Guru

. Their latest release, and last album for the Sony Epic label, is All That We Let In, released in 2004 with an accompanying tour. The Indian skeptic Basava Premanand toured around in the villages of India to educate people by debunking gurus and fakirs whom he considers frauds or self deceived. 2000 saw the release of Retrospective, a compilation album with two new tracks, and in 2002 the Indigo Girls released Become You, a full album of new songs which gained much critical acclaim and became a fan favorite. Some believe that this rule has the drawbacks that one should know what is good and bad in the first place and that one cannot possibly know all acts and their corresponding fruits of a guru. Shaming of the Sun debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's high profile contribution to Lilith Fair. [3] (http://www.biblebell.org/proph/prophecy1.html) . In 1995, they released a live, double-CD, 1200 Curfews, followed by Shaming of the Sun in 1997 and Come on Now Social in 1999.

According to the Bible, Jesus said that one should judge a prophet by his fruits, though it is not not clear whether this rule of the thumb also includes gurus. 1992's comeback album Rites of Passage was an enormous success, as was Swamp Ophelia in 1994. The history of various gurus, religions, sects, new religious movements and cults has shown that the question how to assess the authenticity of a guru is difficult, especially when the guru is still young. They followed it with the live Back on the Bus, Y'all. Lane wrote that a charlatan who cons people is not as dangerous as a guru who really believes in his delusions, and that 'bigger' the claims a guru makes, the bigger the chance that he is a charlatan or deluded. The second album, Nomads*Indians*Saints, went gold, but was not as successful as their first. The scholar David C. In 1990, Amy founded Daemon Records (http://www.daemonrecords.com), which has signed Ellen James Society, Kristen Hall and James Hall, among others.

He also wrote in the book that the gurus who are eloquent are the ones who are more likely to be unreliable and dangerous. Their first major-label release, also self-titled, included a new version of Land of Canaan, which was also on their 1985 EP and on Strange Fire. Storr includes people who are not normally labelled as a guru, such as Ignatius of Loyola, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. The success of 10,000 Maniacs, Tracy Chapman, and Suzanne Vega encouraged Epic Records to look for other women singer-songwriters; Epic signed the duo in 1988. This belief system persists after the psychosis has gone away. That same year, they put out a six-track self-titled EP, and in 1987, released their first full-length album, Strange Fire, recorded at John Keane Studio in Athens, Georgia, and including Crazy Game. The belief system was developed during the psychosis to make sense of the guru's own mind and perceptions. Their first release in 1985 was a seven-inch single called Crazy Game; the b-side was Everybody's Waiting (for Someone to Come Home).

He argues that the belief system that gurus hold developed in some cases from a period of psychosis. While they have both been in relationships with women, Amy and Emily have never dated each other. being loners without friends) and that some suffer from a mild form of schizophrenia. By 1985, they started performing together again, this time as the Indigo Girls. The British psychiatry professor Anthony Storr argues in his book Feet of clay - A Study of gurus that gurus (in the non-Hindu usage of the word) share common character traits (e.g. Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University. See French legislation on cult abuses. A year later, Amy graduated and started at Vanderbilt University.

Critics of these legislations interpret these measures as limitations of freedom of religion. Emily graduated and started attending Tulane University. Some countries have enacted legislations that protect individuals with specific vulnerabilities due to physical or psychological deficiencies. In high school, they started performing together. That label has been extended to any leader seeking to exert his domination over adepts of a secular, religious organization or school of thought, or to receive inappropriate benefits under the pretense of promoting among them a certain belief system. The two women met as students at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in De Kalb County, Georgia just outside of Decatur, Georgia. The guru and guruism labels have acquired a rather negative connotation in western countries, especially in France, likely due to the prominence of several self-proclaimed "gurus" in the US and during the 1960s and 1970s "New Age" movement, who used Hindu terminology without necessarily having much in common with mainstream Hinduism. Some of these gurus, were found to be abusing their status and to be charlatans, self-deceived, businessmen pretending to be saints, cult leaders or a combination of this. They got their start as part of the Athens, Georgia alternative rock scene that included the The B-52's, Pylon, R.E.M., the Georgia Satellites, and Love Tractor.

Many gurus claim that they can bring people closer to God, facilitate enlightenment, moksha, or nirvana, or can help people to achieve good karma and a correspondingly better next incarnation. The Indigo Girls are an American lesbian folk-rock duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Some gurus offer a belief system that offers fulfillment and purpose and sometimes promises of a peaceful happy life. of a live cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". Other people who have traditional beliefs seek to intensify their religious life and see a guru who can help her or him with this. All That We Let In (2004). Gurus provide answers to the meaning of life, often free from the intellectualism of philosophy. Become You (2002).

