There is a definite shortage of genuine gurus in Australia. People who have walked the spiritual path into enlightenment and are now there to guide the rest of us who are stumbling along.

In the guru tradition in India you commit to a guru as your teacher and guide, agreeing that you will do whatever they say. This relationship is not taken lightly by either person involved. There can be years of getting to know each other and understanding how the other person works, before enough trust is formed on both sides to move into the guru/follower relationship. One of the most important aspects in this relationship for the follower is feeling that they are being seen, not for what they present to the world but for who they really are.

This means the seeing of the whole, the beauty, the wonder and the perfection; the broken, the ugly and the dysfunctional. It means that your guru can see through all of your glitz and glamour, the pizazz and shine you throw on top of your personality to get what you want. They call you on your bullshit, over and over again until slowly you start to see what they are painstakingly pointing out, and you are able to drag it from the very depths of your lifetime patterns to the surface. Haul it into the light and see it, maybe for the first time ever, for what it really is. Not you being nice, but rather, you being manipulative and organising your world around you just the way you like it. Or maybe your default mode is, anger or sadness or eating or shopping, whatever it is that makes it easy for you not to look. All of it is a distraction from the truth that sits underneath. If you want to become comfortable with your truth, then you have to get past the distraction, and sit, for a very long time. 

So, I have a theory. In this land where gurus are all but non-existent, what if good friends or maybe a close family member or even your partner, stepped up for the job? I mean they might be lacking in certain traits, they might not have great advice on meditation, spiritual visions, pilgrimages, how to breathe backwards through your right nasal passage. But if you have formed a genuine relationship over a significant period of time where you know each other on a deep and intricate level, isn’t it possible that this friend can take on the role of guru bullshit detector?

Some of my deepest revelations have come in conversations with my oldest friends, my sisters or my mum. When they have had the courage to say, ‘What you are doing is wrong and you keep doing it over and over again. You have to stop or you will never grow up.’ You need to be ready to hear, but when you do and you know it has come from someone who loves you dearly, enlightenment, for a short moment, is surely possible.

So here’s to all of the gurus in my life, who have walked beside me, held my hand, but then looked me in the eye and told me how it really is. I hope there is a time in their lives, when they have been able to feel that guru love coming right back at them.