Rogue Gurus and Fallen Yogis | How To Practice Guru-Yoga

Guru-Yoga is the central practice of the Tantrik tradition. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in any genuine mystical tradition, the role of a living teacher is highly emphasized: in Christian mysticism, its the spiritual perception/director/elder; in Sufism its the Affendi; in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism its the Guru.  My guru likes to say: the human Guru is a matchmaker who marries you to God, who alone is the Guru, and Who, in Truth is what You are at the essence of your Being.   

Yes, the Guru is certainly IN you AS you but long before you can benefit from inner direction, you'll need a human teacher to mirror for you, model for you and instruct you in spiritual life. 
Like with all things in life, we need teachers.   
But what qualifies a person to become a spiritual teacher?   

Some time ago, we had a talk where we explored Swami Vivekananda's criterion for a genuine teacher that appears in the Bhakti Yoga book. And long before that, on Guru Purnima some years ago, we offered a lecture on Guru Yoga in general where we explored a few Tantras like the Kula-Arnava Tantra to get a sense for what guruhood really is according to the Tantrik tradition

Since Guru Purnima is coming up yet again, I thought it'd be nice to revisit that discussion, especially since last week we had such an extension discussion on the importance of shāstra, scriptures and also since we're currently discussing the Nārada Bhakti Sutra in which we find this profound set of verses:

भवतु न चयदा  याद ू व शा  र णम्।१२-१.१२
अ यथा पा त यश कया । १३ - १.१३ 

"Until one is unshakeably enlightened, one should follow the scriptures." (12) "Otherwise, there is a fear of fall (from spiritual life)." (13) 

What does it mean to "fall"? In this talk, I make the case that "falling" for both a practitioner and a more importantly, a practitioner who teaches others is non-adherence to or general disrespect/irreverence for the tradition's scriptures. Remember, this conversation is the follow up to last week's discussion on the importance of scripture (which features a very clear definition of what we mean by "scripture")

This is one lecture in a series on the Nārada Bhakti Sutra which you can follow along with here

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Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST
Use this link and I will see you there:
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For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:
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