“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
– Kahlil Gibran
Kabir – The couplet
कबिरा ते नर अंध है, गुरु को कहते और |
हरी रूठे गुरु ठौर है, गुरु रूठे नहीं ठौर ||
Transliterated:
Kabira te nar andh hai, gure ko kehte aur |
Hari roothe guru tthour hai, guru roothe nahi tthour!!
Translation:
Blind is the man who ignores the guru |
If the Lord turns away, the Guru will show the path, but if the Guru turns away, there is no one left to give direction ||
My understanding:
To find God, we needed the right guide – be it Jesus, Prophet Muhammad, Krishna, or some other wise person – to whom we ascribe all the qualities of Godhood. These wise ones understand our deepest yearning and strive to put us on the path we need to be rather than the one we want to be on.
However, our base tendencies tend to drive us away from those teachers who point us to the right rather than the desired path – and much later, we wonder why we ended up on a path full of brambles rather than where we needed to be!
The teaching here, be it Gibran or Kabir, is not to ignore the one who corrects us but rather to be intelligent and rational, rather than emotional and desire-led, in our choice of guide.