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SEPTEMBER 2014
PRABUDDH JEEVAN5
own experience.'18 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, `I should like to see a guru who was actully alive today. I have no means of knowing with certainty that my ideas are always good. I am but a humble creature taking every step with fear in my heart. I certainly do not believe that my life will have been wasted if I do not come across a guru before I die. My duty is to work; the fruit is in God's hands to give. I am not looking for a guru in order that he may resolve my doubts.'19
Mahatma Gandhi told, 'I am in search of a guru because I am humble and because that search is scientific necessity for every god fearing man. The search is its own reward and its own satisfaction. Some do get the guru they want. But it is not a matter of such moment if they cannot get the guru during the current incarnation. It is enough if the search is absolutely sincere and equally persistent. It is also an article of faith with me that, if my search is sincere and peristent, my guru will come to me instead of my having to go to him if and when I deserve him.'20
Knowledge was not regarded as a universal right as it often is today. Access to knowledge via the guru was the privilege of a very small minority. Mahatma Gandhi said, 'Neverthless, I have not accepted him as my guru. I am still in search of one, and so far my feeling in regard to everyone whom I might think of as a guru has been not this. One must have the requiste qualification to come upon a perfect guru, and I cannot claim to have it.'21 Mahatma Gandhi wrote, `If we keep on the search for a guru, we shall always have some wholesome fear in our heart. With the thought of a guru constantly in our mind, it will remain pure. The Gita tells us that, if the divine impulse has quickened in us, we should be humble. One should think, 'I know nothing. I want to ask God, or a guru, but how may I see either?' We should, therfore, pray. He who prays with faith in God will one day be saved. He who talks as if Brahman was in him will not be saved. The literal meaning of the verse is that we should be guided by the authority of the Shahtras. The derived meaning is that we should be guided by shastrachara. To be shishta means that, in the absence of a guru, we should be humble, and to be humble means to worship our personal God. That is, we should look upon ourselves as insignificant creatures, like bugs and flies, and worship God. If you are humble, you will be saved. If you are humble and sincere, the veils before your eyes will be lifted one after
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the other.'22
Mahatma Gandhi told, `I have no fitness for becoming anybody's guru, being myself in search of one. After all a person who sets out to become anybody's guru, if he is a sincere man, must have confidence in himself. The relation of a teacher and disciple is not a mechanical one but it is organic. The only suggestion, therefore, that I can make to you is that if you cannot be satisfied with personal effort and struggle, you can have the guru of your imagination; but then it won't be my conscious self, for I should be utterly incapable of giving you unerring guidance which a true guru is supposed to give and you may draw what confort it is possible for you to do from the imaginary picture. I am sorry that I can give you no other or further comfort. The best thing one can do however is to kneel down to God above and ask Him to give the required guidance. He is the only source of light and of peace.'23 Mahatma Gandhi said, 'In confirmation of my note on the definition of a guru, a correspondent sends the following interesting information. In connection with your definition of a guru, I am reminded of the beautiful lines of the poet-saint Ramadas. He said: "You cannot find a better guru than viveka or the power of discriminating from untruth, right from wrong or good from evil. There is no better disciple than chitta or mind, and no nobler friend than one's jeeva or soul.' In fact, Ramdas points out that man need not go outside himself in search of a guru. `Be guided by your power fo discrimination, derived from your implicit faith in God, keep your mind under control of such a power and nobly sacrifice the self.' This in essence is the advice of the Maharashtra saint.'24
Mahatma Gandhi wrote, 'In all my life I gave only one person the freedom to regard me as his guru and I had my fill of it. The fault was not his, as I could see; only I had imperfections. Anyone who becomes a guru should possess the power of conferring on the pupil the capacity to carry out whatever task is assigned to him. I had not that power and still do not have it.'25 Mahatma Gandhi told, 'I am a believer in guru bhakti. However, every teacher cannot become a guru. The guru-disciple relationship is spiritual and spontaneous, it is not artifical, it cannot be created through external pressure. Such gurus are still to be found in India. It should not be necessary to warn that I am not speaking here of gurus who give moksha. The question of flattering such a guru just does not arise. The respect to
