Question: How important is a Guru?

Sri Chinmoy: This entirely depends on how soon the seeker wants to reach God. A Guru is a necessity if time is a great factor. If you want to reach your destination as soon as possible, then a spiritual teacher is very important. There are a few very learned men who have not gone to school but who have achieved great wisdom nevertheless. But most of us do go to school. Why? Because we know that the help of a teacher will expedite our journey. If we just go out and buy some books and study by ourselves, we will very often be confused and uncertain. We will read something and not get the proper meaning. Or, if we do get the real meaning, we will doubt whether our understanding is true. This is why we go to a teacher for help. Once we get our degree, the teacher’s role is over. He cannot take our knowledge away from us at that time. It is our permanent achievement.

If we want to make the fastest progress in the spiritual life, a spiritual teacher is necessary. Otherwise, we will be uncertain about the direction we are going in and we will have no one to guide us with divine advice. If we doubt our inner experiences, who is going to illumine us and reassure us at that time? We will be doomed to live with our constant self-doubt and inner uncertainty.

If we consider time a great factor, then if we can do something today, we shall not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be a further goal to reach. Today our goal is God-realisation. Tomorrow our goal will be God-revelation. And the day after tomorrow our goal will be God-manifestation. Since we have three goals, the sooner we can arrive at our first goal, the sooner we can start running toward our second and our third goals.