Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru. First, I like to start by saying that thank you for everything that you have done. I’ve taken your Inner Engineering course a while back and it has done amazing things to me. I always thought that in order to be spiritually liberated, you need to find yourself a Guru. And in the process of doing so I’ve travelled to, I guess Nepal and India looking for a Guru.
I’ve read an article that you published online where you’ve said that – “How do you know when you find your guru,” and you’ve mentioned that if you know, If you meet someone who almost threatens you and you want to leave, but at the same time there’s something that brings you back to this person then you found your Guru. Like, can you have multiple gurus? Or how do you know you’re in the right path that hey, this is working for me and I should be doing this?
Sadhguru: Isn’t he asking this question to the wrong person? See, first and foremost thing is when somebody is saying something, okay, you listen to them. Don’t believe them. You must listen carefully, but don’t have to believe. You must look at them carefully. Whatever they’re talking – has it worked for them? If it’s worked for them, obviously they know what they’re talking, so you must stay. So, is this my ultimate guru? Is he going to take to the end? Let’s see. Let’s go one step at a time. You don’t know what is ultimate, isn’t it? If he helps you with the present level of your limitations, let’s go to the next step and see what the hell he can do. If he does something meaningful, stay; otherwise go. Hello? So, don’t think in those terms.
See every year I am trekking in Nepal and Tibet. Here there is one Sherpa guiding me, he is an illiterate fellow, all right? But on the mountain, if there are two ways and I want to go this way, he won’t say, “Sadhguruji, please come like this”. He’ll say, “Hmm,”[go this way], I just go that way, “Hmm”. He treats me like I’m his mule or something, but I just follow him, because there you better follow him. You understand? Because the simple thing is this – he knows the terrain, you don’t know the terrain. The same goes here. If you think somebody knows the terrain, you take instructions. If you think they don’t know the terrain don’t stay there. Why are you wasting your time? Isn’t it?
So, a simple way to find out is that – I’m saying something, you must look at me carefully – has it really worked for me first, or am I talking some scripture to you? If you think it’s worked for me, you must hang on. If you think it’s not worked for me, you shouldn’t waste another moment with me.
