- To teach others, a person must have the badge of authority. Without it, the teaching is ridiculous. We do not teach ourselves, but go preach to others instead! It is like the blind leading the blind.
- The ego of an embodied soul ends with just three cries if one has a real teacher. But if the guru is unripe, both the guru and the disciple undergo suffering.
- Guru, father, and doer – these three words prick my body like thorns. I am His son, His eternal child.
- One should have faith in the words of the guru. There is no need to consider the guru’s character. A saying goes, ‘Though my guru visits a tavern, he is yet my ever blissful guru.’
- He has nothing to fear if God, having come down as the guru, cuts asunder the bonds of maya.
- What is the way for worldly people? Keeping the company of holy men and listening to spiritual talk. And one must listen to the instructions of a Sadguru. There are signs of a Sadguru. One should listen about Kashi from one who has visited Kashi, who has seen it. A man of mere learning will be of no help.
- It is not good to be a professional guru. One cannot become a religious teacher without receiving a command from God. He who says that he is a guru is a man of low intelligence. Haven’t you noticed the pans of a weighing scale? The pan that is lighter goes higher. The person who considers himself higher is, in fact, lighter [of lesser substance]. Everyone wants to be a guru – a disciple is hard to find.
- One can see the roof, but it is very difficult to climb onto it. But if someone has already reached the roof, he can pull another person up with a rope.
- The guru and the chosen deity are one and the same. The guru makes you hold the thread that leads to God.
- Salutations to the Guru who makes it possible to realize Him who pervades this entire universe of the moving and the unmoving.
- Have faith in the words of the guru. One attains God by following his words step by step. The way to reach one object is by holding the end of a thread.
- The spiritual ideal itself comes as the guru. After practicing meditation on a corpse, when a person gets the vision of the chosen ideal, the guru himself comes and says to the disciple, ‘O disciple, this is your ideal.’ Saying this, the guru merges into the form of the chosen ideal. The disciple then no longer sees the guru.
- Not just any kind of person can be a guru. A big log floats and can carry a number of birds and animals on it. But if someone climbs on a light piece of wood, it not only sinks, but drowns whoever is on it. That’s why God incarnates in every age as a guru. Sat-chit-ananda himself is the guru.
- Get the information from your guru about where to search. A person was looking for a special stone image of Shiva. Somebody came along and said, ‘Go near that stream and you will find a tree. Close to the tree is a whirlpool. You will have to dive at that spot. Then you will find the stone image.’ You have to get instruction from the guru where to search.
- Sat-chit-ananda Himself comes as the Guru. If someone receives initiation from a human guru and regards the guru as a mere man, he will not succeed. He will have to regard the guru as God Himself. Only then will he have faith in the mantra.
- A guru said to his disciple, ‘It is Rama who resides in every being.’ The devotee put his full faith in this. When he saw a dog running away with a chapatti in its mouth, the devotee ran after it with butter in a container, shouting, ‘Rama, wait a minute! Let me butter your chapatti.’
- Faith in the words of the guru. Follow his instructions. Hold onto them like you’re whirling around a pillar then do your duties – that is, do the work of the world.
- Don’t think of the guru as a human being. Sat-chit-ananda Himself comes as the guru. By the grace of the guru a person sees the form of his spiritual ideal. And then the guru merges into the ideal.
- Everybody wants to become a guru, but only a rare few want to be disciples. So notice that rainwater doesn’t collect on a hill. It collects in hollows on lower ground.
- It is said that a pearl oyster opens itself for a drop of rain water that comes from the Svati constellation of stars. As soon as the drop falls into the oyster, it dives deep into the water and stays there till a pearl is formed.