The word Guru is easy to explain.

Gu means darkness and Ru means light.

So Guru means going from darkness to light and therefore whenever you tune into the teachers around you, you are moving from darkness into light

Maybe, it's just a bit of learning about how to do something, but it's still a bit of a spiritual process.

However if you want to be Transcendental and engage with the Guru process in depth, then we're talking about another dimension, or another planet.

The reason is that moving from light to dark means actually very little in terms of Life and the Universe.

In our Life and the Universe we have dark matter and light matter. So, we have a life as we experience it comprised of darkness and light, as the nature of things.

That's not to say we shouldn't go towards the light, just because there is plenty of choices around going to the dark side or going to the light side.

I was born Raymond Pattison and became a holy man in India aged 18. I became Ganesh Giri with a title of - Paramahamsa. I lived in India for 10 years. Then I got bored of the emptiness and wanted to enjoy life's attractions. Hence a "fall back to earth". To a life of living in the ego based mode of seeking fulfillment through experience via desire fulfillment. (Not totally, as I did become a mental health professional with a view to helping others). Not a waste though, just part of the learning journey. I was not ready for monastic life, for the rest of my life. I was full of desire, or maybe had a lot of unfinished business, and I could see how much was desire driven. There was of course delusion, as my "followers" in India would say that I had fallen back into Maya, accepting that the world was real, and not the life is an illusory view or experience that I had promoted as a monk in India.

Now I am back to place where nothing gives me the same pleasure as far as sense enjoyment is concerned, as I re-experience Life and the Universe now as what is in Truth. It is Maya, but there are other ways of seeing this, by entering the state of Enlightenment or Realization. Specifically when in Practical Enlightenment or Realistic Realization does it all make sense, and Maya is no longer just some obstacle on the spiritual pathway. This is where also the matters of friends and family and society socializing do not hold me back from seeing the truth of all earthly attachment. This is a transition time, and thus could be confusing, whilst seemingly straddling the two identities born of England and India. However I am rising into the level eight domain, and going to the Transcendental beyond, as explained in this book, There is then also a "how to" teaching component involved herein.