Question: How do we know who is our real teacher?

Sri Chinmoy: When you see four or five persons in front of you, automatically one person attracts most of your attention, or gives you much more joy. Four persons are walking along the street, but when you look at one of them, you will get tremendous joy. That means that you have already become aware in the inner world of your affinity with that particular person. Your mind cannot account for it, but your soul has already recognised its oneness.

A teacher is supposed to be your most intimate, eternal friend. If I give you more joy than other teachers, then I am your teacher. If somebody else gives you much more joy, then that person is your teacher. It is like choosing a school. There are quite a few schools; so you go to a school that you like. You are under no compulsion to go to a particular school. Just because you like a particular school, just because you like the teachers of that school, you will go there. In the spiritual life also, when a seeker sincerely wants help from a spiritual Master, he makes a choice. The one that gives him utmost joy, the one for whom he feels utmost love, is the right one for him.