The Spiritual Guru and Enlightenment

A true spiritual Guru will impart to his disciples or students the spiritual realization he has attained. This means your spiritual attainment is a result of three things:

• The spiritual realization of your Guru
• The style of meditation you practiced
• The intended goal of your meditation

Self-realization or atma-jnana is knowledge of the spiritual self or soul. The bliss of self realization relates only to the satvik quality of maya. This bliss is much greater than ordinary material happiness, but relates only to the self (soul) not the supreme Soul, (God).

Therefore, although it is more blissful than ordinary worldly happiness, it is not a full realization of the divine. Practitioners of this style are jnanis and yogis who follow the precepts of nondual meditation or ashtanga yoga.

Beyond this is the full realization of the impersonal bliss of formless divinity or absolute truth known as brahm-ananda (the bliss of brahm or absolute truth). Jnanis and yogis who perfect the nondual meditation of gyan or ashtanga yoga are in the category.

Superior to this is the experience of the bliss of perceiving the beauty of God's eternal divine form called bhagavad-ananda or the bliss related to almightiness.

Superior to this is the bliss of divine love called prem-ananda. In this realization God is experienced with relational intimacy as a divine friend, child or beloved. This is the most intimate, enriched and intensified experience of divine bliss possible for a soul. Bhaktas or devotees who perfect bhakti yoga or devotion are in this category.

As explained earlier, every power in the divine world has a personal form. The personal form of God related to the divine love power is Radha Krishna.

So there are three types of true spiritual Gurus who relate to three different states of realization:

• Jnani Saint/Yogi Saint -- impersonal aspect of divinity
  (nondual bliss or absolute truth)
  
  
• Bhakta Saint -- perception of the beauty of God's form
  (almighty bliss)
  
  
• Rasik Saint -- perception of beauty and affectionate closeness of God's form (Divine love bliss)

Next steps: For a more in-depth discussion of the different types of divine realization, click here.