A devotee’s question: I already accept Kripalu Ji Maharaj as my Guru, but I didn’t meet him in my lifetime. So I’m confused that can I make him my Guru or not? Or first do I need to make one of Maharaj Ji’s preachers as my Guru?
Swami Nikhilanand Ji’s answer: This is a very important question to understand and there’s two aspects to it.
One is that can you make a Divine Saint your Guru who is no longer physically present on earth? Now, there are in many cases general rules that apply most times, but in certain cases there are exceptions. So the general rule is those who have met a saint, while the saint is alive. Those who have surrendered to a saint while the saint is physically present on earth continue to be protected and graced by that saint for the rest of their life, even if the saint leaves the earth. But no new person can make that saint their Guru after the saint has left the earth. This is the general rule, the general philosophy.
However, there are exceptions and Shree Maharaj Ji is one of those exceptions. So in the case of Shree Maharaj Ji, due to his particular Divine status, even though he is no longer physically visible to us, nonetheless, not only those who met him during his time where he was visible, not only those who surrendered to him during that time, but even those who had never even heard of Maharaj Ji while he was present here on earth, even those people still have the opportunity to accept Maharaj Ji as their Guru. Nothing has changed in that regard.
Just as when Maharaj Ji was physically here, there was no physical formality required to accept him as your Guru. There is no contract to be signed. There is no verbal exchange required. Even a physical meeting was not required.
Even when Maharaj Ji was physically here, let’s say somebody saw his lecture on television and felt, “Oh, he is my Guru. He is answering all my questions.” That’s it. It’s done. The second you thought that, the second you accepted him in your heart, he became your Guru.
That was all that was ever required with Shree Maharaj Ji. You accept him in your heart, the rest happens automatically. As soon as you accept him, that inner connection is created and his grace starts being felt and starts taking effect in your heart.
The same exact thing can happen now. Even though as far as we can see with our physical eyes, Maharaj Ji isn’t visible to us. That doesn’t mean he is not physically here.
That’s the special exception with Shree Maharaj Ji. Just because his body isn’t visible to us, doesn’t mean that he is not physically here. He is still physically with each and every devotee in the whole world.
Even those who hadn’t met him, if somebody just finds out about Shree Maharaj Ji for the very first time today, through one of his lectures or a preacher or one of his books or something, even today somebody can decide, I want Shree Maharaj Ji as my Guru and the same thing happens. As soon as you feel that in your heart and you accept him, to whatever degree you have accepted him in your heart, the same degree of connection is instantly created and instantly grace starts to flow.
So as far as making Shree Maharaj Ji your Guru, nothing has changed from now as compared to the time when he was visible to us 50 years ago or 20 years ago. Nothing has changed in that regard.
And as far as making a preacher your Guru, completely unnecessary, and in fact I would say even more strongly than that, to be absolutely avoided. Because preachers are not saints. Preachers are devotees who have been blessed by Shree Maharaj Ji to get the opportunity to do Seva to him by spreading his teachings. That’s it. Doing the Seva of a preacher is no better than doing any other kind of Seva that was assigned by Shree Maharaj Ji or not assigned directly by Shree Maharaj Ji, just somebody got the opportunity to do some Seva.
No Seva is better or lesser than any other Seva. So preachers have a highly visible Seva which puts us in a position to be known by a lot of people and we do have the responsibility to try to guide people according to Maharaj Ji’s philosophy and try to answer questions. But that doesn’t confer any kind of special status on us devotionally speaking.
Many simple, meaning devotees, living a simple, ordinary existence may be much higher than any preacher. We don’t know. Maharaj Ji knows those things.
So preachers should absolutely not be thought of as gurus. Maharaj Ji himself said many times that none of my pracharaks (preachers) are God-realized. They’re just repeating what I’ve taught them. That’s it. So take the information from the preachers and apply it, use it to understand Shree Maharaj Ji’s philosophy. But don’t ever think of a preacher as a guru. Never mind guru, don’t even think of preachers as Divine personalities.
Give them respect because Maharaj Ji has put them in that position. But don’t elevate them on that kind of a pedestal where you start thinking, “Oh, their every word and every action is Divine.”
No, we’re just repeating what Shree Maharaj Ji taught us. That’s it.
So you don’t have to... It’s not a stepping stone. You don’t have to accept a preacher first and then accept Shree Maharaj Ji. Go directly to Shree Maharaj Ji.
And whatever preacher you’ve come through, the preacher just has to take you and (he/she) tries to get you connected to Shree Maharaj Ji. And once you’re connected to Shree Maharaj Ji, if you have any other questions, we can still help. But no, you don’t need us.
You have your direct connection with Shree Maharaj Ji.
