• Bhagavad Gita, c4 s34

Acquire the transcendental knowledge from a Self-realized master by humble reverence, by sincere inquiry, and by service. The wise ones who have realized the Truth will impart the Knowledge to you.

• Kula-Arnava-Tantra (XIII.106ff.)

O Devi, there are many gurus on earth who give other than the Self; but hard to find a in all the worlds is the guru who reveals the Self.

Many are the gurus who rob the disciple of his wealth, but rare is the guru who remove the disciple's afflictions

He is the [true] guru by whose very contact there flows the supreme Bliss. The intelligent man should choose such a one as his guru and none other

• Brahmanda Purana

Guru is Shiva sans his three eyes,

Vishnu sans his four arms

Brahma sans his four heads.

He is parama Shiva himself in human form

• Kabir

Guru and God both appear before me. To whom should I prostrate?

I bow before Guru who introduced God to me.

• Brahmanand

It's my great fortune that I found Satguru, all my doubts are removed.

I bow before Guru. Guru's glory is greater than God's.

Contemporary

• "Do you realize now the sacred significance and the supreme importance of the Guru's role in the evolution of man? It was not without reason that the India of the past carefully tended and kept alive the lamp of Guru-Tattva. It is therefore not without reason that India, year after year, age after age, commemorates anew this ancient concept of the Guru, adores it and pays homage to it again and again, and thereby re-affirms its belief and allegiance to it. For, the true Indian knows that the Guru is the only guarantee for the individual to transcend the bondage of sorrow and death, and experience the Consciousness of the Reality."

Swami Sivananda

• "According to the occidental idea, the master serves as the medium for imparting knowledge or truth which is the final goal. As Aristotle said, "Dear is Plato, but dearer still is the truth." But in India truth and the Guru are completely identified. There is no truth apart from the Guru, and to know and serve the latter with whole-hearted devotion is also to serve the cause of the truth."

From the Sri Sai Satcharita, the holy book of the followers of Shirdi Sai Baba http://www.saibaba.org/shirdi5.html

• "Rely on the teachings to evaluate a guru: Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism."

The Dalai Lama speaking of the importance of the guru.

• Spiritually Realised Adepts ( or Transmisson Masters or true Gurus or Sat-Gurus ) are the principal Sources, Resources and Means of the esoteric or Spiritual Way . This fact is not (and has never been ) a matter of controversy among real Spiritual Practitioners.
  Adi Da Samraj from Ruchira Avatara Gita

Criticism

• "The trouble with many gurus or spiritual teachers is basically that they don't practice what they teach, and that it is often very difficult to discover, partly due to the cleverness and deception of the teacher, and partly due to the devotee's unwillingness to think ill of the teacher who he thinks so highly of."
  • http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex_baba/engels/shortnews/GuruGallery/Robertotext.htm by an anonymous former follower of Sathya Sai Baba approximately around 2002.

• "I have been saying for many years that we are using the word ‘guru’ only because ‘charlatan’ is too long to fit into a headline. "
  • Peter Drucker, (quoted in D James, "Peter Drucker, the man who changed the world", Business Review Weekly, 15 September 1997, p.49)