Attachment to the Guru
Question: The spiritual path is about overcoming attachments, so why is attachment to a Guru not discouraged?
Reading Time – 3 Minutes
Because that is the way to be detached from everything else in life. By attaching to a Guru, then we can detach from everything else. That is the secret to detachment—we have to attach to something that is actually beneficial.
I want to give you an example. Let’s say a husband and wife are married for ten years and then there’s a divorce. The husband still really loves the wife, but the wife says she doesn’t want to live with him anymore, for whatever reason. So, the husband feels, “I’ve lived with her for ten years, I don’t know any other way to live. I love her. I really do.” He keeps on thinking about this and just suffering, suffering for many months. And then he goes to a yoga class, and he meets another woman and suddenly they like each other.
After six months of suffering, thinking about his ex-wife all the time, suddenly he meets another woman, they start dating and they love each other. Suddenly he’s not thinking about his ex-wife anymore! The sleepless nights thinking about his ex-wife are over.
How did he do that? Didn’t he attach to another person? Therefore, he’s not thinking about the other trauma anymore.
That’s just everyday life. But, in some sense it’s not that different when one is attached to anything in life and is just suffering. It could be the loss of something like a partner or your business. Or maybe someone says something bad about you, and you’re so attached to your image that you get hurt. You’re just attached to everything.
So, you attach to the Guru and that helps you to detach from everything else in your life.
When one becomes attached to the Guru, it’s a feeling that, “I need my Guru. I can’t live without my Guru. I need my Guru’s help.” It’s very, very good, because you’re attaching to one person, but the nature of that attachment is a little bit different. When you truly attach to the Guru, all the other attachments will be gone. That’s just how it works. All other things will seem immaterial.
And the last detachment is actually detachment towards that Guru. You even let go of the attachment towards the Guru, at the end. Then you’re totally free from all attachments. That’s freedom.
You’re literally using this approach, this attachment to the Guru, as a great path towards your own freedom. It makes it quicker to detach. Imagine detaching from each thing in life, one at a time—how long are you going to take? But by attaching to one you let go of the rest. It’s much quicker, you see.
So, from that perspective, being attached to the Guru is very, very good—but it’s not perfect.
Perfect is when you’re attached to nothing in life, not even the Guru.
But that is just one step away. If freedom is heaven, then when you have perfect attachment to the Guru, you’re just one step down from heaven.
When somebody is attached to the Guru, they’re going to be so happy. So happy! Because they’re only one step down from heaven, or freedom. If freedom is 100%, they’re on 99%. They’re so happy already.
So, if a person is on the spiritual path and they want to attain freedom, attachment to the Guru is great. There is no other object of attachment that makes you free from all other attachments.
