The Master...

"Who is a Master?

He is the Self after all.

According to the stages of the
development of the mind the Self manifests as the Master externally.

The famous
ancient saint Avadhuta said that he had more than 24 Masters.

The Master is one
from whom one learns anything.

The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in
the case of Avadhuta.

God, Guru and the Self are identical.

A spiritual-minded
man thinks that God is all-pervading and takes God for his Guru.

Later, God
brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in
all.

Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the Master to feel that his
Self is the Reality and nothing else.

Thus he finds that the Self is the
Master."



Sri Ramana Maharshi
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Talk 23, 2nd February, 1935
http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramana_maharshi/books/tw/tw023.html