TEST ADEQUATELY BEFORE ACCEPTING SOMEONE AS SPIRITUAL DESPITE OUTWARD APPEARANCE INDICATING WHATEVER

TEST ADEQUATELY BEFORE ACCEPTING SOMEONE AS SPIRITUAL DESPITE OUTWARD APPEARANCE INDICATING WHATEVER 

However spiritual someone may pose to be, be it in white or in saffron garb, never lose your independence of thought and thoughtlessly surrender your self. You must retain your rationality to resist rogues in the religious line which, thanks to your gullibility, are a legion. And this cheating using divine symbols and words extends to the supposedly exalted souls as well, the very highest, and historically so, who I, owing to limits of civic decency, must restrain myself from naming, but they do exist, charlatans who cheat right and left and have historically done so, even institutions that have craftily and indirectly made making money the end and duping the gullible the means. The fault lies with you, dear devotee, that you surrender your self without making adequate use of your faculty of reasoning. This must not be. Test the Guru as the money-changer tests his coins, Sri Ramakrishna used to tell his devotees and would-be disciples. Test. If the examinee passes the test with flying colours, then consider whether to accept him or not. Hasty acceptance may lead to being duped. Avoid it. And it you can.

Written by Sugata Bose