900 Hours of Re-Discovery A Memoir of My Yoga Experience - Part III

In search for a Guru

- Ankita Sood

All of us go through a journey starting from curiosity to finding, to questioning ultimately realising or experiencing. The questions are usually related to finding our purpose, our reality, the truth, the longing for freedom, the belonging with the spirit, with God. When the pleasures of the material world do not feel enough to satisfy the soul, when a new house, a new car, a new career starts to feel empty, we all look for a Guru - a guiding light, someone who can tell us where true happiness is, can take us to the world of bliss, whom we can, without a doubt or any fear, follow and, like a parent, he holds our hand through the rough times and leads us to the right path.

But who really is a Guru? And where can we find a Guru? We often relate to idols and turn to temples when the idea of faith comes. As humans we need to ‘see’ first in order to believe, so we have Gods, we have idols, we have temples and churches. So when it comes to a Guru, we think of a human, an enlightened being, who has the answers. But is it necessarily that a Guru has to be a human? ‘Guru’ in Sanskrit means ‘expert or master’ of a certain knowledge. It means a personality, a voice, which is not bound by geography, place, form or a religion.