A person having defective eye vision visited an oculist (eye specialist).The oculist gave him a pair of specs. The person visited the oculist after a day and told him that he still could not see clearly even with the specs. In fact his vision got worse after using the specs.

The doctor was surprised. He told the fellow,

"How is it possible? These specs worked perfectly well for me. They improved my vision. How could they not work for you? There is something wrong with you and not with these specs."

It is easy to see who was wrong. We know very well from our experience that each person may require the glasses of different power to correct his defective vision. How cans the vision of a person improve by wearing the glasses of another person? It can work accidentally in few cases, when their defects are same, yet in most of the cases, such specs can't correct the vision.

However, stupid, the oculist seems to be in this example; most of us are trapped by such oculists, if we decide to learn from a Guru or a Teacher without keeping our mind open.

The Importance of Guru

India has a long tradition of Guru-Shishya Parampara (Teacher-Disciple Tradition). In the ancient days, there were no schools and the students used to live in the house of the Guru to learn the scriptures and teachings. The place of Guru was not only higher than the parents who had given birth to the child, but even above God. Sant Kabir, a Sufi poet, has expressed echoes this thought in the following words,

Guru and God stand before me,
Whose feet should I touch,
I am thankful more to Guru,
Who introduced Me to God.

Guru is given highest place in the Indian tradition, as all learning of the man comes from a Guru. Some Gurus like Buddha or Nanak have been given the place of God by their followers. It is widely believed that only through a Sadaguru (True Teacher), one can realize divinity or God. The spiritual Gurus are often treated at par with God as only they shows the man the path to God. Without a guru, most people find it impossible to understand walk on the path of divinity.

The Limits of a Guru

The importance of a teacher in imparting the knowledge can never be overemphasized. We all learn knowledge from our teachers, elders and parents. It is impossible to get knowledge without a teacher at the initial stage of our lives.

Yet on introspection, we may notice that people can teach only what they have learned. The parents can teach to their children what they have learned in their life or "from their lives". They teach their children to follow the principles, techniques and methods that lead to their success while advising against the methods that failed in their case.

The teachers in schools and universities are no different. They merely teach what had worked in case of some people. All lessons of moralities and scriptures are indeed the methods that worked in case of their originators. Yet they teach these codes as gospel truths that must work for all. These principles must not be challenged and accepted without questioning. Yet most people feel quite disappointed in their life as they see that these methods do not work in their case, just like the specs of the oculist failed to correct the vision of the man.

Why most people fail to succeed in their life and achieve happiness and peace by following the paths shown by Gurus?

What is the flaw in the teachings of the scriptures or knowledge?

Scriptures or Mere Theories?

All scriptures ask people to follow the path shown by their prophets, Gurus or Gods. A Buddhist is advised to become a Monk like Buddha, beg their food, extinguish their passion and desire and lead a life for achieving Nirvana or liberation from life. A Christian must follow the life of Christ and a Muslim must follow the life of Prophet Mohammad.

There is no doubt that these lifestyles worked for Buddha, Christ and Mohammad as evident from the simple fact that their paths are still followed by millions in this world even after many centuries.

Yet, it is a great reality that most people in the world fail to follow these lifestyles despite of the promised benefits of Nirvana, heaven or Afterlife and the threat of punishment that waits for them for violating the moral codes of the scriptures.

There must be some reason why people can not follow the life of the Prophets and Great Teachers (Gurus).

The Right Model of world

The moment we say that there is a right path in this world, we immediately question the wisdom of God. Is it not true that the entire word and every small little thing are created by Lord? Thus to say that there is anything wrong in this world is to question the wisdom of God.

Yet there is no way, we can accept the so called evils in this world like hatred, crime, jealousy, inequality etc as they can never be associated with divinity. So the concept of devil or Satan was created in scriptures who fills the world with evil.

Instead, we can also create a different model of the world which can perhaps explains the diversity in this world.

Consider the entire universe as the body of the Supreme (God) and each person or living being as a cell of the body. Thus we all become part of God and God is present in all of us. Yet in the body of the Supreme, no two cells are identical or same. Each cell differs from others. The bone cell is quite different than the heart cell, which is quite different than the brain cell. Yet all cells work to together in a perfect harmony to make the body alive and healthy.

