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Much has been made by many commentators of the fact that Arjuna said in verse 7, "I am your disciple. Please instruct me, I am surrendered to you." Yet in verse 9 he says, "I shall not fight thus" and falls silent, showing that he was not really surrendered. The reason given is that if he were truly surrendered, if he was truly a disciple, anything should have been acceptable to him, and he would have simply obeyed Krishna. If Krishna told him to fight, he would have fought. If Krishna told him not to fight, he would have not fought. Many commentators even pour ridicule on Arjuna that although he uses words such as "I am your disciple" and "I am surrendered to you," by his actions he shows that he is not surrendered!

But personally, I would side with Arjuna. Blind obedience to another human being has been the bane not only of Hinduism with its hundreds of self-serving gurus, but of Christianity too, in which "gurus" like Jim Jones (800 people followed him into the jungle and committed mass suicide) and David Koresh (who led thousands into a fiery inferno) have beguiled thousands of people with their strange teachings. "Being surrendered" does not mean blind obedience. Blind obedience is appropriate only in the army where if someone does not blindly obey his superiors, it would be disastrous (and Krishna was not his superior in the war). But it is not appropriate in a teacher-disciple relationship where the disciple is supposed to learn. A keen, questioning mind, an inquisitive spirit, which are necessary for real learning, get killed by blind obedience. Like Nachiketa in the Katha-Upanishad, Arjuna shows such a keen, questioning mind and an inquisitive and persevering spirit in the Bhagavad Geeta with his many questions. That would have got killed had he blindly obeyed Krishna, just the way Nachiketa’s spirit would have got quashed had he blindly followed Yama’s advice when Yama said, "O Nachiketa, choose another boon. Do not press me. Ask not this boon of me. Ask for sons and grandsons who shall live a hundred years, many cattle, elephants, gold and horses. Ask for lands of vast extent and live as many autumns as you desire. If you think of any other boon equal to this, ask for wealth and long life; be ruler over the wide earth. Ask for lovely maidens with their chariots and musical instruments. But do not ask as to what happens after death." Imagine what would have happened if Nachiketa would have blindly obeyed Yama! Good for him that he didn’t.

Imagine what would have happened if verses 4 to 9 of chapter 2 of the Geeta had read, "Yes Lord Krishna. You are my guru. I am your disciple. I will blindly do as you say. I will blindly obey you. You are right when you are saying that I am giving in to this impotence. It is certainly not befitting of me. As you are saying, I will certainly give up this petty weakness of heart and get up and fight. Thanks for reminding me that I am a scorcher of enemies. I shall surely act like one now. Scorch my enemies I will, once again for sure. I will certainly fight!" Imagine if verses 4 to 9 would have read like that! The Bhagavad Geeta would have finished there and then! Arjuna would have most probably vanquished his enemies, won the war, and enjoyed the kingdom. But he would have learnt nothing. He would have learnt nothing about life. He would have made no spiritual progress. Blind obedience can take you only so much and no further. In our spiritual walk, doing and understanding are like our two feet. In walking, we cannot move further by moving just one leg. If we have moved our left leg forward, the next one that we have to move forward is our right leg. We can’t move ahead by just moving one leg forward. Even if one of our legs is indisposed, we have to drag it forward. But move it forward we must, some way or the other. Doing and understanding build on each other: doing strengthens and enhances understanding, and understanding strengthens and enhances our doing. Those who concentrate on "doing" alone or on "understanding" alone will necessarily make slow progress. Both are necessary and both are important. In the rest of the Geeta, Arjuna, by his many questions, shows that he is also interested in understanding and not just in doing actions blindly.

That leads to another very important fact: the asking of questions is a very important part of learning! "Don’t ask me such silly questions," says today’s overburdened parent to his child and effectively quashes his natural inquisitiveness, scarring him for life. The parent is the child’s first and most important guru. Arjuna asks many questions of Krishna in the rest of the Geeta. Imagine if Krishna would have got irritated and answered "Don’t ask such silly questions!" The real guru actually becomes happy when the disciple asks many questions. Go back to your school days. Which of the teachers did you like the most and from whom did you learn the most? Those who respected your questions and took delight in answering them!

