In this section the Master discusses the indispensability of a worthy guide for sure success on the path of Realization. Guru is the connecting link between God and man. The Master declares that Realization cannot be achieved by mere abhyas. As the aspirant ascends into the higher or subtler realms he comes up against strong forces which are greater as the region becomes subtler. The abhyasi is not able to move up by his self-effort alone. Further, even if he moved a little up he slips down quickly due to the strong push from above. Evolution is always an uphill task and we qualify through meeting challenges posed by the requirements of ascent to the next higher stage. This can be seen even in ordinary life, say for instance in getting higher educational or professional qualifications, we need to exert ourselves in equipping ourselves with the requisite knowledge and personality attributes that will make us worthy of the higher stage and stabilize ourselves there. It is common to feel that there is a force against which we are exerting, manifesting itself through the action, thought and behavior of persons with whom we interact and other environmental factors. In the language of physics we say that work is done always against an opposing force and thereby the potential energy is increased. All of us know that a weight when it is moved from a lower position to a higher position acquires potential energy directly in proportion to the difference in height and which is converted into kinetic energy when it is allowed to fall from that height. This is gravitational potential energy. A similar situation prevails in the case of an electric field, the charged particle when moved against the force field of another charged particle gains in potential energy. In the world of the atom, we find that if the electron is to be moved from an outer to an inner shell with respect to the positively charged nucleus, we need to supply energy in the form of radiation of appropriate frequency or vibration so that it can move into that higher energy orbit and be stable in it.

In spirituality, we have an analogous situation. As seen earlier, the super fine state of mind, or the stir, is the subtlest state that what we term as mind can assume and as creation proceeded progressive grossening takes place yielding grosser and grosser levels of consciousness. The Master has said that behind the perceptible world we have innumerable worlds each subtler than the preceding one. We can postulate that subtler layers are characterized by higher potential energy states. Hence to move from the grosser to the next subtler one the abhyasi has to exert his will force and move against the opposing force. We can think that successive layers act as some kind of sorting system which ensures that only those who qualify with the requisite calibre of will, purity and subtlety occupy the corresponding levels. In Nature merit alone wins. One is rewarded strictly according to his capacity and worth. There is no partiality or favouritism. It may be possible that the serious aspirant crosses from the initial layer to the next one by self-exertion and that too after continuous and arduous practice spanning even one life. The Master observes while discussing the journey through the various knots in Pind Pradesh that several decades of austerities and continuous practice will be necessary to move from the first knot to the second and thereafter, the time and effort increase in exponential proportions. Rightly it has been said in the scriptures that it takes lives upon lives to attain moksha. At least seven lives are required to come to the state of janma raahitya (not having to be born on this earth again) and a Jnani learns the absolute need of surrendering his all to the Lord after many a life. What applies to the case of the material atom applies in the spheres of consciousness as well, except for the need to substitute will force, a non-material one, for the material forces of gravity or electricity. The enormous difficulties faced by the struggling aspirants in the field of spirituality are entirely due to the fact that they are really up against subtle forces which will not yield to material forces or practices heavily charged with materialism or gross ritualism. Not only that, they for most part lack a worthy Master of calibre to support them actively and continuously in their endeavour. That is why the Master is so emphatic that without the push from one's Master and His sustained support (through His highly developed will force) it is impossible for the disciple to move further on the spiritual path and stay in the higher regions. Very rare indeed are the cases of sages who could surrender directly to God and achieve perfection by self-effort.

We can now see the qualifications of the spiritual guide declared as essential by the Master for ensuring success on the path. He must be of the highest calibre and worthy of the task of tearing off the intricacies at a glance with the aid of the extraordinary power at his command. Such a person must necessarily be one who has himself attained perfection or complete negation of self. He is not a mere learned teacher who can give scholarly explanations for the intricate puzzles or riddles one encounters in the scriptures or debate extempore with profuse quotations on the nature of Jiva, Brahman and Maya. He possesses the inner powers for fomenting the abhyasis heart and awaken the soul which is in a dormant condition and propel him on the path leading to Self- Realization. He is totally selfless and is ever ready and even impatient for helping the sincere seeker cross various spiritual stages and reach the Ultimate in the shortest possible time. His enthusiasm in the matter of spiritual progress and being in everlasting communion with God is overflowing and highly infectious. While in His holy company, the mind of the aspirant is calm and composed forgetting all its worldly concerns and is one pointed. It is even felt that the mind known by its overactive and agitated state has vanished. It is a kind of manonasha or extinction of mind. Actually it is a metamorphosis of the mind. It attains its true state receiving the silent influx of the divinized consciousness of the Master whose company he is privileged to enjoy. Such a Master does not exert Himself to produce these conditions in the abhyasis by resorting to any artificial or forced means. It is absolutely natural and the aspirant feels completely at home in His presence. His personality is never overbearing or obtrusive, nay, one gets the impression as if he is not there even though the senses record his physical presence and activity. He is established in the state of Zero or Personality with no personality.