The most common is that people look for the meaning of life and are disillusioned in traditional religions. Retrospective (2000, compilation). There are several reasons why people in Western cultures are attracted by gurus. Come On Now Social (1999). (The definition is from Jargon file.). Shaming of the Sun (1997). Less often, used (with a qualifer) for other experts on other systems, as in VMS guru. 1200 Curfews (1995, live).

Nearly synonymous with "wizard", but additionally implies a history of being a knowledge resource for others. 4.5 (1995, compilation, UK only). In hacker culture, a guru is an expert of legendary proportions. Swamp Ophelia (1994). The term guru has also passed into an even wider metaphorical use. Rites of Passage (1992). Gurus often claim that they have achieved enlighment, moksha, that their teachings were channeled or that they have received a revelation. Back on the Bus, Y'all (1991, live).

Often, dependent on the teachings of the guru, the followers will see the guru as a prophet, saint or avatar. Nomads*Indians*Saints (1990). On the other hand, Kranenborg accepts the word guru for Jesus. Strange Fire (1989, major-label 10-song version). Sometimes Christians use the word guru as a pejorative label. Indigo Girls (1989). In more recent usage of the word guru, it means anyone who propagates a philosophical or religious belief system independent of an established school of philosophy or religion and attracts and accepts followers because of this, especially when the veracity of the belief system hinges around the reliabiliy of the guru. Strange Fire (1987, independent 11-song version).

The original meaning has evolved to a broader one. According to van der Lans, the deification of a guru is a traditional element of of Eastern spirituality, but detached from the Eastern cultural element and copied by Westerners, the distinction between the person of the guru and that what he symbolizes is lost and it degenerates into a boundless, uncritical personality cult. The late Dutch professor in psychology of religion Jan van der Lans at the Radboud University Nijmegen has mentioned three dangers when the personal contact between the guru and the disciple is absent. Reender Kranenborg, member of the board of CESNUR, who specializes in Hinduism and new religious movements at the Free University in Amsterdam, distinguished three types of gurus,.

The Dutch theologist Dr.
. See also:. The most important is the Guru Granth Sahib, their holiest book.

Sikhism says we are all the children of God and by deduction, God is our mother/father. For Sikhs, the Gurus were not in the Christian sense “Sons of God”. This procedure was continued, and the tenth and last Guru, Guru Gobind (AD 1666–1708) initiated the Sikh ceremony in AD 1699. Before his death he designated a new Guru to be his successor and to lead the Sikh community.

His followers referred to him as the Guru (teacher). Guru Nanak, the first guru of Sikhism, was opposed to the caste system prevalent at his time in India. Indeed, the Sikhs carried the meaning of the word to an even greater level of abstraction, while retaining the original usage, to apply to understanding of imparted knowledge through any medium. The title Guru is extremely fundamental to the religion of the Sikhs.

The term vajra is also used, meaning 'master'.




. A guru is someone who is not necessarily a Buddha but is heavy with knowledge. In Tibetan, the operative word is 'lama' which means 'guru'. According to the Dalai Lama, the term 'living Buddha' is a translation of the Chinese word 'ho fu'.

The Dalai Lama speaking of the importance of the guru, said: "Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru: Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism.". The importance of a guru-disciple relationship, is demonstrated by ritual empowerments or initiations where the student obtains permission to practice a particular tantra.
In tantric Buddhism, a guru is essential for the initiation,practice and guidance along the path. The disciple regards the guru as the embodiment of Buddha or a Bodhisattva, and as such he shows devotion and great appreciation toward him.

In this foundation the disciple can continue in their experiential path on the true nature of reality. The guru's blessing is the last of the four foundations in Vajrayana Buddhism.
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It is worth noting that in all sects with a disciplic succession or parampara, both guru and disciple affirm to be servants of the divine. To illustrate the elevated status of a guru, some saints and poets have sung the glory of the guru:. Indeed, there is an understanding in some sects that if the devotee were presented with the guru and God, first he would pay respects to the guru since the guru had been instrumental in leading him to God. The origin of guru can be traced back as far as the early Upanishads, where the conception of the Divine Teacher on earth first manifested from its early Brahmin associations.

Other gurus whose legacy of continuing the Hindu yogic tradition grew in the 20th century were luminaries like Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, Shri Ramana Maharshi, Swami Sivananda and Swami Chinmayananda. Some influential gurus in the Hindu tradition (there have been many) include Adi Shankaracharya, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Shri Ramakrishna. In some more mystical Hindu circles, it is believe that the guru could awaken dormant spiritual knowledge within the pupil, known as shaktipat. Indeed, it is now a standard part of Hinduism (as defined by the six Vedic streams and the Tantric Agamic streams) that a guru is one's spiritual guide on earth.

The role of the guru continues in the original sense of the word in such Hindu traditions as Vedanta, Yoga, Tantra and Bhakti sects. Some Hindu denominations like BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha hold that a personal relationship with a living guru, revered as the embodiment of God, is essential in seeking moksha. In the traditional sense, the word guru describes a relationship rather than an absolute and is used as a form of address only by a disciple addressing his master. The lineage of a guru, spread by worthy disciples who carry on that guru's particular message, is known as the guru parampara or disciplic succession.

