During the course of life, we visit great Mahatmas. While doing so, at one place for no apparent reason, the mind will experience great calmness and peace. Only when the burning desire exists in the heart, will such experience occur!

In other words, absolute dedication (shraddha) and devotion (bhakti) should be strong in the person. If they truly exist then, you will find your Guru one day or the other in this lifetime.

While seeing the surroundings at this place, when experiencing the tremendous energy that pervades the place we experience a great stillness and peace of mind. An unexplainable happiness and bliss will envelop the mind. The confidence that all our problems will be resolved at this place and that all our fears will be dispelled here will arise in the mind.

More importantly, the feeling that ‘this person belongs to me’,‘ he is our family member’ ‘our problems will disappear because of him’ will sprout on its own in our heart. Thus, that person in the presence of whom, our mind thus stabilizes, is our Guru.

 Understand that this is your Guru’s place. The truth is that Your Guru himself has come to you. Thus, without any effort, our mind attains peace in the Guru’s presence, such is his aura. Such is the sacredness of that place! Such is his greatness!  It causes an inexplicable bliss in the person.

When Narada visited the place of Kama dahana (destruction of desires) and performed penance, he felt that he had attained victory over desires. When he was thus very happy with the outcome, Vishnu asked him – “Narada, where did you perform the penance?” Narada said- “at the place of kama dahana kshetra”. Vishnu replied, “you could conquer desires solely because of the greatness of the place. For this reason, you were able to conquer your senses while in that place. You go to any other place and check if similar mental state continues”.

Thus, in this manner Guru himself comes to you. This is because He is aware of your limitation in recognizing and locating Him. Just because it is said that Guru himself will come to us, can we sit back relaxedly without putting in any efforts on our part? This could be a doubt entertained by many.  This again is incorrect.

This is because, for the well-being of his trillions of his devotees, the primordial Guru, who is an ocean of compassion, accepts varied forms.

Due to this faith that he developed on his Guru, the boy studied well and he acquired mastery in mathematics. Only then the boy realized that not only did his master know the hundred table, but that he was a master in this entire subject. He also realized that hundredth table is just one small drop in the entire vast subject.

Just like the boy in the story, we too lack the ability to identify our Spiritual Guru.  Likewise seeing certain traits and abilities in the Guru, hearing the opinions of certain people who are on this path, the Guru is selected by the devotee.

Here too there are certain difficulties. Going by the external grandeur exhibited, miracles displayed or oratory skills demonstrated or publicity attained, people get misled. They are cheated. They will think- “O my God, look at the publicity, look at the following or look at the money involved” and thus they get influenced by it.

What then is the right method to be adopted in finding a Guru? To answer this, let us know the reason why we wanted a Guru in the first place. To procure that light which has no shade and to fulfill the 3 basic desires we wanted a Guru in the first place.

Towards this there should be an endless burning desire. To achieve this, we should visit great souls. While doing so, at one place for no apparent reason, the mind will experience great calmness and peace. Only when the burning desire exists in the heart, will such experience occur!

In other words, absolute dedication (shraddha) and devotion (bhakti) should be strong in the person. If they truly exist then, you will find your Guru one day or the other in this lifetime.

While seeing the surroundings at this place, when experiencing the tremendous energy that pervades the place we experience a great stillness and peace of mind. An unexplainable happiness and bliss will envelop the mind. The confidence that all our problems will be resolved at this place and that all our fears will be dispelled here will arise in the mind.