The Guru is the Sun that illuminates the path. The presence of a realized Guru in a person’s life is a great fortune—one that becomes possible through blessing, good karma, and sincere intention.
In the early 2000s, I had a friend for whom I was a kind of spiritual authority at the time. At every meeting, he would ask me how to distinguish a true guru from a false one. Now I can no longer remember exactly what I told him, but I can say with certainty that my answers were probably not what he truly needed. Later, that friend became a follower of Sri Chinmoy. He began attending various gatherings of fellow followers and eventually organized similar meetings in his own city. For more than two decades now, he has remained faithful to his views and way of life—so his choice was clearly the right one.
I also had another friend back then. He was more than ten years older than me, and I addressed him formally, with respect. He was a member of the Society for Krishna Consciousness and already had a guru at that time. An intelligent and principled person, he always spoke with me sincerely. “Why don’t you choose a guru,” he once said to me, “since you’ve been practicing yoga for so long?”
I replied that I did not need to choose, because it had already happened in the past. I feel a connection with my Guru, although I do not know whether he is now in a physical body or in a subtle one—I only sense his presence. I do not know my Guru’s name, where he is at present, or whether I will ever see him in a physical body in this lifetime. Yet my heart clearly responds to one immortal Himalayan yogi. I feel him in my heart and know that my path lies here—somewhere in this direction.
In response, my friend suggested that I contact the disciples of Paramahansa Yogananda (since Yogananda is connected to that yogi) and become a disciple within that lineage. But becoming a disciple in Yogananda’s line did not resonate with my heart. I felt the Guru within myself, and this was my path.
