Q: I read somewhere:
The real Guru is regarded as none other than the Divine Himself.
Sundari: Who is the Divine Himself? Vedanta, which is the science of Consciousness, unfolds the means of knowledge that removes the hypnosis of duality, which is also called ignorance (of one’s true nature), revealing that there is only one principle operating at all times, and that is the nondual Self, or Consciousness. It’s not a divine himself or herself. As gender is the ultimate duality, and Consciousness is not a person but the substrate of all life, gender does not apply to it. We would also not refer to Consciousness as ‘the Divine’, as the Self/Consciousness does not have qualities, though it gives rise to all qualities.
The word ‘guru’ means one who dispels the darkness, meaning, removes the ignorance of your true nature by wielding the nondual teachings for you. If you are qualified and Self-knowledge assimilates, the guru reveals to you that the Self is the only guru, because this is a non-dual reality. In fact, there is no such thing as a ‘false’ guru because only a true guru can be called a guru.
Q: If it’s right, I think it’s, I question you: 1. What is the purpose of this huge number of false Gurus?
Sundari: See above. There is no answer to that question, except in the understanding that if the mind is under the spell of ignorance, anything is possible. A false guru is not a guru as stated, and is simply someone whose mind is under the spell of Maya, or ignorance. They think they have something special to give you, but they have nothing but more ignorance to impart. It is the blind leading the blind. If you don’t know any better, in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is thought to be the King.
Q: 2. Don’t they know they are fake?
Sundari: Maybe. Usually not. They are so enamoured of their own ‘specialness’ that many are truly deluded. But you do get some well-meaning souls who think they have the right ideas to ‘save’ or ‘enlighten’, and they have no idea that they are teaching duality, or ignorance. Then you get the somewhat false ‘gurus’ who teach mixed ignorance with knowledge. If you swallow them together, they can mislead you more than others. But as there are no mistakes, the ‘wrong’ path can be what we call a leading error. In other words, it takes you to the right path, the pathless path underpinning all paths, the nondual teachings of Vedanta, through circuitous means.
Q: 3. Don’t they know that they have no power to awaken the Kuṇḍalinī Shaktipat in anyone?
Sundari: If you believe that ‘awakening the kundalini shaktipat’ is what freedom is all about, then what you are after is some kind of special experience that will make you feel special, or spiritual. In this case, you do not understand the difference between duality and nonduality, and you do not understand what a real guru is, or is for. A true guru never gives you anything you don’t already have, but simply removes what is in the way of you understanding your true identity as the nondual Self, as stated above. You are all you need, and do not need any special experience to know this as you are always experiencing Consciousness, your true identity, but you don’t know it. You think it is something outside of you to obtain. It is not.
If you are interested in knowing more, I suggest you sign on to the logic of Vedanta, and follow the steps we give on our website for self-inquiry.
Om
Sundari
