The psychotherapist and the guru both have important roles to play. Where the work of the psychotherapist finishes, the work of the guru begins. Therefore, instead of comparing the two, let us connect them. Of course, the guru can act as a psychotherapist, but that is not his primary motive. A psychotherapist is a person who helps you through a particular crisis in your life, but in the relationship with guru, psychotherapy is spontaneous and ongoing. The guru's relationship with the disciple, his own personal life experience, and his knowledge of the nature of the mind are such that after relieving his disciple of certain mental problems, he is then able to give him spiritual life.
That is why, right from the beginning, certain rules and regulations have been fixed. Not everybody can become a guru. In order to become a guru you must first have had a perfect discipleship. How can you become a lecturer or a professor in a university unless you have been a student? If you have only read some of the Yoga Sutras and yoga books and attended a few seminars here and there, you should not think that you are a qualified guru. That is a very dangerous situation; such gurus need a psychotherapist.
If you treat someone's mind, and then leave him at that point, he will continue to have problems. Of course, at a certain level, sickness of mind has to be treated, but there is no end to it. In my opinion, it has to be transcended rather than treated. The mind is a composition of the three gunas, which keep on assaulting it all the time. Therefore, a disciple should develop new tools of knowledge and experience with which to deal with the problems of the mind.
Similarly, we cannot really equate Satsang with group therapy, even though many times we try to explain Satsang in these terms. The Sanskrit root 'sat' means reality, divinity and purity; it represents Self or God. Satsang does not mean being in the company of many people; that is known as 'sangha', which means company or association. Satsang is being in the company of truth.
There are various types of Satsang. You can close your eyes and practise Satsang all alone. When you are reading a spiritual book which deals with the topics of reality that is also a form of Satsang. Satsang happens when you are with a group listening to the glory of divine being or the ways of purity and self-evolution. Hearing about the lives of those people who have had divine experiences and who have suffered or lived for the higher experience, is also one of the most inspiring types of Satsang.
In Satsang you may practise kirtan or meditation, but these are not Satsang, they are only ways of conducting Satsang. In Satsang the most important thing is the constant movement of ideas related to the ultimate reality, divinity or highest being.
There are certain groups which I have come across in recent years where people join together to do some practices and to help each other. There is a very simple, scientific explanation for this. If you put a grandfather clock in with many other small clocks, you will find that initially, the movement of their pendulums does not coincide, but after some time all the clocks will be following the grandfather clock. This experiment has been repeated many times. Similarly, when you play a violin, all the other violins in the room begin to resonate. If you listen carefully, you will find that the vibrations from the first violin are being transmitted through the inactive violins. The same thing happens in a group also, when people get together to help each other.
In India, there is not much need for these group sessions, because the social situation is still very well organized. If a group of people live together in a joint family or in an ashram situation, they begin to understand the nature of human psychology. They have an opportunity to see where they stand with one another. They are able to assess their own minds, their limitations, and faults, which is a great change from the modern culture.
In the west, particularly in this century, group therapy has become an important phenomenon. In the 18th or 19th centuries, the situation was different. There was a more compact and well knit family and community life. But in the last one hundred and fifty years, the social structure has deteriorated bit by bit, and so the need for group therapy has arisen.
However, we must remember that mind is not the ultimate reality; there is something beyond the mind. We only talk in terms of mind because mind seems to be a barrier for many people. Actually, whatever we do in spiritual life is not done for the sake of the mind, but for the discovery of the universal spirit. Therefore the path of psychotherapy can only be followed to a certain extent; then there comes a point where it must be left behind. Psychoanalysis can definitely be of great use at a certain stage of development, but eventually it becomes a barrier and then you have to transcend it.