_Interviewer:_ You said there is no rivalry. In the last twenty years many people have come from India to the United States to be of service. And I must say, to my eyes, some of them are very wise people and some of them would seem to come from Hollywood, not India. I am thinking of one who is currently making big shows and obviously taking in a lot of money from followers. Doesn't this disturb you? If one Master becomes a figure who is either laughed at or considered insincere, then that would in some way make people think that everybody who comes from India is that way.

Sri Chinmoy: You are absolutely right. The sincere ones do suffer quite often when insincere ones make a display of their so-called spiritual genius. But in these cases, we are helpless. Only we have the feeling that the real, sincere seekers who are being exploited today will not be exploited forever. I may be a fool for a day or for a few months, but I won’t remain a fool all my life. So this is our only hope.

There have been some spiritual Masters who have exploited our Indian spirituality like anything and they have considerably damaged the opportunities of the sincere ones. There are spiritual Masters who claim that they will give God-realisation in the twinkling of an eye if only the seeker gives them a few thousand dollars. Now, this is absurd. If God-realisation could be achieved by virtue of money-power, then by this time all rich men would be realised. In America there would be millions of people who would be able to realise God overnight. This kind of false statement is absurd.

But when people ask me about other spiritual Masters, I always say, “I don’t know that person.” I only know what I have inside my room. You may ask me what I have and I will show you. But what they have I have no right to say, because I have not entered into their room. They will say, “What right have you to say this about me?” So, when people ask my opinion about other Masters, I simply say, “Please come into my room and I will show you what I have. To see what they have, you have to go into their room and look.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,The doubt-world, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/dw