Question: But how can you tell whether you are linking up with a fake or not?

Sri Chinmoy: That you will know from your personal experiences. A fake may deceive you for two days or two months or two years; but if you are sincere, then he cannot deceive you forever. Usually it happens that if a person is sincere, very sincere, extremely sincere, then he goes to the right Master. But if the seeker is very sincere and does go to the wrong person, still the experience that he gets does help him in some way. No experience is totally lost. An individual may delay his progress for a year or two, but this experience will make him very strong inwardly and he will not make the same mistake again. And from the mistake that he has made, he will get an added experience. The next time he will be careful and cautious when he wants to do something for the world or wants to get help from human beings. It will make him very careful in assessing people or in mixing with people in this world.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Selfless service-light, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ssl