Gurus Quotes

“We seldom look up to the person; we usually look up to their persona.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I keep hearing about a spiritual awakening, but I feel what we need instead is a human one. It would be wonderful and empowering to become free from the disillusionment and nonsense being sold to us from gurus for centuries.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

“You really can't follow a guru. You can't ask somebody to give The Reason, but you can find one for yourself; you decide what the meaning of your life is to be. People talk about the meaning of life; there is no meaning of life--there are lots of meanings of different lives, and you must decide what you want your own to be.”
― Joseph Campbell, An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms

“If any of the great avatars - Buddha, Jesus, Khrishna, Mohammed - were present in human form on this planet today, what would they be doing? I doubt they would be posting selfies.⁠”
― Anthon St. Maarten

“The Guru is the “eye” surgeon, who can restore our inner vision.”
― Dada J. P. Vaswani

“You need many teachers, not one teacher; you need many gurus, not one guru; you need many books not one book!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Most “gurus” are just spewing bullshit and hoping that you’re a fly.”
― Steve Maraboli

“Critical examination of the lives and beliefs of gurus demonstrates that our psychiatric labels and our conceptions of what is or is not mental illness are woefully inadequate. How for example does one distinguish an unorthodox or bizarre faith from delusion? Gurus are isolated people, dependent upon their disciples with no possibility of being disciplined by a church or criticised by contemporaries. They are above the law. The guru usurps the place of god. Whether gurus have suffered from manic depressive illness, schizophrenia or any other form of recognised diagnosable mental illness is interesting, but ultimately unimportant. What distinguishes gurus from more orthodox teachers is not their manic depressive mood swings, not their thought disorders, not their delusional beliefs, not their hallucinatory visions, not their mystical states of ecstasy. It is their narcissism.”
― Anthony Storr, Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus

“Question : I FEEL I HAVE SURRENDERED TO SAI BABA, BUT STILL I FEEL THE NECESSITY OF WORKING WITH ANOTHER TEACHER OR GURU. IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Osho : The first thing is to remember that the master really does not work. He is there, his presence works, but the presence can work only if you have trust. If you don't have trust, nothing can be done.

So really, if you feel you have surrendered to Sai Baba, what is the need to come to me? If the surrender has really happened, then asking for another master is futile. I doubt your surrender, your trust, because when trust has happened nothing more is needed.

It is good if you feel an intimate closeness with Sai Baba..But then don't wander here and there, then don't go to anybody else, because this is impossible.

If you have surrendered then move to Sai Baba, open yourself to him so that he can work; then don't go seeking here and there.

I am ready to help, but for that you will have to be receptive.
If you trust me, something becomes possible.

You cannot be forced into nirvana, you can only flow into it.

There are many who go on wandering from one master to another. The total result may be simply confusion, because each master works in his own way, he has his own methods, and you go on accumulating information. That information is bound to be contradictory. Then you will get confused, you may even go insane.

It is better to stick to one master and give your heart totally to him. If then nothing happens, move. But be finished with that master, don't be in an incomplete relationship.

First go back to Sai Baba, be finished with him. Either you are transformed, then there is no need to find anyone; or Sai Baba is not your master, it is proved. Then come to me.

And the same applies to my own disciples. If you are here with me, be finished with me. Be totally with me, so that either the mutation happens and then there is no need to find anyone or to go anywhere, or you come to realize, "This man is not for me." Then you can leave me totally, then you can move, then somewhere else.... But being here with me halfheartedly and then moving to someone else halfheartedly will not do. Rather, it may be dangerous. You may become so split, so divided, with so many voices in you, that you may become a crowd.

Patience is needed. If you are totally devoted to one master the thing is bound to happen. And I would say that even if the master is not true, the thing can happen if you are totally devoted. Even if the master is false the happening is possible if you are totally devoted - because the happening doesn't happen through the master, it happens through total devotion.

So even a dead master, or a master who has never been, just the name, will do. The real alchemy, the science of mutation, is within you. The master is at the most just a catalytic agent, nothing more.

Go back to your own master and be with him. And don't try to judge him; you have got no way to judge anybody. All that you can do is give your total heart to him. And what have you got to lose?

So why be so afraid? You have got nothing to lose, so why be so untrusting? Give yourself totally.

Many times it has happened that a disciple was transformed through a master who was not a master at all. And many times the contrary has also happened: the master was true but the disciple was not transformed. The ultimate thing depends on you, not on me. You are the deciding factor.

So wherever you go, make it a law: go with your total heart. Otherwise you will move with empty hands everywhere. And the more you move, the more you go to this master and that, the more there will be confusion, suffering, and finally you may decide that there exists no one who can transform you. Or, you may come to conclude that there is nothing like transformation, this is all hocus-pocus.

And the reason will only be this - that you were never anywhere with your total heart.”
― Osho, Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi- Discourses on Akshyupanishad

“I believe that myths about spiritual masters as perfect human beings have done more harm than good in our society. While looking for what you may perceive as a spiritual master (and in many cases the search is a mere reflection of your own likes and dislikes) you may overlook a simple and profound teacher that could easily guide you along the spiritual path. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.”
― Gudjon Bergmann, The Seven Human Needs: A practical guide to finding harmony and balance in everyday life

“Often, people get a temporary high, a fleeting sense of belonging and well-being from the illusion of strength that comes from attaching themselves to gurus, without realizing that the energy they associate with the so called holy person comes from within themselves.”
― Indu Muralidharan, The Reengineers

“People that encounter me cannot understand why I refuse to worship, either it is a religion, a prophet or a writer. They don't understand that I was born to be worshipped, and not worship, As me, many others have been here before and face the same. People disdain, ignore and ridicule the living while worshipping the dead. And once I'm gone, the cycle will repeat, with someone better than me facing what I face now. I'm great now, not 300 years from now, when everyone will agree with this statement but I won't be here to disagree wit it and show a better path.”
― Robin Sacredfire

“Books and workshops and gurus are great, but the very best teacher for your mind is, and will always be, your heart.”
― Scott Stabile

“Indian Gurus are masters in downplaying the importance of earthly expansion.”
― Ingmar Veeck

“The only way to be a master is to know the previous masters!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Great gurus are not great writers, but great writers are great gurus!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“So many gurus have emerged in the world that you must be a guru yourself to choose the right guru!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“To find out if the person you have chosen as your guru is a true guru, first of all, check whether he is an arrogant person regardless of his level of knowledge! No one with arrogance can be a guru!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“There may still be people who think of Carl Gustav Jung only as a distinguished psychiatrist who enlarged our understanding of the mind and who also made important contributions to psychotherapy. He did both, but his variety of analysis is not simply concerned with the relief of neurotic symptoms; it promises a secular form of salvation. Jung was a spiritual teacher as well as a physician.”
― Anthony Storr, Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus