Question: How do you make the difference between first class and second class disciples?

Sri Chinmoy: I have not made any outer declaration whether someone is first class or third class. In some cases I have told outwardly; in some cases I have not told, not even to first class disciples. And those who are sixth class or seventh class disciples I have certainly not told; far from it. I do not want to be accosted by them. But the moment I see an individual, I know what class he belongs to.

How do I draw the line? You are the student. Outwardly I am not examining you, but inwardly you are being examined every day. Every day I judge, but not in the sense of a real judge. Only I see the standard. I see how much you are crying, how eager you are to make progress and surrender to the divine in me. These things get marks from me. Every day you people are getting marks from me. I have said that a spiritual Master is like a private tutor. It is true. Even though I am giving you marks, I am not failing you in the examination. Outwardly I am not making any announcement. I am not asking you to leave my school. In a school if you fail for a year or two, the authorities will ask you to leave. But I am not doing that. In most cases I am keeping you, unless I see it is a hopeless case. But inwardly I am observing the situation and seeing who is my first class disciple, second class disciple and so on.

Again, I have to be very frank with you. Inside first class there is an inner circle. For those in my inner circle and even up to the first class level, I make their fate. With others, I try to make their fate better, more luminous, more spiritual. But for the first class disciples and my inner circle, I am the fatemaker also. I make their fate. That does not mean asking someone to open up a restaurant or some divine enterprise, no. One does not have to be a first class disciple to open up a divine enterprise. Even a sixth class disciple can manifest the Supreme in the outer world. What I am speaking of is far more significant.

Outwardly I may ask someone to get a Master’s degree or to become a doctor. This is for my manifestation on earth, and it is very important. But there is another kind of fate-making that takes place in the inner world. In the inner world also I may approach someone to do something for me. I am telling someone, “This has to be done; that has to be done.” On the outer level I may tell someone to work on a newspaper, or to learn medicine; that is making the outer fate. Then, from outer fate, one can enter into the inner fate. Again, there are some disciples who in the outer life may not do anything worth showing, but perhaps in the inner life they are standing very firm. In the inner life they are very capable of doing something, so I help them. So here I am making their inner fate.

It may sound very complicated, but it is not so complicated. First class disciples are bound to feel that it is not complicated. But here I have to say that those who are all the time seeing me and moving around here in Jamaica are not all my first class disciples or inner circle. No! True, there are some that are moving around the Centre who are my first class disciples. But if you see fifteen or twenty people moving around with me all the time, never think that this means they are all my first class disciples.

The seeker has to feel and will feel whether he or she is first class, second class and so on. This feeling has to come during meditation, during real meditation. Otherwise, out of jealousy or insecurity someone will say, “Oh, since Guru did not smile at me this morning, I am a fourth class disciple. I can never be his first class disciple.’ Only during a very good, high meditation will you be able to know whether you are first class, or second class, or some other class. Otherwise, if I look at somebody else, immediately you will think that you are not a first class disciple. But you may be my really first class disciple and the person to whom I gave a broad smile may be a fourth class disciple.

So from my smile, or from outer signs, you won’t be able to know who is my first, second or third class disciple. But those who really belong to me know that they are my first class disciples. It is not that I have directly told them. That I have not done. On rare occasions I had to tell a few people because they were sad and depressed for certain reasons. Otherwise, I have not gone and told individuals on the telephone; that I have not done and I will not do.

Again, I am saying that everybody has the opportunity to be my first class disciple, not by hook or by crook, but through surrender. You have to become my first class disciples through surrender, not through possession. Most of you fail to become good disciples because you try to get me through your demanding vital, instead of through your surrendering soul. If it is done through your surrendering soul, then immediately you can become first class disciples. If it is done through the demanding vital, you will go downward. Then, if you are now a third class disciple you will become a fourth class disciple; if you are a fourth class disciple, you will become a fifth class disciple.