HOW TO FIND A GURU: MISTAKES TO AVOID | FAKE VS REAL SPIRITUAL MASTERS

Before I share with you the wisdom on ‘How to Find a Guru’ or a Spiritual Master – whether in the Himalayas/ India or anywhere in the world, let us first clear a few basics.

MOST IMPORTANT FOR SPIRITUAL PATH

Before treading on Spiritual Path, this is what you must know.

We all know, ‘Direction is more important than speed’.
We cannot ignore this quote when it comes to one’s Spiritual Path. Walking on the Spiritual Path before spending enough time in finding the right direction is the biggest mistake that a spiritual seeker could make.

Before you read further, you might want to checkout the article, ‘Do we need a Spiritual Guru at all?’ if you haven’t already read that.

Let me explain you how.

Okay tell me, ‘How do you recognize a true Spiritual Master’ or an ‘Enlightened person’?

Is it by the ‘Orange Robes’ that he is wearing?
Is it by the beard that he has? or
Is it by the verses from the scriptures that he has been speaking from?
Well, if you have been identifying the Spiritual Master in that way, then you are doing it all wrong.
Let me share with you lessons from my 10 years of search in finding the Perfect Spiritual Master…

Ask yourself, ‘Is it possible for a thief to dress up like a traffic policeman and loot the people for challan money?’
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Now tell me, does that thief become a policeman in real life too if he dresses up like one?
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So basically, the dress or how a person looks like (eg. the attire of a sadhu or a sadhvi) can never tell us the truth about a person i.e. if he is a Saint or not.

A man is a Saint by his CONSCIOUSNESS or CHETNA (as also taught by our rishi-munis in the vedas & shastras). And the Consciousness can never be identified by the clothes of a person.

An extremely highly conscious person may choose to wear t-shirt and pants and a fake spiritual master may be disguising himself as a True Spiritual Master by wearing orange robes, shawl or putting a tikka on his forehead.

So how do we know who a True Spiritual Master is? or whose consciousness is most expanded?
My friend, don’t loose faith.

GOOD NEWS: IDENTIFYING A SPIRITUAL GURU

Let us first be happy with the good news. The FAKE can exist only if the REAL does. Right?
For example, the FAKE NIKE products exist in the market because the real NIKE Brand products already exist.
So the good news is that though there are many fake spiritual masters, it means that there is a REAL Spiritual Master also somewhere.

With my experience of finding a True Perfect Spiritual Guru after 10 years of extensive search, I can tell you that today in this Internet age, 95% of the Spiritual Masters that you see on the Internet are not enlightened themselves.

LEARN FROM THE HISTORY: HOW TO FIND A GURU

A person may argue and quote, ‘When the time is right, the Master appears’.
Sure.
But understand one very simple thing. Master may appear in front of you but your ‘Mind’ is too powerful to recognize the real one.
It may mistake the Fake Master as the real Perfect Spiritual Master.
Hasn’t it happened with people in the past?
Why don’t we learn from our history?

HISTORICAL EXAMPLES OF PERFECT SPIRITUAL MASTERS (PSM)

JESUS CHRIST: PSM

We know what happened to Jesus Christ. All the people of this world today know about Jesus Christ. People pray & worship in the name of Christ. But when he was alive, most men were not able to recognize him. During his time, Jesus only had 12 disciples. It was only 100s of years later that people started learning the teachings of Jesus Christ and now most recognize him to be a Perfect Spiritual Master. But what had happened to the minds of the people when Jesus was alive? Their minds deceived them.

JESUS : The ONE (Word made Flesh) who came to take these men out of misery & to show them the way…why majority of men never considered Jesus to be a Spiritual Master or the Son of God WHILE he was alive?

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GURU NANAK: PSM

The same happened during the time of Guru Nanak.
When Guru Nanak Ji was alive, he suffered extreme pain. He moved from one place to another. He taught about humanity. He taught people to come out of the caste system & the religious barriers and treat all as equal but only a few listened to him when he was walking in a physical body on Earth.

Today, when Guru Nanak Ji is not alive in flesh, people love him and listen to his teachings & celebrate his birth. Why did people not recognize Guru Nanak Ji for most years of his life?

