Question: How can we tell if we have met our Master?

Sri Chinmoy: I have answered this particular question millions of times. Now, I am a spiritual Master and today we have all come here to pray and meditate and create a spiritual atmosphere. When I called my disciples up to meditate, I saw that everyone else in the audience was meditating in his or her own way, which is absolutely the right thing. Now each individual has to become like a teacher and give marks for whatever he sees in me, Peace, Light, Bliss or any spiritual quality and also the spiritual atmosphere that he finds here. He should give ten out of a hundred or twenty out of a hundred and so on. If he gives zero out of a hundred, it may be absolutely correct according to him. He will know it is his real Master when he can give at least eighty out of a hundred.

Also it depends upon the seeker’s own development and preparation. He must prepare himself to be ready for the Master. Otherwise if he is not ready, he can see the Master face-to-face, but he won’t recognise him. The Master knows that that seeker is meant for his path but he can’t tell him, “You are my disciple.” The seeker will think, “Oh, I’m so rich or I am very influential, that is why he wants me to be his disciple.” This is the way the Master is suspected. Also, if the Master says, “No, you are not my disciple,” then the seeker will feel, “Oh, it is because I have nothing to offer him, I am hopeless and helpless,” and so on. Whatever the Master says will be open to question. So it is the seeker who must choose, and then it is up to the Master to accept him or else to tell him that there is another Master waiting for him. He cannot tell him the name even of the other Master, because perhaps the seeker is not yet ready.

After the seeker has chosen and is accepted by a Master, he must not feel that he automatically has become a dear, close disciple of the Master. The seeker must see how sincere he is. If he feels, “I need Truth, I need Light,” then he is ready for the true spiritual life. The seeker has to know if he is ready to give the Master everything that he has and everything that he is. What the seeker has is aspiration, inner cry, and what he is, right now, is ignorance. When he is fully prepared to give the Master all that he has and all that he is, then the Master can work most effectively to transform his entire life. The seeker surrenders his existence to the Master, and then it becomes the Master’s responsibility to illumine and perfect him.

From:Sri Chinmoy,God, Avatars and Yogis, Agni Press, 1977
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