The true master is the lighthouse in the darkness who points us the way to go. In the inner forest, during the night, there are many tigers that stalk and are ready to devour our efforts for perfection of purifying our hearts. They make our souls restless, and the tigers are our desires and attachments. Besides these, the ego and pride are the greatest obstacles in progressing on our spiritual path.
By humbling ourselves before the guru and listening to his word we begin our upward climb and make our progress easier and moreover we lessen our suffering and discover the true happiness and joy that has always been part and parcel of our being but it was buried by our ignorance.
He gives us our eternal shelter. Under the umbrella and guidance of the true guru we safely cross the ocean of misery and suffering. But having the guru does not mean that from the moment we meet our guru the whole suffering will end in a split second. Sometimes it may seem to us that the suffering is greater. It is so because he accelerated our evolution and the things we were to go through over a period of lifetimes we are working out in a matter of a short time. Removal of cancer is painful for the time being but it brings greater relief once the wound is healed.
Even when sometimes everything seems gloomy on our way we may think of the hand of our Divine Mother coming down to caress us. The temporal darkness is just the shade of Her hand whose touch will bring all our troubles to an end.
To walk in the footsteps of the master is not always easy because if we are not established in our faith and resolve that we go all the way (not the half way or three quarters of the way) no matter what, we may stumble many times, clinging to our doubts which arise from our imperfect vision and lack of faith.
If we could surrender our thoughts, doubts, our troubles and problems, all the negativity to our guru-friend, we would never be afraid again. In giving up all that does not belong to us we free ourselves from unnecessary burden and with light and springy steps we are able to run towards the embrace of our Loving Mother who awaits us and craves for us more than we care for Her.
Guru does not ask from us anything that is not for our benefit. If we still, in spite of all our understanding that we may have, shyly extend our hand, the guru will be powerless to do much and Mother will be even more shy to show Her blessed Face.
But if we lift our arms high up in the sky, Loving Mother will impatiently rush towards us to ascend us to the heavenly mansion She has prepared for us. And then we will have the true and lasting shelter and be eternally secured in the bliss and love.
related article: http://www.bhaktimarga.org/