Coming back to the issue of blind obedience, the purpose of our lives is supposed to be to develop our relationship with God. Blind obedience to another human being, no matter how good he is, develops our relationship with that person, not with God. What if he tells you to do something that your inner voice, the voice of your conscience through which God speaks to you, objects to? Then to develop your relationship with God, you are supposed to obey your inner voice, not the guru! There has to be a clear place for saying "We must obey God rather than men!" the way Peter and the other apostles replied to the religious authorities in Acts 5:29, when they were commanded to do something against what they knew God wanted them to do. They were following Jesus whose entire life was filled with instances of obeying God and disobeying religious authorities! Even in India, people like Buddha, Mahavira, and Krishna himself (remember his showdown with the religious authorities when he forbade worship to Indra?) never blindly obeyed the religious authorities. Jesus, Buddha and Mahavira didn’t even have gurus, and went far beyond any human guru could have taken them! They were so sensitive to God, that they didn’t even need human gurus!

Gurus who demand blind obedience should in fact, be kept away from. Only people who are not confident about their own relationship with God, who are more interested in increasing the size of their flocks, who are more interested in having dumb yes-men around them, demand blind obedience. Such gurus prove more of a hindrance in the development of the disciple’s relationship with God. The real guru, who is truly interested in the development of the disciple’s relationship with God, would boldly say, "Don’t obey me blindly. Obey God. Obey your inner voice. If your inner voice tells you to do something that is contrary to what I am saying, then don’t obey me. Obey your inner voice."

In Hinduism, on the one hand it is said that a guru is absolutely essential in making spiritual progress. And on the other hand it is said that "all that you need is within you." How can both the statements be true at the same time? What exactly is the truth and what exactly is the role of a guru? What exactly happens between a guru and his disciple that is so important? And who exactly is a real guru?

A guru’s role is essentially that of a catalyst. In chemistry, a catalyst is a chemical which itself does not take part in a reaction, but its presence speeds up the reaction between two other chemicals. Let’s say, two chemicals, A and B, are known to react with reach other, but very slowly. Let’s say you put A and B together, and it would take an hour or so for the chemical reaction between them to take place and form C. However, if you add another chemical ‘X’ to them, the reaction takes place within a matter of seconds. At the end of the reaction, ‘X’ remains the same; it itself remains unaffected.

In the same way, the essential reaction that has to take place is between God and the seeker. It sure can take place by itself, but very slowly. It may take years and years of struggling. However, if a right guru is present, what would have taken years, can take place within months. A seeker without a guru is like a person walking in the dark. Groping, fumbling, blundering, stumbling, falling down, getting up again, taking the next step hesitatingly, his progress is very slow. A genuine seeker with a right guru is like another man who is walking in the light. He is not only walking confidently, he is also enjoying his walk, enjoying the sights around him, has a lightness in his spirit, plus reaches his destination faster.

Note that I have used the words "genuine seeker" and "right guru." Both the qualifications are important. A genuine seeker is one who knows that he is far from having achieved the purpose of his life, is humble enough to acknowledge it, is enterprising enough to seek it, and is practical enough to be willing to pay the price for getting it (not in money terms, but in terms of time and effort). The dead cannot be treated, the healthy need no treatment. Only the unhealthy need treatment. Out of the unhealthy also, those who are real enough and humble enough to acknowledge that they are unhealthy, enterprising enough to go to a doctor, and practical enough to be willing to pay the price for getting treated, can and will be treated. Those who are not real enough or humble enough to acknowledge their own unhealthiness, will not accept treatment even if they are offered it for free! Those who are too lazy to go to the doctor will continue suffering on their beds, when with a little bit of right effort, they can easily get cured.

What about the right guru? A right guru is one who is a few rungs above the seeker. He may not be near the top rung; indeed only a very few like Jesus and Krishna and Buddha have reached those levels. He only has to be at least one rung above the disciple. He is to be real enough to recognize where and how far below the top rung he himself is, and humble enough to acknowledge it. His motivation for agreeing to be another’s guru has to be pure. His only purpose for doing so, has to be to be a catalyst in another person’s walk with God, to help speed up the reaction taking place between the disciple and God. His purpose is not to be self-glorification, or to derive any kind of benefits from the disciple. Many of the gurus seen around today fall far, far below this standard.

