The Importance of Guru On the Path of Yoga
abracad, · Categories: externally authored, yogaby Shwaasa Guru
In the age of free digital learning and virtual classes over Skype, the first-hand guru parampara of yoga teacher training in India can come as a bit overrated. But the mode of attaining knowledge, as it is upheld in Indian traditions is uncompromising regarding the role of the guru or preceptor.
You can think of the guru as Professor Xavier from X-men, the one who initiates the uninitiated, providing your practice with the right orientation, and training you in regulating your energies. He gives you nothing new but only makes you aware of your innate infinite potential. While you can learn to cook by browsing recipes online or figure out how to fold a blazer properly by following a YouTube video, spiritual knowledge does not come with a manual.
The path of yoga is the path of spiritual awakening. There is a codified method of preparing the body-mind for such an overwhelming experience. Only a guru, who is part of a spiritual lineage or/and has received the knowledge experientially can guide you to on this path. Does that mean every instructor you train your asanas with, better be supremely self-realized spiritual gurus and you should renounce your present life to set off on the path of moksha in the manner of ancient sages?
No. You need to seek out a guru’s spiritual guidance when you are seeking ‘clarity’ in existence. You would need the light of a guru’s realized wisdom to dispel the ‘darkness’ from your own. The learning of asanas or meditation techniques are integral parts of the discipline we call yoga but our yoga or union remains a thousand steps short of completion if we do not receive spiritual guidance.
So, What does a guru at a yoga teacher in India really do?
He Initiates You In the Spiritual Life
Man’s spiritual life is different from his other lives. In the organic life, he is consuming food, physically maturing, and breathing among other physical procedures. In his psychological life, he is forming subjective psychological impressions of the world in his mind. In his parental life, he is guardian and nurturer of his children. In the marital life, he seeks union with his partner. In the spiritual life, man seeks union with the universe.
A guru at a typical spiritual retreat in India shall tell you all about this seeking and the nature of the celestial prowess. Is god a creator or creation itself? Does he reside in outer space or inside all things? How do we seek the inner conscious that lies dormant for most of our life? Through prayer, worship, or action? These are the questions the guru introduces for you to meditate upon.
He Sketches Before You a Path
The guru is not one who dictates but he only opens several doors before you. You will not be told what to do, how to dress, what to eat or not to eat. He will merely tell you about the value of this action and that, the nutrition of one food and another, what it entails in path A and that in path B. You are to choose and choose wisely.
He Shares Experiential Knowledge With You
In the Indian spiritual tradition, experiential knowledge is valued over all other kinds of knowledge. The guru is essentially one who has the experiential knowledge, which is not to say ‘subjective experience’, which varies from one subject to another. The guru has seen, felt, heard, and known every way there is to know the universe. When he shares experiential knowledge, for the inexperienced, it is like a blind man finding vision.
He Removes the Veil of Doubts and Illusion From Over the Truth
The word ‘guru’, etymologically breaks down into gu, meaning darkness and ru, means to dispel. It is theorized in yogic spirituality how the nature of the universe is divided into Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is all that is the truth, the one and universal Truth and Prakriti is its different manifestations. Thus, everything in yogic theology is understood in terms of the Universal One and its various forms. Because there are many forms in this world, there are also many illusions and therefore there are ever-spawning doubts.
It is important to understand that there is no qualitative aspect. What is identified as prakriti is neither good nor bad and so is purusha. In fact, the two are actually one thing that looks different at different lights of the day.
The guru’s job at a spiritual retreat in India is to make you aware of the illusions in the world so that you are oriented only towards the truth and nothing but the Truth.
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Filed in: externally authored, yoga
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