Guru is the spiritual guide who accompanies the disciple from one life-time to another. The Guru helps the disciple to speed up his or her spiritual progress. Those who are fortunate are able to establish contact with the Guru in this life-time itself. Contact with the Guru can take place through thought, touch, word, or even a look. This initiation brings the disciple into the Guru’s fold and awakens within the disciple the desire to know God. The various techniques taught by the Guru are means to purify one’s thoughts and lead one towards God-realization. So, one can easily say that it is important to have a guru or spiritual guide in this life, though there are many instances where the Sadhaka has attained self-realization without having any presence of a Guru in physical form.

Guru Bhakti is pure love and reverence towards one’s Guru. It means complete faith and trust in the Guru and his teachings. When there is Guru Bhakti the disciple is constantly filled with thoughts and teachings of the Guru, serving the Guru with single-pointedness. The Sadhaka who has unshakeable Guru Bhakti, who honors and serves the Guru without demanding anything in return, who is intent only on obeying the Guru with complete surrender, is showered with the grace of the Guru, and moves faster towards attaining the goal of Self-realization.