What is it actually to encounter a true guru? A guru is not simply a teacher of rituals or words. A real guru awakens your soul. The guru is not just any person, he is pure consciousness, and only because of him you are going to wake up in human form.

A guru is not dispensing second hand wisdom. They put instead a seed of power in you, the truth that you are Brahman. As soon as this seed roots, your former identity starts to break up. The roles, names and attachments that you bore in lifetimes begin to dissipate. The disciple wakes to infinite truth like a drop to the realization of its being the ocean. Out of being a knowledge seeker, they turn out to be the fire that burns ignorance and the light that brings new life.

Guru Teachings Over the Years.

It is mentioned in the scriptures on numerous occasions that the guru is the liberator of the soul.

Shiva made the Saptarishis understand that the most important acts of sacrifice are not the rites but the profound contemplation of silence, where silence is the ultimate sacrifice.

Dattatreya demonstrated to King Yadu how all things in nature, mountains, rivers, animals and even death could be a guru when we know how to see with open eyes.

Krishna told Uddhava that there is no devotion, yoga, and austerity that is complete without a realization that you are Brahman.

The guru is the key to this perception. Not through bestowing truth as a gift, but through picking up a mirror so that the disciple can glimpse at his/her own true being. Their presence is illusion busted, and all that is left is pure beyond word experience. It is the reason why the guru is not restricted by gender, shape, and time, the guru is a consciousness itself. Their rightful job is to wake up to the guru that has always been part of you.

The Path of Transformation

As soon as the inner awakening sets in, life is a different thing. The disciple does not simply live to survive, he or she emits peace and light. Words are more eloquent than preaching. Their presence is in itself a change of mood.

The karma that previously seemed to be an endless chain starts to be burnt in the fire of consciousness. The disciple turns into a warrior of light, in whom impressions (samskaras) are burned away, that pain becomes wisdom and raises every being he or she touches.

This is the supreme directive of the guru:

 “Manifest your divinity. Do not cling to smallness. Do not conceal yourself in attachments. So that you are not complete, you are the Supreme Soul.

The guru retreats when this fact dawns to his full extent. They say, you are no longer my guru. Thou hast now thy awakened Brahman. Since that time, darkness does not exist wherever the disciple goes.

The Guru’s True Gift

An actual guru does not make dependency. They are not attached to their image and their words. They liberate you rather, into your infinity. They do not abandon you to empty ceremonies, but to the flame of realization, that you are also the destroyer and the creator, silence and sound, seed and fruit.

The journey is not easy. It involves giving up, releasing the ego and daring to enter darkness. But to the followers, the prize is freedom. This is more than self-freedom, but it is the freedom of all who are subjects of the light of the disciple.

Knowledge is not the greatest gift of the guru-awakening is. Once you have been woken, you can never pass back to sleep. You become Brahman unfolded: without end and like light and sun.