Guru Purnima 29th July, 2026. Swamiji shares some [as always] profound insights on the Guru.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Today is Guru Purnima and you’ll find in India every ashrama, every ashrama, will be worshipping Ved Vyasa, the great guru, through the symbols of the respective gurus.
In the scriptures the Lord has declared that amongst certain things He manifests or shines out more; in certain instruments you can make Him out more. His reflection or His glory is more revealed in certain things. They found that our gurus reveal to individual hearts, and collectively to the universal hearts of all. Example: Sri Krishna says in the [Bhagavad] Gita, ‘Amongst the mountains I am the Himalayas. Amongst the human beings I am the king, amongst the five Pandavas, Arjuna, I am you. Look at Me. I have manifested more in you, because I take that glory. That glory that you have, is not yours. It is mine, O Arjuna.
Similarly, as Ved Vyasa in the Bhagavatam says, that the Avataras [Incarnations] are most popularly known as the 10 Avataras [of Lord Vishnu] – the 10 great Avataras. But there is an infinite number. You cannot limit God’s manifestation to 10 Avataras or 25 Avataras, His Avataras are infinite. Thus you will find, as Sri Krishna says, ‘Amongst the Rishis, I am Kapila Rishi.’ In Ved Vyasa’s writing he puts the words so beautifully, he says, ‘Amongst the writers or compilers of the Vedas, know that to be Ved Vyasa.’ It’s the Lord himself speaking but how nicely He diverted our mind and says, ‘Ved Vyasa is the author.’ Then very lovingly he removes the veil – if a man is not careful, he can’t see it – he says, ‘Among the compilers and the writers, know them to be Ved Vyasa.’ Ved Vyasa himself is saying that.
Supposing I say, “Swami Nischalananda [Swamiji’s beloved guru] said, ‘Know that amongst the devotees, I am Nischalananda’”. Now somebody would look at him [thinking he’s saying that] egotistically. But when the state of consciousness goes higher and higher, when that [the individual] is identified with [the supreme] That, the individual no longer speaks. That Power speaks through the individual. But ordinary people who don’t know a God-man’s inner life, will tend to criticise him. Also, you must be very careful – if a man is not God-realised he doesn’t reach the stage where It is the very same thing [identified with God].
‘God, I don’t know you, because I am trying to know you. Whatever your form is, I don’t know. But I know you are omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. I worship you through everything.’
Therefore, in the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna showed to Arjuna that, not only that which he outlines is him, but the whole of creation is His manifestation. So anywhere you touch, you are still touching God.
One may ask: What happens then if the guru is not right? [Sri] Ramakrishna answers the question: Where man fails, Guru [God] takes over. Man will let you down hundreds of times, but the Lord, the Guru, will never let you down. Provided you have this one very important thing in you: unflinching faith to know God. Unflinching faith to serve God. And intense desire to get Him. Intense desire to get Him. If you have that, you have no fear whatsoever. He must reveal Himself to you.
How the guru works, we don’t know. Sometimes he’s very full of compassion. Sometimes we say that he’s not full of compassion – he’s full of wrath [anger]. But that’s ‘apparent’. Doctors take a big knife [scalpel] and operate on the patient. That patient might think, ‘What kind of [sword-bearing] Kali-avatar [incarnation] is this?’ But in their heart they know that the doctors are full of compassion. Similarly, the guru is cutting out that disease that will kill the spirit in that particular person [sadhaka]. In reality you can never kill a spirit, but he will kill that which will cover the spirit in that particular person. So, our gurus are like that. They work in diverse ways.
If you see me ‘apparently’ ill-treating [scolding] somebody; if you look at it as ill-treatment, or you look at it as kind treatment, all I’m concerned about it that it was a ‘treatment’. It must cure some sort of disease. It is a treatment. You can look at it as ill-treatment or good treatment.
With these words, I say that you have all worshipped a Supreme consciousness today, here. We call it guru, we call it God, we call it Devi or we call it Deva. There’s nothing else but Satchidananda – Eternal Spirit; which ordinarily in this world is known as intelligence, consciousness, knowledge. This is what we worship. That which is not darkness but always light.
What is darkness? Isn’t darkness, as Swami Vivekananda said, also light? It’s also light. Because what may be dark to me, may be light to somebody else. Swami Vivekananda says that we are not travelling from untruth to truth, we are travelling from lower truth to [higher or] the Absolute truth.
NEW! For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial ‘memoir’ of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.