Often a guru lives in an ashram. The disciple of a guru is called sishya or chela. Compare also Swami. In the sense mentioned here above, guru is used more or less interchangeably with "satguru" (literally: true teacher) and satpurusha.

Another popular etymology claims that the syllables gu (गु) and ru (रू), stand for darkness and light, respectively, providing the esoteric meaning that the guru is somebody who leads the disciple from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge [1] (http://www.dharmayoga.org/onlinestudy/dictionary.htm) [2] (http://www.samadhi-yoga.com/jai/reflect.htm). Another etymology claimed in Hindu scriptures is that of dispeller of darkness (wherein darkness is seen as avidya, lack of knowledge both spiritual and intellectual), 'gu' meaning darkness, and 'ru' meaning dispeller. The word comes from the sanskrit root "gru" literally meaning heavy, weighty. It originated in a Hindu context and holds a special place in Hinduism, signifying the sacred place of knowledge (vidya) and the imparter of knowledge.

The word guru means teacher in Sanskrit and other Sanskrit-derived languages like Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati.
. In further metaphorical extension it means simply a person with the status of an authority by reason of special skill, training or knowledge. In a Western context, the term Guru has extended into anyone who makes religious or philosophical statements and has followers because of this, in some cases in negative contexts.

Guru is widely used in contemporary India with the universal meaning of the word "teacher". Indeed, in Indian languages like Hindi, 'Thursday' is called either Brihaspativaar or Guruvaar (vaar meaning period or day). Guru is also the Sanskrit reference to Brihaspati, a Hindu figure equivalent to the planet the Greeks named Jupiter; in Vedic astrology, Jupiter/Guru/Brihaspati is believed to exert teaching influences. Till today in India and among people of Hindu or Sikh persuasion, the title retains its significant hallowed space.

It is based on a long line of Hindu philosophical understandings of the importance of knowledge and that the teacher, guru, is the sacred conduit to self-realization. A guru (गुरू Sanskrit) is a Hindu religious teacher. There is also a 2002 movie titled The Guru. There is a 1990s alternative rapper named Guru.

Adi Da. Swami Roberto. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh or Osho. Meher Baba.

U.G.Krishnamurti. Gurdjieff. I. G.

Aleister Crowley. Note: Maharaji dropped the title "guru" from his name in 1980s together with other Hindu trappings. Maharaji, born under the name Prem Rawat. Madame Blavatsky founder of Theosophy.

Shoko Asahara former guru of Aum Shinrikyo. Benjamin Creme. Marshall Applewhite leader of Heaven's Gate. Mysticsm and critical thinking should go together.

it increases the chance of false mysticism. meditation should be performed under personal support by the guru to keep emotions under control and to prevent psychological harm;. it increases the chance of idealization of the guru by the student (myth making and deification);. the avatar, a guru who claims to be an incarnation of God, or to be God-like, or an instrument of God, for example Sathya Sai Baba and gurus from the Sant Mat lineage.

This type of guru asks for unquestioning obedience and can have Western followers and even Westerners have become one, for example Andrew Cohen. the enlightened master who derives his authority from his experience, such as achieving moksha. the spiritual advisor for higher caste Hindus who also performs traditional rituals and who is not connected to a temple (thus not a priest). The Ten Gurus of Sikhism.

Sikhism. Swami Vivekananda. Swami Shyam. Swami Ramatirtha.

Swami Premananda. Swami Dayananda. Sriram Sharma Acharya. Srila Gurudeva, (Tamala Krishna Goswami, Prabhupada's)disciple).

Sri Shankaracharya (Advaita philosophy). Sri Yukteswar Giri. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji.

Sri Chinmoy. Sivananda. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (founder of the Saiva Siddhanta Church, Hinduism Today (http://www.hinduismtoday.com) magazine). Saradamani Devi, the holy Mother.

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar, founder of Ananda Marga (AMPS). Shri Aurobindo Ghosh. Shirdi Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Baba.

Ramana Maharshi. Ramakrishna_Paramhansa. Ram Dass (Richard Alpert). Paramyogeshwar Sri Devpuriji.

Paramahansa Yogananda. Nisargadatta Maharaj. Neem Karoli Baba. Narayana Guru.

Muktananda. Mata Amritanandamayi or Ammachi. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Lord Basava.

Gurudeb Rabindranath Thakur. Dharmsamrat Paramhans Swami Madhavananda. Dayananda Saraswati. Chinmayananda.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Bhakti-Yoga-Rasavatar Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj. Akhandanand Saraswati Maharaj. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the Hare Krishna Movement (ISKCON).

A.C. Sahjo Bai. Brahmanand. Kabir.