(From Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz USA)
Interviewer: I have a question that’s important to me and to many people who are searching for something or seeking perhaps, what you call, Self Realization or Sahaja Yoga or something. Some of us don’t know exactly what it is. But we find that there are many teachers. How do we recognize those teachers that you might call fraudulent from the real ones? It’s so difficult because they all seem to be able to inspire us in certain ways and give us experiences. How do we know who is teaching something that’s true or who is being deceptive?
Shri Mataji: First and foremost thing is, anybody who lives on your earnings is not a guru. A guru will never live on the earnings of his disciples. But here there are people who have built palaces, bought aircrafts and cars and this. I mean, this is something one should understand. It’s so, so open to you to understand. I mean, I cannot understand more obvious thing that this one is that it’s a parasitic living. And, you cannot have a parasites as your gurus. They can be parasites but not your gurus. That’s one of the things. And if you… [laughter]
I mean, you can retain some people, you know. If you want because you are rich people, you can retain some. That’s a different point but you cannot have them as gurus. Guru has to be a higher personality, you see. Now, you have seen Christ was such a great incarnation. He didn’t take any money from anyone. He was a carpenter’s son and He used to do carpentry Himself and He lived like a modest man. He never lived with big cars and big houses. It’s not necessary because such a person is Himself is a very big king, you see, like a big emperor. He doesn’t need anything. An emperor doesn’t need anything because nothing can give him comfort except that he himself is in complete comfort. So, such a person doesn’t want anything. So, you must see that such a person has no needs of comfort at all. He can sleep on the grounds, he can sleep anywhere.
Now, in this life, I should say I come from a quite a wealthy family or married to another wealthy man, you can say that way according to your own relative ideas. But to Me, I can sleep anywhere. I have no problem. I have no problem of food, no problem of sleeping anywhere, no comfort. And, I find it is beyond My self-respect to live on the earnings of others. It’s not proper. But you are My children. Supposing now you bring a flower to Me or something, it’s all right but I can’t have a palace out of your money and all those things. It’s absurd. Absolutely absurd! So, this is one thing one should know that it pampers our ego that we can purchase our guru. We can purchase our Self-Realization. You see, this is a very subtle pampering. And, that’s how people accept, you see. They don’t want to accept a person who says, “You cannot offer anything.” It’s too much for them.
Or maybe that, secondly, could be that people think that if you pay something then you get attached to it, you go through it whatever it is. Say, you have paid for a ticket and you find that the whole play is horrid, you can’t bear it but you have to go through it because you have paid for it. That’s the human nature, you see.
Interviewer: Yeah
Shri Mataji: That’s the human nature. I have seen that. They do it. And that’s what it works out. But this is very gross level, I’m telling you. But another should be that in these modern times, it is promised that you will become prophets. You have to become prophets. So, you must see have you become prophets out of these? Easiest is to see the disciples of this man.
Any XYZ who says he is a guru – now what is happening to the disciple? Is he a free person? Has he got any knowledge? Has he got any mastery? What has he achieved by being with that person?
Now, you have seen here there are Sahaja Yogis. One better than the other! You talk to them, they are knowledge. Some of them have met Me only for a say, eight day or so. They have become knowledge. So, what have they achieved you should see. What is their style of life, their pattern of life, how they behave? And, there cannot be any privacy about it, you see, like mafia – you don’t tell that and you don’t say that and you shouldn’t do that. Of course, in Sahaja Yoga, the truth is exposed gradually, but it is not like this that if you give some money, nobody knows. Everybody knows everything in Sahaja Yoga, you see. Now, supposing we have to build an ashram, say for example. All right, you build your ashram; you collect your money, do what you like and know about it. I have nothing to do with it. Also, among yourself you should know how you got the money, how you spent it, what is the expense and all that. Because ashram you can pay for but not for your Realization. This is one thing is very important that what you get out of it is important that you should become a prophet.
Have you become a prophet?
Then, thirdly, you must know that if you are going from one to another, what we call guru shopping business – that means you have not found it. Otherwise, you would just settle down. But some people are so weak that they do settle down with one and are finished with them. You must always see the people who go to these gurus, what have they got. Have they got their transformation? Because this is the age of transformation.