Teachers' day

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    I am absolutely clear in my concept of a Guru as well as that used to be in
    Hinduism. But the Shloka: “Gurur bramha; Gurur vishnuh;Gururdevo
    Maheshwarah: Gurussakshat Param bramha; tasmai sree gurave namah” is now been grossly misused by most of the ‘Gurus’of present day, who are not even fit to be called Guru in the spirit of Hinduism.
    
    As a matter of fact they are acting as divisive forces to protect their respective sects, and the wealth amassed through disciples or otherwise. They are greedy and possessed by most of the vices associated with common people.
    

    
    Most of them are not or even learned either. In their knowledge and spiritualism also they are limited. These types have been misusing the aforesaid shloka to glorify themselves. Even their common general knowledge is below average.
    
    A real guru is one who not only has spiritual knowledge but is a divine, self-realized person who lives by the principles of spirituality and who with his selfless life, is actively engaged in spreading the true knowledge-the knowledge of God or self realization, but where are such Gurus today?
    
    Such gurus were sage Vasishtha, Valmiki, Agasthya, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Swamy Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Gautama Buddha, Sri Shankaracharya...who never raised their personal sects, celebrated their birthdays, and visited USA during summers to collect dollars as Guru Dakshina. Today most of the Gurus have usurped upon land in the heart of commercial cities for building Ashrams where they live a luxurious life and some of them a licentious life.
    
    The present day Gurus are a blot and curse on Hindu society and do not let it politically unite. To be in line with ruling political party, most of them pose ‘secular’ to get more clientage.
    
    Hinduism is still alive today because of the work done by ancient great gurus in the past and NOT by present parasites who have simply donned Gurudom upon them.
    
    Even our scriptures have depicted that one Guru may not have all the specialized knowledge under the Sun. Thus an inquisitive disciple may have several Gurus to guide him on different subjects. Sage Dattatrya had two dozen Gurus to pick up one trait from each. This was true in the past and is more relevant today.

• By Chand K Sharma