Bhagavatam do not preclude accepting a diksa- or siksa-guru.

Still, Krsna goes on to tell Uddhava that those who possess self-discipline might seek Him out through their faculty of reason, and even though He is beyond material nature—and even beyond their well-utilized reason—they can understand Him as the cause of all causes.

Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, in his commentary, points out the limits of reason: Though one may be able to achieve some understanding of the impersonal and Paramatma features of the Absolute, Krsna in His original form as the Supreme Person is certainly beyond the scope of inference alone.

In other words, it is possible with one's intellect to conclude that there is a cause of all causes, since through observation one can perceive that the world functions in a causal manner. It may even be possible to understand, with logic, that God has both impersonal and personal aspects. But without bhakti and the practices of hearing and chanting about Krsna under the tutelage of a teacher in disciplic succession, one cannot properly access Krsna as the Supreme Lord.

The Avadhuta's Gurus

As the Uddhava-gita continues, Lord Krsna explains to Uddhava that their forefather King Yadu knew a young avadhuta, a renunciant with no fixed dwelling who had given up all possessions and worldly responsibilities. Yadu observed how this young man had a peaceful and joyous demeanor, even though he didn't have any of the usual amenities of life. And so Yadu asked him how this was so: "Why are you so happy despite having nothing of your own?"

The avadhuta answered that he was fortunate enough to have had many preceptors who had shown him the way. He then began to describe each of these teachers one by one, along with the lessons he had learned from them. The first five are the principal material elements—earth, water, fire, air, and ether (sky).

Earth: The avadhuta said, "A sober person, even when harassed by other living beings, should understand that his aggressors are acting helplessly under the control of God, and thus he should never be distracted from progress on his own path. This rule I have learned from the earth. A saintly person should learn from the mountain to devote all his efforts to the service of others and to make the welfare of others the sole reason for his existence. Similarly, as the disciple of the tree, he should learn to dedicate himself to others." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.7.37–38)

Water: Water teaches us that learned persons, like water in its natural state, should be pure—transforming and cleansing everyone they come in contact with.

Fire: From fire one can learn how to remain unaffected by the things one consumes. Yogis continue with their practice regardless of the state of their digestion. Put more generally, this instruction means that yogis must persevere regardless of circumstance.

Another lesson the avadhuta took from fire: Never accumulate material acquisitions; burn through them as needed, but never hoard.

Air: A true yogi, the avadhuta said, interacts with the objects of the senses just as the air does—without becoming attached to anything. Sometimes the air takes on the odors of the objects it passes over or through, but it simply carries the odors, never identifying with them. Similarly, even when the yogi seems to have taken on the qualities of material objects, he is unaffected by the world around him because he knows he is ultimately transcendental to it.

Sky: "Both the individual soul and the Supersoul," the avadhuta said, "can be understood by comparing them to the nature of the sky: although the sky extends everywhere and everything rests within the sky, the sky does not mix with anything, nor can it be divided by anything." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.7.42)

The above is a general outline of the guru principle and an analysis of the first five in a list of twenty-four gurus described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. In an upcoming article I will discuss the other nineteen gurus identified by the avadhuta.

Satyaraja Dasa, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, is a BTG associate editor. He has written over twenty books on Krsna consciousness and lives near New York City.