Such a Master is simplicity personified and does not discriminate between the abhyasis on the basis of caste, creed, sex or nationality. He is ready to serve as a servant of God and not as a Master demanding adoration and implicit and instant obedience. He is not interested in gathering a crowd of admirers, name and fame, acquiring popularity or accumulating wealth. In short having totally effaced his self in His Master, He ever lives in the state of complete ignorance totally oblivious to the charms of this world and the next. He is totally just and at the same time is moved by and is sympathetic to the human condition. He intercedes with His Master/ God on behalf of the erring devotee and always has the advancement of the abhyasi in His charge at heart. He is a thoroughly divinized human being retaining the human tinge and though He has solved His problem of life, is ever on the lookout to help each and every fellow being to achieve the goal of human life. In this respect He works unceasingly seeking neither reward nor recognition, His sole aim being to please His Master under whose directions He is always at work.

The Master gives a description of the various types of Gurus and Disciples we come across these days. The different types of Gurus are as hereunder.

1. Quacks those who go about advising and conducting worship of trees, animals, insects, diseases, ghosts and spirits. Here the Master is referring to the superstitious worship of the peepul tree, snake and small pox personified as a fierce goddess whose anger manifests as the dreadful disease
2. Book Moths those who prescribe practices and methods they have picked up from books, without being aware their practical implications as they themselves lack practical exposure
3. Practical Teachers - those who prescribe that which they do or have done without taking into account the merit or demerit thereof.
4. Inspired Teachers - those who guide people on their inner inspirations.
5. Inspired Experienced Teachers - those who guide people on the basis of their practical experience and higher inspirations.

Similarly the disciples are classified as under.

1. Self Seekers - those who take up the practice for fulfilling their needs
2. Time Passers - those who take it up as a pastime
3. Followers - those who try to follow the directions of the Guru
4. Earnest Disciples - those who try to follow the Guru in His footsteps and copy Him
5. Devout Disciples - those who become the focus of Master's attention

The Master has given the above classification so that in today's degraded spiritual environment the discerning seeker will be able to make an enlightened selection of a worthy Guru, which indeed is a very difficult task and having enormous significance at the same time for a seeker's spiritual progress. A wrong choice can totally ruin the aspirant's mental, material and spiritual life forever.

We should see here that being a true and worthy disciple is also not an easy task. It is perhaps more difficult to get a good disciple than a capable Master. In fact all sadhana is aimed at becoming the ideal disciple as once it is accomplished nothing more remains to be done. The Great Master Lalaji Maharaj remarks that though He had a number of followers, He could get only one whom He could structure in the ideal manner. Always we find a herd of sheep, rarely a lion comes along in the field of spirituality. To be called a disciple one must be thoroughly disciplined and obedient. Obedience and submission are the stepping stones to surrender. The goal of life can be restated as becoming the disciple who is the focus of his Master's attention, the Master Himself being firmly established in the Ultimate. We find in the life of Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shajahanpur, the most vivid illustration of the ideal disciple who formed the object of His Master's continued and constant remembrance, a clear illustration of the statement, the lover turning into the Beloved and vice versa.

What should be the method for judging whether a particular person can be a worthy guide on the spiritual path? The Master gives an easy method. When we come into contact with one, we should see whether in his company, we feel calmness, peace and silence, the restless tendencies of the mind not causing any weight upon it at least for the time being. Then it can be concluded that he is fit to lead us on the path. The main difficulty, however is that we do not normally develop trust in him unless we se him displaying some miracles or solve some of our mundane problems. But miracles are not the true criterion for a saint or a yogi. Jesus Christ showed miracles all his life but one of his own disciples betrayed him. The real miracle is to bring out the real man lurking behind the apparent man and help him achieve his true potential. As the Master puts it, miracles are a deliberate fraud played by the dexterous gurus on credulous and weak minded people to keep them ever trapped in the folds of gurudom. Another caution to be exercised before the final selection is to see and be fully convinced about the practical attainments of that person on the path. This will need continuous association with him to judge things through perception and experience in a practical way. Once we are thus convinced we should trust him in good faith and rely firmly upon him come what may. This is highly important for a successful pursuit.

