Can You Trust What the Guru Says?
By Theresa Shay
This is the third in a series about the relationship with the guru. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Right knowledge, according to the Yoga Sutras codified by Patanjali, can be gained in three ways: direct perception, inference, and scripture. In Western culture, scripture usually refers to a text or written body of knowledge, i.e. something you see. Yoga understands that scripture is also the spoken word, i.e. something you hear. The guru, the one who dispels darkness, is therefore scripture, which is also referred to as testimony. Discernment is necessary when choosing whether to trust scripture.
Before printed (and now digital) material was pervasive and widely accessible, spoken word delivered right knowledge and passed it down through the ages. The sutras that many yoga students study are short phrases that can be memorized, chanted, and preserved by the memory power of a society. Gurus and sages with their own direct experience of right knowledge offer commentaries on sutras and bring forth new ones to illuminate wisdom for others. Their words are a source for discovering right knowledge.
In a world of fake news and false facts, the need to discern truth can be a daily effort. Discernment is even more critical on the spiritual journey to know oneself, the soulful work of life. You trust personal experience. You rely on right knowledge inferred, such as seeing smoke in the distance and knowing there is a fire, even if you have no personal experience in the moment of that fire. But to trust scripture, you must be clear whether the source of the scripture is sound and credible.
Yoga explains that this is accomplished by looking at the character of the person behind the scripture. To accept someone’s words as right simply because they claim to speak truth can lead to delusion, accepting non-truth as truth. Look objectively at the source of the knowledge. Consider the experience of the one delivering the scripture. Consider their integrity. Consider what has come from the fruit of their labor. Consider the quality of the people who have drawn close to them. These indicators help determine whether the scripture you are hearing is based on right knowledge and in keeping with Universal Truth.
If the content of the scripture, the integrity of the source, and the character of the one delivering the scripture resonate with your direct experience, you can trust what the guru says, even when you do not understand it.
Your own direct experience remains the most powerful means for receiving right knowledge. The gift of scripture, of the guru’s teaching, is that it speaks of truths you may have never heard nor seen in all your years of education; yet it is the most important knowledge to realize on the journey through life. As you pursue right knowledge, your mind will clear until it can rest without fluctuation in the essential nature of your being, and you will know for yourself that the scripture was right.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.