live radio talk show with Anandmurti Gurumaa on BBC

Exclusive Interview with Gurumaa on BBC

BBC: People are quite skeptical about Gurus. How do you know that the person you are looking to, for guidance is not guiding you the wrong way?

guru

GURUMAA: In whole of the Asian tradition, the place of the Guru is of utmost importance. Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism: Guru is there; and for every one diamond there is always a false diamond. You have to have that eye, that wisdom to know the difference from a glass to a diamond. Now, if you already have wisdom then you yourself are a Guru; another paradoxical problem then you doesn’t need a Guru. For some time, I believe one should rely on the scriptures; what scriptures are talking about, and if one is reading them properly, scriptures are laying down the basic rules to be religious person. If you are following that sincerely, which people don’t; people are really big hypocrites, they don’t. Just by going to temple, you don’t become a Hindu; just by going to Gurudwara, you are not to be called a Sikh. There are some basic principles which you should be practicing; if you are practicing those principles and you feel that there is need of a Guru who can help you gain heights of your inner journey, at that time your sincerity, your prayer works. The power of the prayer works and you will never end up with the wrong person.
The scriptures have also laid down: Who a Guru is? We have a definition: who is honest, who doesn’t expect anything from the disciple, who is all giving, who is absolutely egoless, who has no selfish ends, who is beyond the mind(this means that he is beyond all the sickness). But if Guru is using his/her position to exploit people economically, sexually, mentally, intellectually, and emotionally is not fit to be called a Guru.
We have a great heritage, great library of great books of Buddhism, Hinduism…If you read them properly, things are crystal clear. But again the problem is that people neither have that kind of time nor that kind of aptitude to go into such readings.
When we are sick we always opt for a good doctor but if your doctor is not giving the right advice, this doesn’t mean that the whole medical fraternity is wrong or pseudo. So there have been cases where Gurus have been the exploiters but that doesn’t mean that one wrong person can be made as a generalized example for the whole.
If you are sincere you will always end up with a sincere person, but if you yourself are not sincere then God help you.

BBC: Life is very stressful these days. Can you give us any advice on how to get out of stress?

GURUMAA: Please meditate! Please learn to meditate. It’s a very simple to do; you just need a right teacher who can guide you with an appropriate method and 25 minutes to 30 minutes per day is enough to come out of any kind of stress rather to be in such a healthy state of mind where stress doesn’t happen to you. You need to learn how to live life. Life has been bestown upon us by the nature, by God, by higher energies but God doesn’t give the knowledge to live our life. This is something which we have to gain and that’s the reason we are different from all other animal and bird species. Bird is born like a bird, will live like a bird, and will die like a bird. But human being is born like a human being, with great spiritual heights can attain such a state that this human becomes God. And If this person doesn’t become God, can just be human, or things can be very negative as well and the human being can fall out to be an animal as well.

BBC: How to meditate, if one hasn’t been brought up with any particular religion?

GURUMAA: Meditation has nothing to do with the religion. You can be an absolute non-believer and yet can be a meditative person. For example, I use music and those who understand music or love music, they would agree to this: When you are totally into listening to the music, you go beyond your body, the state of mind is so relaxed and so calm as if you are floating; no pain, no stress.
Today, in lot of places, it has already been experimented that music can heal people from their sickness: body sickness, mind sickness. A painter for example may not be a believer of God but when a painter paints, is absolutely lost or should I say found in that art; doesn’t have any kind of stress which he need to manage, there’s any frustration. Every child should be taught to be creative because if you have creativity in you, you are much more better person, a very sensitive, a very thoughtful, a very thinking kind of being you become and any thinking, sensitive, creative person will never be in loss of love or satisfaction.

BBC: When you talk about meditation, does it mean something that brings you in calm?

GURUMAA: Just being calm is not meditation; just being concentrated is not meditation; just being focused too is not meditation. Meditation is far more than all these three things. It has the combination of these things but we can not single out that it is just concentration, or calmness, or focus. It has the ingredients of all these things, but it is more about heightened awareness.

BBC: Lots of people turn to Astrologers, Tarots, in the time of need; because they are searching for answers. What is your opinion about this?

GURUMAA: When you are unsatisfied, when you are in a fix and you don’t know where your life is leading, you are always going to go out to those people in whom you have faith or your belief says that they can provide you some answers. Man is looking for consolation and is always ready to justify whatever consolation he gets. Astrologers, Tarot readers, Crystal ball readers, Aura readers, when you go to these people you will never come out with a negative tone; they will always give you some bright point. They say, this is there in the future, wait for that; or if there is some obstacle you do this and it will be removed. This is where their commercial benefit comes. They charge lot of fees for they can remove their obstacles and good time will come sooner.
I say that if you know how to live your life then you have to accept that life is going to give you fair share of misery and happiness. This is a fundamental Truth. We need to accept that misery will be there, happiness will be there. If there is a day, there will be a night and if there is a night there will be a day. If you are in misery, just have little patience, use your wisdom, do whatever you can to make situations or environment around you, easy to live into. But you need to accept that misery is part of life. So if it is there, it’s much easy to accept it and then just wait for this night to go and the day will definitely come.