Question: If we have an experience which we feel may be coming from God, in objective truth, how do we know we are experiencing God, the Devil or anything but our own imagination?

Sri Chinmoy: God the Devil will destroy you, but the real God, the compassionate God, will fulfil you. Here, when you meditate, if you get inner peace, or inner joy, then immediately you feel that there is some truth, there is some light that is compelling you to go faster, to move forward, or to go upward, or to dive inward. But if you feel that it is the opposite of that, then naturally some wrong forces, hostile forces, are entering into you. Where there is Light, you have to feel there is joy; and where there is joy, real joy, divine joy, there fulfilment is bound to take place. You must know that the spiritual life is not a life of imagination. It is something real, absolutely real.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Earth’s Cry Meets Heaven’s Smile, part 2, Aum Press, Puerto Rico, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ech_2