by Swami Yatiswarananda (from "Meditation and Spiritual Life")

From time immemorial the guru or the spiritual teacher has been given the highest place of honor in India and elsewhere. The Hindu scriptures go to the length of saying that the guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesvara, nay, even the Param Brahman (the supreme Spirit) Itself.

Most people, however forget that this has been said from the spiritual angle, and never from the physical point of view.

The trouble with most spiritual seekers is that they identify themselves with their own body and personality, become devoted to a male or a female Deity, and remain stuck there. And if they have a spiritual teacher, they cling to the form and personality of the teacher also. This is nothing but materialism, though given a spiritual color. However useful it may be in the beginning, this spiritual materialism must be transcended; but how to do it is the question.

As one advances in the spiritual path, one must come to realize that the worshiper is a soul, and the Deity that is worshiped is none other than th Paramatman Itself. The soul is, as it were, part of the Paramatman -- the Infinite Spirit, and the guru also in his true nature is a divine manifestation through whom flows divine Grace, Knowledge, Love and Bliss. The task before us is, how to realize this truth that the devotee, the Ista Devata, and the guru are in reality manifestations of the same transcendental Spirit.

Before beginning our meditation, let us first consider the body as a temple. We may now enter this temple through the gateway of the heart and find that our heart is filled with the light and consciousness of the Jivatman which is part of the Paramatman -- the  infinite Light and infinite Consciousness. Let us merge our body, mind and the whole world into this infinite Reality, and imagine that we are like a little sphere of light and consciousness, interpenetrated and permeated by the infinite Light and infinite Consciousness. Since this form of meditation is beyond the reach of ordinary people, let us think that our soul puts on a pure mental body and a pure physical body, and the Paramatman takes the form of the guru on one side, and of the Ista Devata on the other. After saluting the guru, we should merge his personality in the Ista Devata, and meditate on Him or Her, repeating the Ista Mantra.

The first step is rupa dhyana -- that is, to meditate on the entire luminous blissful form of the Deity. The next is guna dhyana -- that is, to meditate on the infinite good qualities of the Deity like infinite Purity, Knowledge, Love and Bliss. The third and the last stage is svarupa dhyana -- that is, to meditate on the all-pervading Consciousness of which the Holy Personality, the guru, and the disciple are different manifestations. This infinite background should never be forgotten even during the previous stages of meditation.

The spiritual seeker should always remember that the idolizing of a human form and the blind worshiping of a human personality are stumbling blocks in spiritual progress and are harmful to both the disciple and the guru. A true teacher is a free soul, and would very much like to see that all his disciples stand on their own feet, realize their divine nature, and solve their individual problems developing a cosmic outlook. If the disciples continue to cling to the guru's personality and look up to him for help and guidance at every step, he feels the drag, and regrets his inability to make them attain that spiritual strength and freedom which he himself enjoys. He will rather have one free soul as his disciple than a multitude of them following him blindly.

It is for this reason that the wise spiritual teacher deprecates the idea of blind personal service which is very common in India. Most of the disciples forget that the following of the ideal and living the life are much more important than attending on the guru in person.

We should so train ourselves that instead of depending too much on the outside teacher, we depend more and more on the indwelling Guru, and reach a state of spiritual consciousness which we must be able to maintain, whether the guru is alive in this world or has passed on, as Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna said, "from this room to that room," meaning from the physical plane of consciousness to the subtle one.

This danger of falling into the rut of the guru cult can be avoided only by meditating on the formless infinite Spirit (in the aforesaid way) which is also infinite Knowledge, infinite Love and infinite Bliss. Again when we return to the plane of personality, we should stress more the Spirit, merging all forms into It, and try to be established in the supreme Consciousness through repeated practice. This helps not only the student, but also the teacher towards the realization of perfect freedom and peace.