No guru is to be considered absolute. Not everything the guru says is to be accepted blindly. The disciple’s purpose is to develop his relationship with God, not with the guru. Before a disciple obeys a guru, he has to have the internal witness in his own spirit that what the guru says is right and worth following. If he doesn’t have this inner witness, he shouldn’t obey the guru.

Secondly, no guru is to be considered as a guru for life. Once a disciple has reached a certain level, the level of the guru, he is to move on, if his internal witness says so. This would happen if the guru himself has stopped learning, has stopped being a shishya himself, if he thinks he has got it all. The guru has to be so humble that he should be willing to even learn from his disciple if necessary. He is to have the attitude: "I may be a guru to him at this moment in one particular area, but he may be a guru to me half an hour later in another area. Why, within a year, he may become a guru to me in the very same area in which I am a guru to him now."

Thirdly, a disciple need not limit his learning to be from one particular person. He must be willing to learn from anybody/ anything and at any time. I remember two incidents from my own life, both from around the year 2000. At that time there was an advertisement with the catch line, "Find purpose, the means will follow." It hit me perfectly where I needed it most. At that moment that advertisement had become my guru. In another incident at around the same time, I was tense and anxious about something, when my eyes fell on a relaxed dog basking in the winter morning sunshine, with not a care in the world! All my worries and anxieties vanished in a moment and for that moment the dog had become my guru!

That brings us to a most important point: A guru is not someone who imparts information to you. A guru is someone whose presence does something to you and changes you permanently. The presence of the advertisement and the dog did something to me at those moments and hence they fit the definition of a guru. However it was only for the moment. Just because something had happened to me on seeing those two sights, doesn’t mean I make them gurus for life. It would be crazy and stupid of me to make a dog my guru for life!

It pains me to see people giving their precious lives to "gurus" who are worse than dogs! "Gurus" demanding sexual pleasures in the guise of giving "blessings" should be treated worse than stray dogs. Just because a person wears a particular color of clothes (orange/ white/ black) and keeps a beard and mouths scripture verses and gives discourses does not make him a guru. A real guru is someone whose life is so clean and pure and free from the contaminations of this world because of the closeness of his relationship with God, that his very presence imparts these qualities to those around him. That’s how the most effective learning takes place. Watch the little ones of human beings or of animals. How do they learn? They learn by simply being with their parents and observing them and imitating them. Even in adults, this has to be found to be the fastest and most effective way of learning. Lectures and discourses and books are not so effective. Most people hear the discourse and by the time they are out of the meeting they have forgotten most of it. Most people read a book and before they have finished it, forget what was in it. Of course they will say things like "What a wonderful discourse!" or "What a fantastic book!" But as far as effect on their lives is concerned, it is close to zero. Very few have the capability to have their lives changed through hearing discourses or reading books. We learn and imbibe more from being with other people than through books and discourses. That’s also why parents want their children to "keep good company" (though they themselves may not!)

A guru is one who imparts the good life by his mere presence, hence it’s important for the disciples to spend time with him. This is real satsang. Now if the guru is to impart the good life, he himself obviously must have it first! The test of a guru is not how well he can mouth scriptures or give impressive discourses, but how much of the good life is he himself living. "You teach what you know, but you impart what you are." The good life means righteousness plus freedom of being, that comes from having a well-developed relationship with God. If he is lacking in either, he obviously cannot impart it to others. Some gurus are good at freedom of being, but not in righteousness. Some others are righteous, but are so heavy, with nary a smile on their faces, giving the impression that they themselves are living miserable lives, that you want to run away from them! The guru can impart only what he has; a miserable guru will impart you misery, an unrighteous guru will impart unrighteousness.

Note what it says in Varaha Upanishad II:76, "Without the grace of a good guru, the abandonment of sensual objects is very difficult of attainment; so also the perception of divine truth and the attainment of one’s true state" and the Maha Upanishad in IV-77, "Without a good preceptor’s grace it is hard to give up objects, to see truth and to realize the pristine state." He has to be a good guru; not any guru. And the abandonment of sensual objects and the perception of divine truth is hard, is difficult, but not impossible. Never should you think that self-realization is impossible without a guru. Says the Maha Upanishad, vs. II:1-2, "Suka, of great lustre, devoted to Natural Bliss, the prince of sages, realized Truth even at birth without instruction. So also a person may get certain knowledge of the self by himself by long self-analysis. This is because the self is beyond description, unrealizable by the mind and the sense organs; Pure Bliss, atomic, subtler then even ether."

