In my mail, I put something sublty - later to elaborate ::
MAADHA - Mother - at Home PITHA - Father - at Home
What is their primary function ?
Feeding - caring - providing shelter and ENLIGHTENING on RIGHTS / WRONGS and DOs / Donts ..
We have already pointed out whether God is outside or Inside ! Siddhars have repeatedly questioned:: By putting a stone - calling it God - developing belief that it is God - one has to realise that the stone was created by him - and the Godliness in it - whether it is Man-made or God-made !!
Re God - it is individual view.. Let me leave it at that.
Re GURU - IT IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS..
Learning / getting Enlightened by Mother.. Love - affection - attachments etc.. more of internal things and other finest feels - like Chatrapathi Sivaji's mother taught him several things primarily .. before he denoted his Guruji..
then Father .. Dharma - More of external things..
then Guru .. kind of snow-balling :: from primary school - from an elder sister / brother / neighbour - a post man - a housemaid / servant - ONE LEARNs so many things.. from so many...
Out of this Entharo Mahanubhawalu - SEVERAL HIGHLY LEARNED ONES - we adopt various things from various personalities !!
Thus is GURU is more a concept - related to learning.
If my understanding is correct, Guru doesn't solve your problems... he/she shows the direction to the solution.
Just like a coach in a sports team. He will not get in to action of hitting fours / sixes / goals.. He makes you do that. Guru is more of someone who makes you to understand what you are best at.
If you haven't yet read, try the book "Goal" by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Whenever the lead character Alex gets into trouble, he consults his master Jona. Jona doesn't provide him direct answers / solutions. He will make Alex think on what will be the solution. That is how a Guru is supposed to be, just like a famous tamil proverb "Meen pidithu koduppathai vida meen pidikka katru koduppathu"
But in these Corporate Gurus issue, people go to them with their issues and so called Gurus promise solutions / miracles. Thats the starting point of all the problems..