Happy Guru Purnima!
Irony should be having a field day today given today is Guru Purnima. The Internet has democratized the Guru business more than any other.
Tell me anywhere else where almost anyone can sound like a guru. Thanks to Chat GPT, you can design your own Guru Voice [Write a post in the voice of a writer who speaks like Osho and Krishnamurti].
Even if you are the type who likes to diss gurus and dismiss traditions as hopelessly archaic, the funny thing is that you can build a gurudom precisely by doing all the anti-gurudom things.
The truth of the matter is this - We are mimetic humans who love to be told - How to live? We are wired to be told what to do, either through a guide or some system.
Don't we feel instinctively nice and comforted when somebody holds our hands and shows us the way?
Our gurus may be different - For some a hotshot VC, for some a spiritual guru, for some the latest productivity system - but the underlying process is the same.
Our gurus may keep changing - For many years, I chased several gurus carrying several fundamental questions of life in my backpack. Today, I am blessed to have several wise friends with whom I can share my deepest fears and share my deepest agonies.
And when I do, they reciprocate the same. They share the kind of things that reminds me of the truth that often likes to go on hide-and-seek - We are all in the same boat.
And when this strange process happens, I discover something precious - I discover freedom, a newfound capacity to observe my life, my activities, my own thoughts, my predictable patterns, my obsessions, and my own way of life.
To discover the light to ourselves, a light that has no dependence on another and that is completely free is a blessing.
May we discover the light within. Happy Guru Purnima!
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