Who is a Guru?
Understand who is Guru
The Guru or Master is not a vyakti (person) as you imagine. He is a tattva (principle). He is simply a physical representation of the Divine. In the vedic tradition, the spiritual teacher, the Guru or the Master, is said to be more important than God! God is always and everywhere, but it is the Guru who opens the disciple's eyes to the existence of God. The Master is the doorway to one's own experience of the Divine.
A Guru knows you more than you know you. He loves you more than you love you. He can sacrifice even more than you for you. Sometimes you become tired of sacrificing, so you give up on you, but he doesn't tire of sacrificing, so he doesn't give up on you. He reminds you till you remain, and he reminds you till he remains.
A person who does not have a Guru in his life doesn't know what he is missing out in life. Master is a new language in your being. Master is a 'new consciousness' that you have that you didn't know you have! He is the mirror that helps you recognize the truth that is already within you. In fact, the Master is the only scripture that is alive! Surrendering to God is difficult because you don't know who or where God is! God is a mere concept to you. But the Master is real. Through his form, you can take the quantum jump to the Divine. Understand, life itself can be your Master - if you have the intelligence to pick up the right things from it! Life itself can be a wonderful teacher, if you know how to learn from it. If you can hear with utter clarity the voice of your own being, you don't need an external Master.
You don't have to surrender to anyone outside. Just surrender to your own highest consciousness, that is enough! The Master is not really an individual. The Master is intense Life! If you see him as just one more form, you will try to relate to him as you relate to other people. You will miss the chance to have a direct relationship with Existence – which is what the Master is.
So don't get caught in Guru-personality. Just make yourself available to the Guru-principle! Ultimately, your real Guru is your own inner Self. The outer Guru exists only to guide you to the experience of the inner Guru. The Guru exists both outside you and within you! From the outside, he gives you a push inside, so that your extroverted mind begins to look within. And from inside, he starts pulling you, so that no matter what the distractions, you stay in your own inner space. Recognizing the Guru as one's own highest Self is the most beautiful experience that happens with enlightenment.
Why do Gurus happen on planet Earth?
Listen! When there is a huge water body, and breeze flows over the water body, small waves happen, or some drawings or figures appear on the water, and in that figure there is no perishable component.
That figure, the source, cause, effect, everything, is just water. When the breeze flows again, that same wave happens, and when the breeze stops, the wave settles down into the water. In the same way, whenever a strong devoted sammyama (breeze) from a disciple happens over the conscious water (pure consciousness), the Master's form appears and blesses you, graces you, and again it relaxes back into the same water. There is no perishable component.
An enlightened Master is a person who does not have a perishable identity. Because of this, he has an Eternal identity. Understand, his identity is made out of a material which is imperishable. There is no perishable component in the identity he created for himself.
He is a being whose all seven shareeras (bodies) do not have any perishable component. Any engram (samskara or engraved memory) that you carry is a perishable component. When all the engrams have disappeared, that body becomes such a pure liquid that it creates different shapes, shades, waves , visuals, based on the breeze blowing over it. The lake has no interest in taking a particular shape. The flow of the breeze decides the shape.
Master is just a beautiful rhythmic play; the pure non-perishable experience happening in the source. That is the reason any Master who existed on the planet Earth is available to planet Earth forever.
How to identify your Guru?
In this whole Vedanta Sampradaya, the only requirement is a proper Guru.
Beautifully Vedanta sampradaya describes how to catch the right Guru.
Peel away all the things which are common to all the Gurus.
For example, if I have an organization, somebody else is also having an organization. There are so many spiritual organizations. Remove that part from my glory. If I have a body, then many of you also have a body. Remove that part from my glory. If I have an amazing orating power, many others also have that. Remove that part from my glory.
So go on peeling. Finally, at some point, your logic will not be able to peel further, but still you will feel - He is something more than all these things!
When your logic feels - I cannot peel further, I have peeled everything; even after all these things are removed, he has something more than all these things put together - when you have this understanding with somebody, he is your Guru.
If that does not happen, if you feel - No, after I peel three or four things he is not worthy - then forget about him. He is not worthy of being your Guru. You are not worthy of being his disciple.