Nisargadatta Maharaja :- Is all of humanity either a guru or a fake guru.+

Nisargadatta Maharaj:~  Is all of humanity either a guru or a fake guru? Playing with words because maybe the meaning is floating somewhere in between the spaces of words...

People who think themselves to be in a position to air their knowledge forget one basic fact, namely that they go by mere appearances. Someone expounds knowledge and the one who receives it begins to ape the person from whom he has received the knowledge. Thus, whatever the teacher wears, he will wear; whatever mannerisms the teacher affects, he will imitate. And the transfer of so-called "knowledge" has been only of concepts. This is essentially how tradition becomes established and traditional forms of worship come into being, all of which have nothing to do with Self-knowledge.

Whatever you have heard, whatever you have been told, will have no value as far as I am concerned. I want to know whether you accept the fact that the only knowledge that you really have is the knowledge that you are, this consciousness. Other than that, whatever knowledge you think you have, is mere hearsay, something acquired, based on the illusory consciousness. Is that so or is it not so? -- The Ultimate Medicine by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, p. 149 (chapter: "Eventually, You have to give up this Association with the Consciousness")

There is so not much on Self-knowledge, but there is plenty of information on cults, gurus and their film flam, scandals, etc.  Real Self-knowledge requires that one find out for himself. This also means discovering, exploring, and thinking for oneself.

Looking for mystical gurus and yogis is not related to finding real Self Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. A vast majority of these spiritual problems disappear as one takes full responsibility for his own "enlightenment-- free of religion, god glorification, scriptural knowledge, cultural dogma, and burnt-out historical traditions.

In the pursuit of truth, everything is all summed up in inquiring, analyzing, and reasoning on the base of the soul as the Self which is something one tries for himself and finds out for himself.

Therefore, once one has that pointer, that direction, there is no need to waste time and effort. If one is interested in the history of gurus and yogis, or if one finds his transcribed talks entertaining or soothing, that is OK. Otherwise, once one becomes aware of the fact that ‘I’ is not the self, but the soul is the true self he will be able to drop all the accumulated dross.

The soul is the innermost self. The soul the inner guru guides us all till we get the stillness of its Advaitic true nature. It is the soul which is in ignorance it is the soul that has to wake from the sleep of ignorance.

Katha Upanishad says: ~ This Atman is attained by him alone whom It chooses. (II -23-P-20)

Thus, those who have taken paths of wisdom are chosen ones.  The chosen one will get the grace of the soul, the inner guru. The path of wisdom is the soulcentric path, whereas all other paths are egocentric.  All egocentric paths are leads to a hallucination.

The inner self revels ‘what is real’ and ‘what is unreal” when the seeker is receptive and ready.

Sages of truth restrained themselves from parting the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to the mass and only a selected few. It was hidden from the mass who were not qualified and receptive to it. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana was not written down but was imparted orally to the chosen few. Thus, religion was given to the mass, and knowledge of the spirit is given to only a selected few. Thus we find traces of knowledge of the spirit in the religious books in the form of parables. : ~Santthosh Kumaar