There are many scriptures and these contain many statements that are seemingly contradictory. The reality to known is extremely subtle ( it is subtler than the subtlest ) that cannot be known without a 'Guru'. How are we going to interpret or resolve these contradictions? We need a 'Guru'. We can never learn the scriptures by independent study.

A question may arise. Some mahatmas have attained the knowledge without the help of a Guru or the scriptures. How is this possible? Every rule has an exception. When we cite a rule, we do not consider the exceptions. Perhaps these mahatmas acquired knowledge in a previous birth. Or perhaps they had a guru whom we may be unaware of.

Who is a Guru? Some people say the atma is Guru. 'The atma will teach me'. This is a big misconception. The atma has always been with us but it cannot do anything including teaching. If the atma can be a Guru, we would have already gained Self-Knowledge. Others claim the world as a guru. 'The entire world is a university and every experience is a lesson'. What we learn from the world depends on what on what we already know and our state of mind. The same experience is likely to be interpreted by people in different ways. The knowledge gained from the world is subject to ones' own bias and limitations. So the atma or the world can never be Gurus .

A Guru is a live person who communicates the teaching of the truth contained in scriptures to shisya. An acharya who has departed from the world can never be our Guru however great he may be. It is to emphasize this aspect that in many scriptures including Upanishads, Self-Knowledge is presented in the form of a samvaada or dialogue between Guru & shisya, the most well-known example being Bhagavad-Gita.

Scriptural teaching is initiated by the shisya who approaches the Guru and says 'I want to know the truth, please teach me'. The Guru imparts knowledge of the ultimate reality to the student. We may wonder - will there not be defects in the teaching since the Guru ( and the knowledge he teaches ) also suffers from a sixfold limitation of the intellect? The Guru cannot expound his philosophy. He must communicate the teaching of the scriptures that he acquired from his Guru who acquired it from his Guru and so on, the adi Guru or the first Guru being the Lord Himself.

Why is the teaching presented in the form of a dialogue ( and not a monologue) ? If a student sincerely listens to the teaching, he will surely get doubts (since the subject matter is subtle). The student is enjoined to ask questions and get the doubts cleared. When the teacher explains, the student may get new doubts. Again the student must ask the teacher. Thus the teaching is a conversation that goes back and forth between the teacher and the taught : in other words a dialogue. In Bhagavad-Gita, Arjuna puts many questions to Krishna, sometimes asking the same questions again and the Lord patiently answers them all.

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