GURU RATING: 5 / 5 (EXCELLENT)
Ramana Maharshi is sometimes considered to be the perfect guru, if such a thing is even possible. He lived a simple life of service and made himself available to seekers at all times of the day.
He found the Light as a young man after being suddenly and unexpectedly overtaken by a violent fear of death. Rather than succumb to the experience, he observed it. Gradually, as the body fell away, he realized the truth of his immortal nature.
Who am I?
Maharshi’s spiritual practice can be boiled down to a simple phrase: who am I?
Ramana Maharshi was considered by some to be the perfect guru because he lived what he preached.
By continuously self-inquiring in this fashion, the false falls away to ultimately reveal the Self. It’s like continuously clearing away a window of all its dust so that the light, which has always been there, can shine through.
One might say that his technique is an introspective path to spiritual enlightenment. It takes a great deal of mental effort and discipline. Radical honesty is needed here. Any aspect of your life, your self, must be questioned. Continuously.
In reality, many of Ramana’s disciples followed his “who am I?” approach in a shallow way.
The phrase became a mere mantra, to be uselessly repeated over and over again. This may train to focus the mind but without the deep introspection, the practice is next to useless.
The Perfect Guru
Swaths of other gurus love Ramana Maharshi dearly because of how he lived his life.
Ramana completely devoted himself to his followers. Famous and well-loved in his time, he could have been a very wealthy man.
Instead, Maharshi lived a life of austerity and humbly prepared meals for his visitors. He always made time to answer their questions, even in the middle of the night. His life was a gift. He gave it all.
“Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage” – Ramana Maharshi
I enjoy your website could I ask why there is no Guru Rating for Swami Nitynananda or Baba Muktananda or Adi Da Samraj? Do you have any plans to include them in this list
Hi Margaret,
Why do you feel these gurus deserve ratings? Muktanada was the Founder of Siddha Yoga. We reviewed the current leader of the Siddha movement, Gurumai, here: https://gururating.org/gurumayi/
Margaret-
We recently published a review on Adi Da, here: https://gururating.org/adi-da-samraj/
Nityananda is alive and well in New York state. He is also a successor of Muktananda, with a higher credibility than has his sister. You ratings seem to center around Advaita teachers and avoid the Shakti teachers such as Jan Esmann, sw. Chetanananda, or David Spiro. I do not see an index of rated teachers outside the one’s on your home page.
This was a MASTER!!!! All you Charltons out there live and learn whilst there is No living Master Ramana was the closest. Not making a business and greed for man made money and available to all like Jesus. This is the only person actually worth mentioning on this website!
Please post a rating for Oscar lchazo, founder of ARICA, with more than a quarter million students world-wide; thank you.
This website is sparse, considering the amount of gurus who have been out there. If Ramana Maharishi – who is long dead – is included here, why not a whole pile of other dead gurus. I would be curious to see how this site would rate the likes of Osho/ Rajneesh, Papaji, Sai Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and many other notable omisions. And what of other “gurus” who are still with us. Surely, as one of the worst gurus alive, Andrew Cohen deserves a special mention. The incompletion of this website makes it pretty useless… and it seems pretty damn subjective too.
The reason it’s so sparse is because the entire website is a front, deceptively made by member(s) of Marshall Vian Summer’s group to promote him. Of course there are countless other guru’s go be examined, but that’s not the point here- is it Gururatings?
Dear Friend,
I was truly delighted to discover this site and find it very interesting.
One question though, why is Sant Thakar Singh and the current living santmat Master Sant Baljit Singh not included?
I have personally met and studied with them as has millions of seekers.
Thank you for your Love and Service to humanity!
What are your thoughts on Sri Aurobindo? I feel he was a man of the highest integrity and his pioneering work in the evolution of consciousness is incredible
We agree. We went to the ashram in south India (Pondicherry) that was created by the Mother who was the successor to Aurobindo. We have read a lot of Arubindo. We feel the Mother became corrupt but Aurobindo was/is an excellent guru. For those who are interested, see: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/
The Mother became corrupted? I heard that the ashram followers more or less corrupted her by restricting access and controlling her movements etc. They couldn’t understand the supramental consciousness she lived in…according to Satprem. How did you feel she became corrupted?