[Advaita-l] Question? - Is Guru necessary?

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Sadaji,

I'll keep the response short and paraphrase some of the related quotations,
which are quite self- explanatory for the most part.

First and foremost-- jnAnaM nAsti guruM vinA

AchAryavAn labhate jnAnam

paNDitopi shAstrAnveShaNaM svataH na kuryAt

The word svAdhyAyaH in the context of Vedanta is not svena adhyAya, study
by oneself, but svasya adhyAyaH, study about oneself, as taught by Guru.

Finally, not having a Guru means not having a sampradAya and about such a
person, Bhagavatpadacharya says-- asampradAyavit mUrkhavat upekShaNIyaH.

I think Bhashyakara says somewhere that it's not that Arjuna had doubts
about Bhagavan Krishna being an avatAra, but he asks nonetheless for the
benefit of others. Similarly, being an Acharya yourself, you surely know
that there are a few gurukulams, as well as many shrotriya teachers
available in flesh and blood for a serious seeker. Yet you ask for
lokasaMgraha. praNAm.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--praveen