What is the difference between a guru and a teacher?  Nothing.  "Guru" is the Sanskrit word for teacher (shown on the left).  About the only difference is that to many people the word guru implies a teacher of an eastern tradition or particularly a "spiritual master" as in Hinduism and Buddhism.  It can also infer the guru/chela (student) relationship and its dynamics.

Webster defines a teacher as "one who teaches; especially: one whose occupation is to instruct."  No offence to Mr. Webster, but I have found that those who make an occupation of teaching, in the conventional sense, seem to only be able to take one so far.  Hinduism in particular defines the following four stages of the guru principle:

1. One's parents who provide one with a body and acquaint one with life and its problems.
2. The teachers of schools and universities, the masters of crafts and all others who concern themselves with giving one their mundane education.
3. The Spiritual Master, the one who knows the way and explains the sense and purpose of life, the way to self-realization and also shows its dangers and obstacles.  (This is subdivided by some into the siksa and diksa guru designations)
4. The cosmic guru, God, that the spiritual master leads us to and as avatar (divine incarnation) is fully enlightened.

When it comes to the subjects of Religion, Theology and Philosophy, especially when comparing them, most "professional" teachers seem to leave something to be desired.  Albeit, I can only speak from my own personal experience, but the majority of "professional" teachers I have had in this field have been better at Comparative Religion bashing.  Instead of displaying the harmony of the messages of the great teachers throughout history, they usually advance the school they were taught or personally believe in, and spend the rest of their time detracting from, or at best, patronizing the other schools of thought.  While this is quite understandable, it is not what one wants in an environment that calls itself "Comparative" whatever.

Pastors and ministers, being the Christian equivalent to gurus, unfortunately can be some of the worst at the above, but we should be kind before judging them too harshly.  Most seminaries and bible colleges spend more time teaching their own view on theology and don't really promote the idea of independent interpretation.  The intent of these institutions is to propagate their teachings, not to teach their students how to create new ones.  The origin of the problem lies in the egocentric idea that most religions and schools of thought promote in their students that they have the "one and only TRUE way" (emphasis usually implied).  The difficulty is that when one questions their tradition, the assumption becomes that one is implying that their path is not a "true way," when actually the question should be; is it the "one and only?"

Vedic philosophy discusses this very question in an interesting way.  According to the Upanishads, there are 8,400,000 forms of life on this planet and 400,000 are people at different levels of spiritual evolution.  Some are at the beginning of their journey and cannot accept the idea that there may be anything greater than themselves.  These atheists will in time grow to realize a greater power in the universe.  At the beginning of this growth, it may be that they are not capable of accepting the concept of a single divinity and need a polytheistic view with a separate deity for different aspects.  In time, these students of the universe become aware that these aspects are of a single entity and start to worship that single entity, which we call God.  This is given as the main reason why religion takes on so many forms and yet all lead to the same destination.

The entire 9th chapter of the Bhagavad-gita discusses this evolution of the soul and God's relationship to the demigods (created beings with specific functions within creation, worshipped by polytheists as gods).  As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita regarding God, demigods and man's worship of them:

Men in this world desire success in fruitive activities, and therefore they worship the demigods.  Quickly, of course, men get results from fruitive work in this world.

Bhagavad-gita 4:12 (Prabh)

I am in everyone's heart as the Supersoul (the Holy Spirit).  As soon as one desires to worship some demigod, I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to that particular deity.  Endowed with such a faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demigod and obtains his desires.  But in actuality these benefits are bestowed by Me alone.  Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary.

Bhagavad-gita 7:21-23a (Prabh)

Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way.

Bhagavad-gita 9:23 (Prabh)

Since God is the source of all, then God can use anyone as a teacher and much of the time the best teachers for that particular moment don't even know that they are teaching.  This is what the old expression "out of the mouth of babes" alludes to.  If you think about it, nearly everyone has had the experience where something will be weighing heavily on the mind and with no solution apparent, some stranger on the street or random event will answer the problem or at least inspire the beginnings of a solution.  If your experiences with this are anything like mine, they are proof of the saying, "God works in mysterious ways."

This egocentric attachment to one's religion also comes in when one is given a revelation or new insight.  This is the most common source of the many denominations that will inevitably appear as time goes on.  When new insights are given, due to ego, they stop being God's message and become the "property" of whomever was God's "mouth-piece."  So in short order, the "mouth-piece" and their followers feel they now have the new and improved "one and only true way."

These are the fruits of secularism: ego, disharmony and actually a furthering of the distance between our self and God's true nature.  Learn from all that are able to teach and rejoice in the unlimited number of manifestations that God gives us to work with.  Allow yourself to go deeper than the surface and get the nectar from all those who follow God.  For as the Apostle Paul wrote;

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)

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In this world everyone is born into the darkness of ignorance (om ajnana timirandasya) which relates to the Christian concept of "Original Sin."  This state of being is predominately marked by our forgetfulness of our true spiritual identity, to which we must rely upon God to awaken us either directly Himself or indirectly through Guru.  As Krishna says regarding his own appearance:

Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.  Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself.  To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.

Bhagavad-gita 4:6-8 (Prabh)

When God is not directly available as Guru, Krishna recommends:

Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master.  Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him.  The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.  Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine.

Bhagavad-gita 4:34-35 (Prabh)

Worshipping our guru means revering anyone who gives spiritual instructions based on the revealed scriptures.  It does not mean worshipping only that person who gave you initiation; this is the difference between Siksa and Diksa gurus.  The diksa guru is the teacher that initiates one, gives one the vows of sannyas (ordination into full monkhood).  The siksa gurus are all the people, self-realized or not, that instruct or teach us lessons.

Why worship, respect or revere the guru?  Just as there is considered to be no difference between the guru and the instructions of the guru, we revere the guru as being the representative used by God to awaken us from our slumber of ignorance.  Since these lessons can come from anyone, we accept even a non-liberated person as being able to be used by God as guru, hence the title of Siksa Guru.  Also, the vanu (words) of the guru are considered to be more important than vapu (his personal presence) since they continue to exist, even when the guru is gone.

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