A Guru is considered to be a spiritual master. Literal meaning-“the one who dispels darkness”. Here darkness is referred to ignorance, & knowledge to light.
There can be people who call themselves physical gurus, but they cannot be trusted, because there are plenty of con-men out there posing as gurus. I am not saying, that the physical Gurus do not exist at all. I am just saying that the majority of the physical gurus present, are not really gurus. There’s definitely a way where you don’t have to be present in front of a physical guru, and yet be able to follow them.
What you need to do is that choose one religion, and its teachings, and start implementing them in your life. For example, if you choose Gautam budha as your guru, I would read everything he has said, done, in his life, and would start implementing it in my life. Similarly, if Guru Nanak is the guru, then I would read, study, every thing they have done in their lives, and implement those teachings in my life.
Basically, I will try to understand how did they deal with every kind of situation they have faced, or any human being faces in his/her life. For example, I would love to know how did they deal with their friends, their family, their spouse, a stranger, a beggar, the govt of their time??… and then I would choose to do the same in my life. Why? because if they are considered to be as Gods, and we assume that whatever god does, is right…then we’ll do the same in our lives.