SRI KRISHNA: PSM

Do you know that it was only when Sri Krishna showed his ‘Viraat Roop'(cosmic form) to Arjuna during the Kurukshetra war, that Arjuna was able to understand who Krishna was. That’s why Arjuna asked for forgiveness from Krishna.

After receiving the gift of the Cosmic Vision of Sri Krishna, Arjuna said to Krishna –
(11.41-11.42, The Bhagavad Geeta)

Thinking of You as my friend, I presumptuously addressed You as, “O Krishna,” “O Yadav,” “O my dear Friend.” I was ignorant of Your majesty, showing negligence and undue affection. And if, jestfully, I treated You with disrespect, while playing, resting, sitting, eating, when alone, or before others—for all that I crave forgiveness.

If Arjuna would have really considered Krishna as ‘Lord’ before that day, then he would have surely called him during the “Draupadi Vastraharan” for help. It was only Draupadi (Arjuna’s wife) herself, who had faith in Krishna to be the Avatar of the Lord that made her remember Krishna and he immediately appeared to save her.

So we can see that most of the times we human beings have not been able to recognize the True Spiritual Masters while they are living amongst us.

Because these people look so simple and live amongst us, we do not understand the importance of their presence or their teachings while they are alive in a physical body.

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PRESENT DAY EXAMPLE OF FAKE MASTERS

ASARAM BAPU CASE

ASARAM BAPU CASE: CONVICTED OF RAPE, BLACK MAGIC, MURDERS OF CHILDREN & KILLING WITNESSES

We all know about the many Spiritual Masters in whom “thousands of people” placed their trust and only after many years, when much damage was already done, people found out that these men were Fake.

Most of the awakened Indian citizens know the case of Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Asaram Bapu, who called themselves God and after a few years were proven guilty of the rape of children and women.

While you can find more details on the case of Gurmeet Ram Rahim in my blog on the Series “Aashram”, Asaram Bapu’s criminal file records have been removed from the Internet ( if you find some records, send us the link) as many of us know that the politicians in power are disguising him as a Spiritual Master for their own profits and are running Twitter campaigns to earn money from his ashrams that the political goons are running themselves.

WHERE ARE THE REAL SPIRITUAL TEACHERS

The FAKE Spiritual teachers do not just exist in one country or one religion. They exist everywhere. But if you are a true Spiritual Seeker, you must learn how to find the Enlightened one.

Today’s age of Internet is a blessing for all of us – ONLY IF we know how to use it correctly. A few years ago, when people were not using internet so extensively, it was easy to fool people offline. But today, the independent free journalists post everything courageously.

Therefore, it gives us the options to know more and learn more; though we must ALWAYS use our gift of WISDOM to differentiate the right from the wrong. Our conscience (if we are awake enough) helps us in knowing the right way.

Most times, because of our inability to know ‘How to Recognize a Perfect Spiritual Master’, we consider ‘Fake’ as ‘Real’ and ‘Real’ as ‘Fake’.
So our first duty as a Spiritual Seeker, is to understand the presence of various spiritual teachers present before us. We must NEVER hurry in finalizing a Spiritual teacher.

START FROM HERE

Although all paths will eventually lead to God (in the longer term and the higher perspective). But how much time it takes for you will depend on how much clarity you have in your mind about what GOAL YOU wish to achieve and how much TIME you are ready to put in the spiritual practices.

We must understand that ‘The Disciple can reach only as far in his Spiritual Journey as the Teacher himself as reached in his consciousness’.

Even when many paths may lead us to the same end. One path may take 25 lives for us to reach that end. While yet another technique of meditation or the Spiritual Path may be so much effective that it may take only 14 years for self-realization and God-realization. Which path would you like to travel on?

If you are somebody who would like to accelerate his spiritual journey and save his time and energy by learning from other people’s experiences, you might as well learn from my 10 year search for a Perfect Spiritual master and may want to learn ‘How to find a Guru in Himalayas or find an Evolved Spiritual Master‘ from a detailed guide that I have prepared for spiritual seekers here.

Complete Guide: How to Find the Perfect Spiritual Master to save yourself years of search.

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