Acharya Prashant explains that the importance of physical proximity to a guru lies in the nature of human senses. Since the mind is occupied by whatever is physically in front of it, being close to a teacher makes the teacher's presence unavoidable. The ego, which lives in a make-believe world of pretense and guilt, desperately seeks to avoid facing the truth. While the ego may agree to a safe distance to appear respectable, it resists intense proximity because the guru acts as a pointer to that which exposes the ego's falseness and hollowness. True proximity must be self-threatening and chosen by the seeker, as it leaves no space for the ego to hide. He further discusses how this resistance manifests in the way seekers interact or ask questions. Some avoid asking questions altogether to keep their inner mischief sealed and protected from exposure. Others ask superficial or intellectual questions about external matters to avoid addressing the center of their lives. Acharya Prashant notes that unless a seeker is already in a state of deep, silent communion, a lack of interaction usually indicates a conscious effort to protect internal deceptions from being illuminated by the teacher.
