Aren’t you grateful to the man who serves you and helps you? Don’t you express your
gratitude to him in some form or the other? If you behave that way with a man who has helped
you a little bit in a secular way, how much more ought to be your gratitude to the man who shows
you the path to the Supreme? He has given you new life, nay, immortality and eternal bliss. Can
you refrain from expressing your gratitude to him? Actual worship of the Guru is the Indian way
of expressing this highest gratitude. You express gratitude to the man who has helped you by
giving him something; and to the Guru - the man who has bestowed upon you the highest gift of
spiritual knowledge - you give yourself!
That is not slavery. Oh, no. The real Guru can never enslave the aspirant. In fact, the
real Guru is the seeker’s servant! The real Guru has the highest kind of love for the aspirant.
The Guru is in his heart; the Guru has won the disciple’s heart; the two have become one now.
There will be divine love between the two - not slavery.

From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). More Informations on Swami Sivananda: on the Website of Divine Life Society, Photographs of Swami Sivananda, German Pages on Swami Sivananda
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