You’ll have gurus throughout your life. Your first gurus were probably your parents or grandparents, depending on the situation. Then you went in search of other gurus who ended up teaching you valuable knowledge to build who you are.
A Guru Is A Stepping Stone
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought. Matsuo Bashō
In Sanskrit, guru means “guide”. In fact, a guru comes into your life to make you achieve things you haven’t achieved on your own. The real purpose of a guru is to be surpassed. A guru doesn’t have to be your guru forever, you have to “kill” your master and surpass him. *
*This is not true in all areas of life. Most teachers are imperfect and their teachings are not at all holistic. They can simply teach you techniques and knowledge that you didn’t have before. You can become greater than them by becoming more holistic in your own approach to life. However, true masters in a holistic sense, mainly spiritual – sometimes they can be your parents, but that’s pretty rare – and martial arts for example (which are originally meant to be holistic), masters can’t really be surpassed. They started their journey with an advantage over you. You can reach their level or surpass them after their death, but you’ll never know. You’ve benefited from them, you’ve sat on their giant shoulders, so as long as they’re alive, they’ll always be your master (and even after their death, just to express your gratitude for what they’ve brought into your life).
Pay More Attention To Your Guru’s Moral Qualities Than To Other Aspects Of His Or Her Life
A guru has an enormous impact on us. He can help us become a better person, but he can also corrupt us. We can fall into the trap of wanting to become his discipline – mainly out of ambition – to acquire skills for example, without realizing that we can be influenced in a more subtle way. We can accept a boss as a mentor to teach us many practical skills, but at the same time, we can become greedy or deceitful, for example. That’s why we need to choose our mentors (and even more so our friends) carefully.
Take, Give And Move On
People don’t like to be used or abused, and the same goes for most masters. Those who have helped you in any capacity should be rewarded with your gratitude, money, respect or anything else of value to them. When you feel you’ve outgrown your master, you must force yourself to stay with your current master out of outward respect. Acknowledge this and move forward respectfully to reach other levels of development, otherwise you risk feeling stuck in your life and resentful.
