How do you show your hunger? You feel it, don’t you? Likewise, you can feel whether a spiritual master is real or fake.

For this, first rule is to not go to Him with any assumptions. Go with a plain heart. Assess the situation logically and intelligently. Your heart will tell you. Do not get affected by the size of the ashram or the number of devotees or the methods being followed by the person who claims to be the spiritual master. Beard, physical attributes, colour of dress or type of dress do not matter at all.

In other words, when the time is ripe the teacher himself will come before you. Whoever says, ‘I am God’ is fake. Even Lord Krishna said He followed the dharma. Thus everyone is bound by dharma. What is dharma? Most simply put, it is truth, love and sacrifice.

(Bhaktimala Sep 2000)