Guru and Disciple

With Guru Poornima just around the corner, it felt right to write about the relationship between The Guru and The Disciple.

 

Guru Poornima, like All Saints Day of the Catholic Church, is a day in which all Gurus are celebrated.  Poornima is when the moon is at its highest realisation; it is the full moon day. The ‘Gu’ in Guru refers to the darkness, which assumes the form of ignorance, and the ‘Ru’ is a representative of radiance in the form of spiritual knowledge, which dispels this darkness that fills our life in the form of ignorance. The Guru is likened to the moon, whose light shines on us through the utmost darkness.  Hence, on the day of a full moon in July we celebrate and honour our Guru.

 

The Guru-disciple relationship is one that has been present throughout all ages of the world and is vital to its functioning.  Through fables, art and music; traditions and cultures have been passed down generations from guru to disciple. So it can be said the relationship between a Guru and Disciple is a part of all institutions and organisations.

 

This relationship and tradition is not one that is modern, rather it is said to be ancient and present throughout all of time.  It has led to some even saying that Gurus were present before the advent of man and such a statement is irrefutable since they were said to be in the form of nature guiding the seasons and the circle of life – animals and plants alike. Even the ancient Greek, Egyptian and Atlantis civilisations were based on the Guru-disciple relationship.  The Guru-disciple relationship is one that was and is universal.

 

 

Ego

The theme “Ego” was presented by several youth members during a spiritual presentation at our monthly youth meeting. The ego is an identity of our own construction, an identity which can be false.  If we take all the beliefs of who we are – beliefs about our personality, talents, and abilities – we have the structure of our ego. 
 

 

 

 

The ego is normally viewed as a negative quality because it often suppresses all the positive qualities in us. Negative results of the ego can be witnessed all around us everyday. A relatable scenario to most is showing our superiority complex in our family, often resulting in unnecessary disputes and quarrels amongst family members. Another place where the ego comes to being is in a working environment. When one person is praised by his or her manager and he or she may feel superior to their colleagues and begins treating them differently, often with less respect. An egoist person sees everything under a magnifying glass and often finds faults within others before introspection. The ego can make us fight and argue for the sake of being right rather than focusing on the truth.

 

 

 

However, a youth member explained to us that there is a positive ego and shared how he uses it to help him in his life. This is what he said “The ego can also aid us, if we know how to use it. The ego gives you self –confidence. Self-confidence is a requisite in life, without it you will never have the determination to improve yourself or be able to experience life to its fullest by taking that leap of faith."

 

 

To conclude our presentation, we discussed and asked other youth members what effects the ego has in their lives and we were more than happy to listen and share our own experiences.

 

From this session, we learnt there is both a positive and negative ego. We just need to learn how to notice and limit our negative ego and nurture our positive ego allowing us to boost our self-motivation.