Guru means someone knowledgeable. If you do not know the way, you have to ask for directions. You may even have to ask a small child. Whoever you have to ask is considered a Guru. Guru is a second eye! Guru gives you further understanding. Guru means someone who is familiar, and the one who is familiar is your upri (your superior), but for how long does he remain your superior? Only as far as he can take you to the place you want to go. So an upri is needed. We always need a person who can guide us. He has to be familiar with the route. You will always need a guide who can show you the way and the one who shows you the path, is called a Guru.

You will need a Guru all the way. A Guru needs his own Guru. When is it that we need a school teacher? Isn’t it when we want to learn something? And what if one does not want to learn? The one who shows you the path does not tell you to ask him for directions! Don’t we ask for our own benefit? Whose benefit are we looking at when we ask? Try to experience without asking anyone. That experience will teach you that you need a Guru. There is no knowledge that can be acquired without the help of a Guru. Neither spiritual nor ordinary worldly knowledge can be acquired without a Guru. It is wrong to expect any knowledge without a Guru? Otherwise there is no need for schools and colleges, is there? So nothing can be acquired on one’s own. There is no knowledge without a Guru.
Yes, all the Tirthankars are self-illuminated but they acquired this Tirthankar gotra (lineage of Tirthankars) through Gurus in their previous lives. Lord Mahavir and Lord Rushabdev destroyed their bondages on their own but they had asked for instructions in their past lives. In their final birth as a Tirthankar, they did not need the help of a Guru. But otherwise there is no knowledge without a Guru. You will need a Guru until you attain moksha (liberation). It will not do without a Guru.
Do you read books? Then aren’t those books your Guru? People read books only if they are beneficial, only if they teach them something, is that not so? Any book that shows you the way and teaches you is considered a Guru. So even a book is your Guru.

Your mother becomes your first Guru. She will teach you to eat and walk. She, whose education influenced you, isn’t she your Guru? When she instructs you on what and how to do things, if she is not a Guru, then who is? You have been a baby in endless lives. In which life have you not learnt to walk? Still one has to learn the same old thing over and over again.

If the wife is not at home and he wants to make Kadhee (soup made from yogurt), would he not have to ask someone about the ingredients and how to make it? At home, the wife is the Guru, because one has to ask her to find anything. So there is a need for a Guru in anything you do. If you need help with legal matters you have to make an attorney your Guru.

Even when you trip over (thokar),that too is a Guru. Even the ‘thokar’ thinks, “What’s wrong with walking with your eyes on the ground?” You will attain something if you consider it to be a Guru. Therefore I myself have acquired a lot of benefits in this manner. Even at this point, I still have a Guru, don’t I? I have become a disciple of the whole world. So who is my Guru? People. Every individual, everything teaches me. Each experience teaches you something before it leaves. Even this mango tree teaches us something. Give your fruits to others to enjoy.

That is why Krupadudev has said, “It is my core conviction that anything that is done without the awareness of Sajeevan Murti (living Self Realized, fully enlightened one), that act binds that Jiva (embodied soul)”. So if you do not find an Avatar (liberated person) then you need a Sajeevan (living) Guru, otherwise you will go around self-willed and uncontrolled, without any guidance. What happens to a kite if you let go of its string?

Accepting a Guru just in your mind will not work. You have to have someone in front of you to point out your mistakes. Acceptance in the mind is like this: If you were to see a woman and in your mind you accepted that you have married her, would it then be the same thing as being married to her? Then will it be acceptable if the marriage ceremony did not take place?

A Guru in a photograph will not work. A Guru needs to be living and present. If you become ill, would you be healed by just placing a photograph of the doctor in front of you and meditating on it? No, we already have photographs and pictures of everyone, don’t we? If you find Lord Krishna or Lord Mahavir in their living form then they will be of use to you. It would be enough if you find a Guru for just an hour or you hear just one word from him.

Who do you call a true Guru? True Guru is the one who is currently living and present. It is only possible to achieve your work through those who are currently present. Otherwise a photograph or an idol cannot show you your mistakes. They cannot destroy your mistakes.

I had intense reverence towards Krupadudev but he was not living, and so I would not accept him as a Guru. I would accept as a Guru the one who would give me direct instructions or teach me directly. If I had met Krupadudev for even five minutes, I would have given him the position of being my Guru. Our heart should be pacified with the Guru. A Guru that is living and present is beneficial to us. The ones that have departed are of no use.