Part III — Choosing a Guru

Question: How can a person recognise a genuine spiritual Master?

Sri Chinmoy: When you meditate with a spiritual Master, if out of his infinite kindness he wants to show you Light and Peace through his eyes or through his spiritual presence, he can do so. When a real spiritual Master looks at a genuine aspirant, the aspirant is bound to feel something in him. A God-realised man or spiritual Master is not someone with wings and a halo to identify him. He is normal, except that in his inner life he has abundant Peace, Light and Bliss. So if you come to a spiritual man expecting something other than boundless Peace, Light, Bliss and Power, then you will be disappointed.

But again, you must know if you are fit to judge. If I know nothing about medical science, how am I going to judge a great doctor? Only another doctor will know how to judge him properly. But a nurse, who knows a little about medical science, can appreciate a great doctor far better than I. In the spiritual life, a real seeker who has sincere aspiration and dedication has already achieved a little bit of inner Light. Because of his aspiration, God has endowed him with an iota of Light, and with that Light, he is bound to see and feel something in a true spiritual Master. If one is really advanced in the spiritual life and is making fast progress in his inner journey, then his aspiration will be the best judge as to whether the other person, the so-called spiritual Master, is genuine or not. So the best judge is one’s sincere aspiration.