________________
146
They must be well-meaning and worthy Gurus. These epithets provided here indicate a volume of suggestions. They must be well-meaning, in the sense that they should not be mere gramaphone records repeating what the Sāstra has said, but must be men, so well-established in their own experiences, and so well-familiar with the path, that they must be able to interpret the path to the different types of students belonging to the different climes and different ages in the world.
Also, the teacher must be a worthy man (Sujana). There are many Gurus available all over the world who are scriptural in words but cruel in actions. Like a tape-recorder, they repeat what the Rishis had said, but in their daily activities, they follow faithfully what the Raksasās did! Such an one is not worthy to be a guide for a true seeker on the path of God-seeking. The Guru must be perfect in all his conducts; there is no excuse for him to be vulgar in any of his aspects of living.
If there be, thus, a sacred Guru, and if the disciples surrender unto him, these in themselves cannot bear any fruit, unless the students are ready to actively co-operate with the teacher and cultivate themselves the Perfection indicated to them by the Guru
Each of the disciples must, all through his contact with his Guru, bring into his field of enquiry his entire powers of reasoning, bright and intelligent, independent and original. He should not, on any score, allow himself to be overwhelmed by the Master. No teacher worth the name will allow the disciple to get his own independent reasoning faculty choked; the best of teachers have always been endeavouring their best to cultivate a better crop of reasoning in the intellect of their disciples
Such a student who has turned away from the tragic path of sensuousness and has stepped on to the glorious ways of the Divine, who is prepared to go forward under the guidance of a true teacher with nothing but his own independent discriminative reasoning to supply him with his agility
