Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Guru is important but Hinduism does not bar difference with the guru. For us Hindus, it is not always necessary for us to agree to what a guru says, just like a modern student may differ from the views of his teacher in a college or university. We have the example of Sage Yajnavalkya (pupil) differing from Sage Vaishampayana (teacher). Vaishampayana's version is known as Krishna (Black) YajurVeda, while that of Yajnavalkya is known as Shukla (White) YajurVeda. I consider Buddha and Sankara as my gurus, but differ from both of them in finer details.But the guru is important.
Adrian said "In addition to God we can pray to our ancestors and those who have passed to the next world": I do not believe in any next world, but respect to teachers and ancestors is a must for a Hindu. It does not matter whether their views are similar to views that you hold or are different. For example, Madhvacharya's views are nearly opposite to what views I hold, but even then I respect Madhvacharya completely. This is as if you were a believer in Big Bang, but you will still respect Edwin Hubble of the Steady-State theory. His work aided us to arrive at Big Bang.
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