So what do you do in a situation like today’s when good gurus are almost impossible to find? Most gurus of today are more interested in ‘making disciples’ than in benefiting everyone who comes in contact with them. Most gurus are more interested in increasing their wealth through the disciples’ and well-wishers’ donations than in freely increasing the spiritual wealth of others. What do you do? Answer: Don’t be in any hurry to make a guru. Self-serving gurus are dime a dozen in the world. If you are in a hurry to make a guru, the probability of your falling for a fake guru increases. And that will actually prove to be a hindrance in developing your relationship with God, rather than a help. Learn from whoever you can and wherever you can. Instead of seeking a better guru, seek to be a better learner. You will come across the right guru in the course of time. And God has already placed the perfect guru to be with you always: his spirit within you. Listen to him and do what he says. He will take you much further than any human guru can.

Where do the holy books like the Bible, the Geeta, the Quran fit in into this scheme of things? These are many often derided, looked down upon and ignored by those who follow "gurus". Earlier we have seen how even an advertisement board can bring the presence of God into your life. Now if a commercial advertisement can bring the presence of God into your life, how much more books written by/about people who have lived in the presence of God! The holy books are obviously better suited than commercial advertisements for the purpose. They are derided, looked down upon and ignored, because it takes time and effort to understand them. They are not as fast as another human being who has distilled their wisdom, made it a reality into his own life, and can impart it to others by his mere presence. However, the books provide a higher level of objectivity and breadth of vision than one person can. Typically in followers of people like David Koresh and Jim Jones and the hundreds of self-styled gurus in India, it is seen that they keep the Scriptures aside and follow the words of their gurus to their doom. The objectivity brought in by the scriptures is missing and they go off on a tangent. The poor followers simply don’t have the knowledge to challenge the gurus even when what the guru is saying is obviously against the scriptures. A knowledge of the principal teachings of the Scriptures on part of the disciple keeps both the disciple as well as the guru in line! Yes a good guru is important, but so is familiarity with the Scriptures. As says the Annapurna Upanishad in V-71, "First augment wisdom by means of familiarity with the Scriptures and by seeking the company of the holy."

Having one without the other can create its own problems. Having a knowledge of the Scriptures without a good guru can make you take years to reach a place that you would have reached in days with the help of a good guru. And having a guru without knowing the Scriptures may have you end up in a wrong place! Since you don’t want either of these problems, it is important to take care of both the things – have a good guru, and also have a knowledge of the Scriptures!

In verse 10, Krishna starts his discourse with a smile. The word used "prahasa" is suggestive of a half-smile. For a disciple who is in a state as bad as Arjuna was in, there is nothing more assuring than a half-smile from his guru. A smile like that is given by a person who has the exact solution to the problem facing the disciple. For a charioteer, there was no worse situation than this: The war is about to begin, the chariot was standing between the two armies, and the hero has lost heart and is sitting down saying, "I will not fight!" Could it get worse than this?

And Krishna smiles in that situation!

The smile would have communicated a lot to Arjuna: that not only Krishna had the answer, but lifting Arjuna out from his state of despondency is also no big deal for him. It would have communicated to Arjuna without a word, that his problems were not so serious as he thinks, nor so difficult as to be insurmountable. The contrast is conspicuous: Arjuna in despair, while Krishna is smiling in a playful, blissful spirit. This is the exact spirit that is proposed to be imparted by the Bhagavad Geeta

"You teach what you know, but you impart what you are." Krishna can impart only what he is, Jesus can impart what he is, Buddha can impart what he is. All three were such vastly different personalities and had so much to impart. Petty people get sectarian with the attitudes "My God is better than yours," "My Scriptures are better than yours," "My religion is better than yours," etc. The smart person drinks the milk from one, licks the cream from the second, and eats the butter from the third!

If you can catch the playful, joyful spirit from Krishna and cultivate a state of being which is such that even when you face the worst calamity, a smile like that breaks out on your face naturally, you would have got more out of the Geeta than many of those who can write big-big, fat-fat books on it!