In the same way, every person of the world has been designed to be different from each other so that they can work with each other by doing diverse functions. However, there is always a unity in the diversities which is reflected in the unity of the body of the person.

Now imagine that all cells are forced to perform the function of a single cell, say the skin cell. The person is bound to die sooner than later as no body can survive only by the functioning of skin cells.

The same holds true with the paths provided in the scriptures by the Teachers. These methods worked perfectly well for the Teachers, but they are not suitable for everyone. Can the world survive, if every person becomes a monk or beggar? Who will feed these monks? If every person decides not to marry or have physical relationship, what would happen to the world? It is an irony that people, who can never be created without the sexual union of man and woman condemns the same act as unholy and sinful.

Yet there is lot of truth in the scriptures without which they would not survive so long. There are eternal truths that lie hidden in the scriptures which are often taught by the teachers. Yet every teacher teaches from his own experience and perception. Since every person leads a different life and learn his lessons with different people in different situation, hence the results can never be expected to be same, when applied in different situation with different people.

Teachers are Only Means for Direct Knowledge

Buddha taught his disciple, that whatever he tough must be tested by every person on his own life. Only when it work for him, he must believe these teaching else they must discard it.

He compared the role of a teacher like that of a boat.

Suppose you have to cross a river. For this purpose, you obtained a boat and rode the boat to cross the river. After you have crossed the river, what would you do with the boat? Should you carry the boat on your back as it has been so helpful in crossing the river or should you discard the boat after you crossed the water?

The answer is quite obvious. A true seeker of the knowledge has to discard the teacher or the scripture after learning from them. There is always a limit to what a teacher can teach. No one can teach what he has not experienced. However, human life is too small to experience all possible events in life and his mind to inadequate to grasp all knowledge of the world. A teacher only teaches what he knows.

If the disciple decides to accept his teaching without questing, he can never understand the soul of the essence of the knowledge. A questioning mind always finds the gap in the knowledge that is sought to be bridged by faith of the disciple. The True knowledge has to directly emerge from within. Galileo has expressed the limitation of teacher in following words,

"You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself."

The true knowledge has to come from within directly. We take the help of a teacher or a book to trigger the search of the knowledge from within.

The Direct Knowledge

The true knowledge is one that emerges from within. Every great creator of knowledge has done so without any teachers. There were no teachers to Buddha or Christ. Even Einstein discovered his theory of relativity by himself. Yet they all had learned the basic knowledge from their teachers.

Yet they did not limit themselves to the knowledge that was learned from their teachers. They all overgrown from their teacher by their quest of direct knowledge that leis hidden in every person in the deepest of his or her self.

Just like we all develop an ability to learn without teacher i.e. from the books directly, every person has the ability to learn directly from the world, which can be compared with a book.

All our knowledge pertains to this world. Even the knowledge of God can be learned directly from this world as God has created this world and his signature are hidden in every single creation. Just like one can identify the person from his handwriting, God too can be identified from the creation as God is present in every creation. The discovery of the common factor of all creations is the true knowledge of God.

Thus all great people, after they have learned what is known to their teachers, wanted to learn directly from the world. They all attained the direct knowledge of the world. However, when this knowledge was converted into words, the soul of the knowledge is lost just like a picture or a photograph of a person can capture the body of the person but never the soul.

Yet one who has realized the direct knowledge become truly enlightened like Buddha or Christ. It is this direct knowledge that can help a person achieve his salvation and become one with Supreme.

Discard Guru to Become Enlighten

It is wisely said that the only way to experience heaven is to die. In the same way, every person has to become enlightened to become truly knowledgeable. A Guru can be useful in expediting the acquisition of knowledge but can never give the true knowledge. One must, therefore, consider Guru only as a means to achieve the Knowledge that is possible only when one connect his mind to the deepest of his soul, the spark of the Supreme in every person. If one fail to discard the boat of Guru at the right time, his knowledge is never complete and he can never achieve happiness in his life as no two person in this world are same. What worked for the Guru can never work for the disciple even by accident.