Need Of A Guru

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

Need Of A Guru
After equipping oneself with the purity of the will, feeling and intellect, one should
approach the teacher for inculcation into the secrets of the Upanishads. As a man brought
blindfolded from some place and left in a desert cannot find his way unaided, even so, we cannot
shake off Samsara and gain Mukti, until we receive instruction from a teacher. Except through a
good teacher there is no way of knowing the Atman, as it is ‘subtler than the subtle’ and difficult to
be known. Sankara explains that a teacher well-studied in the Upanishads alone can teach us about
Brahman. We can hear about the Atman only from the wise. But how could that be taught which “by
the eyes cannot be seen, by speech cannot be described and by thought cannot be penetrated?” The
Brahman can only be apprehended through Self-realisation.
Though this revelation occupies the fundamental place, intellect has its own allotted orb in
the Vedanta; for reasoning is necessary to ascertain the purport of Vedantavakyas and to be sure of
the probability of what they say. Reasoning is needed to remove doubts and contrary beliefs. As
mind is overburdened with false notions such as a thing like the Brahman cannot exists or that the
Brahman is a material principle, reasoning is necessary to dispel doubts and contrary notions. But in
all such cases reasoning should follow and be dependent upon scripture. Manana is the process of
Vichara or thought which removes the improbability of the Upanishadic statements. Nididhya is contemplation of the profound meaning of scripture through concentration, after all contrary

ideas are dispelled. When, thus, Sravana aided by Manana and Nididhyasana has taken place, only
then arises the Sakshatkara, or the final intuition of the Brahman.