Once when spiritual minded people are strongly firm in their resolution to find the “kingdom within” their yearning for God-union starts to accelerate. And God then sends them books and lesser teachers who guide them to a certain level. When even those “spiritual toys” are meaningless and do not fulfil their deep-seated longings of their hearts God sends them a guru, a spiritual master who is appointed by God to guide them through the forest of desires and attachments and impurities of their hearts.
A master, the one who has mastered his mind and subdued his ego and banished the pride forever, is rightly capable of leading the wayward humans. He is called, a guru in Sanskrit, meaning the one who is able to banish the darkness and ignorance from the soul of others and lead the people toward eternal happiness in God.
We are all parts of God, and therefore, as the Bible declares: ye are gods – our task on earth is to rediscover that oneness with the Creator, our Father-Mother. We are sent here to learn some lessons; therefore this place is only a temporal abode. But when we think that this house is our home and mistakenly think that we are the body – then the suffering starts. We want a better car because we can show off to our friends that we are better off and happier while inside we are corrosive of too much worry and unfulfilled desires. Even when we get the very things we crave for still we find ourselves even more unhappy. Perhaps for one day or so we get little pleasure in fulfilling some desires but after comes the great awakening and we see that we are even deeper in the misery. Many don’t even ask themselves why or ponder about their states of mind trying to understand but let themselves being cranky infecting all with their mental heaviness.
related article: http://www.bhaktimarga.org/