Question: I would like to know what you demand from your disciples and what your relationship is with them. We have heard that you are very strict in accepting disciples and that you do not accept everyone that comes to you.

Sri Chinmoy: You are absolutely right when you say that I am strict in accepting disciples. Some disciples may think that this strictness is a weakness on my part. I can say only that I am helpless; I can't help being strict. You ask what I demand from my disciples. As a matter of fact, I have no right to demand anything. But I sincerely expect from them certain things, which you can call my fee. All spiritual Masters demand a fee, according to their own inner light. My fee is aspiration, my fee is regularity. If an individual has genuine aspiration, then he has given me my fee. And if he has regularity in his spiritual practice, then he has paid me my dues.

When an individual is regular, he must also feel the necessity of punctuality. In the spiritual life everything has to be disciplined. So if you meditate at the same time early every morning, it will help you considerably. It is at that hour that God will knock at your heart's door, or you will knock at the door to God's Heart. So aspiration, regularity and punctuality are all necessary.

There is something more that I expect from my disciples and that is love, divine love. Human love fails; we have heard from other people and we have seen ourselves in our own life how human love is bound to fail. Human love binds, and that is why it fails. Divine love expands, and that is why it excels and succeeds. So I tell my disciples, if you have to love an individual or a spiritual path, always try to offer your divine love.

When you offer your love, you have to offer it through your devoted feeling to God. I tell my disciples that I am not their Guru. There is only one Guru. Their Guru and everybody's Guru is the Supreme. No human being can be a Guru because only the Supreme, the Almighty, the Absolute, is the real Guru. Spiritual Masters are mere instruments. We are like elder brothers of the family. Younger brothers do not consciously know right now where the Father is. So the elder brother says, "Look, our Father is seated on a throne. Come here and see." Then the role of the spiritual Master is over. But first of all, before love, before regularity and punctuality, I need from my disciples the inner cry of aspiration.