The Role of the Guru

This article by Ram Dass describes what it was like for me to bask in the love of my guru, Jesus, when he came to us as we gathered in a circle for a few blessed months up in Toronto. It is helpful to understand that the role of the guru is to serve as an example of, and eventually, a symbol for, the embodiment outside of us of the Creator's love for us as individuals, and within us as our truest impersonal and limitless nature. This role can be equally played by someone who is incarnate in the body as by someone who has left the body, but whose image and beingness, even if the product of our own imagination at first, can serve as the bridge to our oneness with the infinite, ineffable, unimaginable Divine nature.

This article by Ram Dass elaborates:
http://www.ramdass.org/the-entrance-to-oneness/