Then comes the question of how best we should relate to such a great Master to whose feet we are led by Divine providence? The Master recommends that we treat Him as the loving mother. Only a mother's heart can bear with patience all troubles and miseries caused to her by her son, thinking all the while of his comfort and happiness. The same is the position of the real Master who is the spiritual mother of the disciple. It is due to the affectionate attachment of the guru to the disciple that the attention of the Great Father (God), with whom the spiritual mother is so closely connected, is directed to the disciple. Just as the mother holds the child in the womb and delivers it after it matures, the spiritual mother, the guru, holds the disciple in His mental sphere or womb and delivers him into the brighter world after he attains the required maturity. During the stay in his Master's mental sphere, the disciple is nourished by the energy in the spiritual waves of the Master's thoughts even as the child is nourished in a mother's womb. After he is delivered in the brighter world, the disciple begins his own spiritual life, though, as the Master says, there is never a moment in the disciple's life when he is not dependent on his Master's grace. The relationship of Master and servant continues through eternity. It is said that if the disciple enters the mental sphere of the guru surrendering everything it takes only seven months for him to be delivered into the brighter world (to become liberated). But the process is considerably delayed because the disciple retains the consciousness of his own thoughts and feelings while he is in the mental sphere of his Master.

The Master clarifies the position regarding the subject of' initiation'. According to Him this has been much abused by most of the modern professional gurus, who do not understand its real significance. They think that their responsibility ceases once they utter certain mystic syllables in the ears of the aspirant and recommend a few ceremonial methods of worship. Their duty ends then and there and they expect the disciple to attend their annual Darshan and pay some handsome tribute. The lay disciple is also kept under threat of a curse befalling him in case he decides to leave the guru. This is nothing more than a clever artifice of holding the disciples virtually prisoner in their camp thereby assuring a steady income, following and popularity. In what follows the clarification of the Great Master is given in His own words to provide utmost clarity on this important and crucial aspect of an aspirant's spiritual life.

Really a disciple should be 'initiated' only when true faith exists in him and Divine love takes prime root in his heart. Initiation signifies that the disciples link (with the Master) has been connected with the supreme power and the spiritual force begins to flow to the disciple automatically according to the absorbing capacity developed by him. It depends on the power and capability of the Master to establish a sound connection for which a high calibre is needed. A sound connection once established will continue till the disciple secures liberation, which is not a far off matter in such cases. Also there is no question of breaking off when it is done in the right sense by a Master of calibre. But for professional gurus who perform mock initiations to serve their purpose, it is a matter of constant anxiety. The Master declares that it is one's birthright to break off the connection with his guru if he finds that he made a wrong selection or he misjudged the guru's capacity. A selfless and true guru will on his own direct his disciple to another more competent person if he finds that he cannot take him beyond the guru's own approach. No moral or religious law comes in the way of a disciple who is denied permission by his guru to break off due to selfish reasons.

An interesting observation is made by the Master regarding the much abused and overused epithet, 'Mahatma' to venerate the gurus. According to Him, Mahatma is not one who has an imposing personage, vast erudition, enviable health, an impressive and vast following, ability to perform miracles or hold the audience spell bound by extempore orations on spiritual subjects quoting profusely from the scriptures. He is a 'non-being' being, the most insignificant being or a neglected figure, beyond all feelings of greatness, pride or egoism dwelling permanently in a state of complete self-negation. He does not agree with the usual interpretation, that of a great individual, being given to that word. While judging the so called Mahatma, what we should be really looking for is not his capacity for miracles or other great accomplishments but go strictly by his practical achievements on the path of Realization, if any. Some hold that knowledge being the preliminary stage of Realization it is essential and indispensable. But the Master is firm that all knowledge is only an achievement of the brain whereas Realization is the awakening of the soul.

By awakening of the soul is meant that it becomes aware of its real nature, that is, it is a dependent of God. It gets reminded of its homeland and also becomes cognizant of the greatness and glory of God, its progenitor. Restlessness is now created to achieve the union with the Godhead and it becomes impatient to get rid of all the shackles that have kept it bound to the world of manifestation. It realizes its own folly in having desired and developed attachments for the very things which are now obstacles on its path. It starts now developing love and devotion to the Master and God and resolves desperately that there should be no more a return to the conditioned existence. It wants to soar higher and higher and keep company with the spiritual guide who has freed himself of all limitations and is deeply rooted in the Infinite. It is like the case of the bird which happens to see its companion soaring high in the vast unlimited space, is induced strongly to follow suit but helplessly flaps its wings seeing that it is still bound within the cage. Perhaps if it stopped eating and further would feign death, its master may open the cage and the relieved prisoner will jump in joy beat its wings in wild enthusiasm and fly away keeping its already liberated companion in sight all the while to keep company with it eventually and for all time to come.

Hence we should pray to God that we might be blessed with the association of such Great Teachers who by their inner powers can awaken our souls. The most important consideration in spirituality for the aspirant is to see that the guide himself is free from the bondage of samskars, Maya and Ahankar and is firmly connected to the Absolute, otherwise it will be suicidal for his spiritual growth.