Dr. Robert Svoboda – Living with Reality – Ep. 19 – Honoring the Guru

On this episode of Living with Reality, Dr. Robert Svoboda celebrates Guru Purnima with a dharma talk about honoring the guru and the connection they provide to the Supreme Reality.

Join Dr. Svoboda for a special Guru Purnima edition of Story Time on July 23rd! Register here to reserve your spot for this webinar. 
Honoring the Guru

In celebration of the upcoming Guru Purnima – a day of dedication to the guru – Dr. Svoboda begins by exploring who and what a guru truly is, and how there are different types of gurus. He talks about honoring the guru, how gurus are our connection to the Supreme Reality, and how they act as a ballast to provide stability for us on our spiritual journey.

“Guru is both an absolute and a relative term. There is your own personal, most important guru, sometimes called your Diksha Guru… But you may have other Shiksha Gurus. Shiksha means performing practice, attempting to achieve something. So a Shiksha Guru is someone who might teach you dance or music or writing or sculpture… Anyone who takes you and puts you on the path of any form of learning is also your guru.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda

Guru Purnima (12:15)

Dr. Svoboda details his experience with his own guru, Vimalananda, and why he had decided against directly initiating any disciples. For those people who do have a personal guru, Dr. Svoboda talks about why Guru Purnima is the day with the greatest connection between an individual and their guru. He explores the role the full moon plays in the worship of the guru.

“So, the guru gives light to you. And it’s that full moonlight that should cause your heart to open, so that you can connect fully. So that that download of awareness can be without any limitation of your own restrictions.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda

Ram Dass talks about devotion and the guru on Here and Now Ep. 53
Watch Out for Greedy Gurus (21:40)

Dr. Svoboda explains that not everyone will have a personal guru in this lifetime, and that’s okay. He tells a story from Vimalananda about how not all gurus are genuine with their words and actions; there are plenty of greedy gurus out there. We can listen to what a guru has to say without automatically accepting all of their claims.

“So, just because you don’t have a personal guru doesn’t mean that you are going to be lost. In fact, you may have been saved from the fate of being dragged by one of these fake gurus in the wrong direction. What you should do is be willing to wait until someone who can really connect you to reality comes along. Until that time, you should open yourself to the real guru, and that real guru is the Supreme Reality.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda

Art via Yashendra Singh