Some people find the idea of a guru difficult to digest, “Can’t I have a relationship with God? Why do I need to restrict my approach to God through a guru?”
The guru doesn’t restrict our relationship with God – he reinforces it.
We all have an innate and inviolable relationship with Krishna. That relationship can, however, be covered when we turn away from him. Turning back towards him is not just a matter of intention – it is also a matter of redirection.
A lost person doesn’t just need to desire to go home, but also needs to know the way to go home. Similarly, all of us are lost souls being disconnected from Krishna due to our desires to enjoy material things.
These desires have created an inner darkness within us that prevents us from both seeing Krishna within our heart and seeing the contours of our inner territory in our journey back to him.
The spiritual master provides us guidance that illumines the inner territory. By pointing out based on scripture the pitfalls and the pathways, the guru helps us perceive spiritual truths culminating in Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (04.34) exhorts.
Being told to choose a particular path may seem restrictive for those who don’t want to go where that path leads – and even for those who don’t have any particular destination to go to. But once a destination is finalized, sticking to a path is not restrictive – it is productive.
Similarly, once we understand that Krishna is our ultimate destination, then the guidance of the guru, far from restricting our connection with Krishna, reinforces it. By the expert mentoring of our spiritual guides, we learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep us away from Krishna and how to make decisions that take us closer to Krishna
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