While visiting Switzerland last summer I met two new friends, and we spent many afternoons enjoying the views from a large deck that overlooked the mountains that surrounded the valley. They were from Germany and had met and fallen in love while staying at an ashram in India. The Guru was famous and was attracting young people from all over the world. Of course I knew of him, but never met him or had any interest in his ashram or teaching.

The guru is now dead but his ashram is bigger than ever and still attracting people who come to experience and practise his teachings. Both of my friends had Indian names that were given to them by their guru . Still, after all these years they continued to use their spiritual names as if they had some special power or meaning for them. I ask them what did they do after their guru died and did they feel still part of his following?

They both looked at each other to see some sign as to which one would answer my question. He said they travelled around India visiting a number of teachers but never settled on one, because after knowing their guru it was hard to take anyone very seriously. They still felt they had a close relationship with their teacher. He was still very much alive in their thoughts and most of their friends were still members, holding on to the teachings and running a centre that taught the guru’s teachings.

I wonder why we feel the need for someone to guide us and why we never see the importance of being free from believing in some form of authority other than our own understanding. We belong to the family, to property and beliefs that shape our thoughts and feelings. We all live in the past and feel unable to change anything including our desires, wants and fears that make up what we call our life. Oh yes, we know that, he answered, that is why we need some help to change our condition. We are lost and need help in finding our way. Yes, but why do you feel you need to be shown the way home, as it were. Are you so sure you need help and what is it you want to know? That’s why we are here to know the answer or to be realised, enlightened, they said.

Are you sure that is what you want, or do you want to find another teacher, some new yoga to practice and lose yourself in some form of hope? You know that hope is born out of the desire to change yourself or change the world you live in. You are not happy all the time, your girlfriend gets on your nerves, and even when you are along you want some experience to fill the space within. We try to fill the emptiness in our lives - that is why we like to belong, if not to some religious practice or follow some guru or we try our luck in some other field, like making money, they are all the same. Inside we are dull and full of empty words and hopes of finding some relief from our misery. I am afraid we are just second-hand people who want to follow in the footsteps of another who we think can help us in our search.

Filling our lives with all the different forms of sensation >>