"At a certain point in spiritual maturity, the Self manifests to you as a guru to turn you to yourSelf. The guru shows up in the maya, in the dream, to awaken you from the dream to the Self. Even though you know it is all the Self, that doesn't mean you do not respect and honor the guru and treat him as an ordinary person who is no different from other manifestations. You honor the guru anyway.
The relationship with the outer guru lasts as long as it is necessary. It lasts until the disciple knows from direct experience that the Self alone exists. In my case a time came when it was no longer physically possible for me to be with the form of the guru. Bhagavan severed the physical relationship because he wanted me to be aware of him as he physically is. When you pass your exams in school, you graduate to the next class. We cannot enter the same class again. I graduated from regarding Bhagavan as a form and came to regard him as the formless Self. After that I was never given the chance to have a relationship with Bhagavan's physical form again.
When a calf is young its mother gives it milk whenever it is hungry. But after it has leaned to eat grass it's mother gives it a kick whenever it tries to drink milk again. After I learned to make contact with the formless Self, Bhagavan gave me a kick whenever I tried to carry on drinking the grace of his physical form. He wanted me to get all my spiritual nourishment from the formless self."
Annamali Swami
see Annamalai Swami: Final Talks
By David Godman
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