The explanations about meditation make clear that the inner way is full of dangers. This is why the Holy Scriptures emphasize the need for guidance. It is evident that only one who himself has passed through the way and has mastered all the difficulties can help others to reach the destination. Like in the worldly way a mountain guide is needed if an untrained man wants to climb a high and dangerous mountain, accordingly a competent one is needed on the spiritual path. He must have permission from the Godpower to guide others. Such personalities have never claimed to be a Master, they have always said that God is the Master.
Guru Nanak was asked, "Who is your Guru, your Master?" He replied, "The God-into-expression Power, Shabd is the Guru. My soul is His disciple." Kabir also said the same, "The Guru resides beyond and above these outgoing faculties. If you come up there, you will find Him." He called that Power Guru Dev, the radiant form of the Master.
So the true Master is God himself. Not God Absolute, but God who has come into expression, who is sustaining and controlling the whole universe, and is sustaining us in the body. We have a direct and independent contact with Him. He is within each of us, but latent. In which human pole it has manifested, that body is blessed. But such personalities are rare. Christ was such a personality, Kabir, Guru Nanak, and all other Masters whose experiences are laid down in the Holy Scriptures.
Masters or Saints are selected by God, they come with a commission and a purpose. They work in His name and by the power of His Word (Shabd). Being conscious co-workers of the divine plan, they see the hidden hand of God in all spheres of life. Those who see that their Father is the doer can never claim that they themselves are doing.
People in the world are identified with physical "Masters" – if they say that they are Masters, people rely on it. But He who has the permission and who has got the power would never say that he is the Master, because he begs something from the higher Power, or that Power gives directly. So he will call himself a bought servant of this Power. If he only one time said that he is the Master, this contact would be broken at once.
Now there are a hundred thousand "masters" in the world. All claim themselves to be Masters. But as spoken by the competent Master, the Word-personified-form – it is from the teaching – directly or indirectly they are working for the negative power. What do they teach? Outwardly they give the same teaching, but they give a different experience. The teaching is one and the same. With some training anyone can teach it, this is no problem. But to give the practical demonstration, the first-hand experience, is difficult, it is only possible for him who is commissioned by the Godpower. What is the difference between a competent and a so-called master? There is a great difference! It is easy to come above the body-consciousness and concentrate over here (between and behind the eyebrows at the seat of the soul), but it is very difficult to withdraw (completely) from the body-consciousness and to transcend above the astral and causal body. For that, one must be dragged above through the third eye or single eye. This experience is only possible by the help of the Godpower, it is not possible by our own force.
On the level of mind, there are all impressions of the past, all karmas, stored in the reservoir of our subconsciousness. They are like an iron curtain that hinders the soul or spirit to rise above. Only the Godpower, the Word or Shabd, can burn these karmas and open the third eye, so that the soul can pass through the darkness and experience the holy light. As so-called "masters" are not able to remove the karma, the "experiences" given by them at the time of initiation are made below the seat of the soul, and light below the seat of the soul is negative. It takes you down into the body, and what you experience is mere illusion. They teach something, but they are not able to give it. The same theory is taught, but what is given is something else.
Even the five names given by someone who is not commissioned are of no use. Who gets the five names or any Mantra by a "master" who is not competent and keeps his attention fixed on this "master" can only go as far as this one has reached. If for instance such a "master" goes to the astral plane, his disciple can only go as far as his "master" is able to go. There he will make so many miraculous, fascinating experiences that it makes him believe to be continuously progressing, though in reality he is only moving within this plane.
Non-competent masters will confirm such experiences in these regions as purely spiritual thus misguiding their followers and keeping them tied to their own person. Such negative experiences are not only the astral light, but there can also experiences of sceneries, landscapes, flowers, the appearance of angels, and many more.
The purpose of the five names given by the competent Masters at the time of initiation, is to check whether the experience is positive or not. But these names only function when they are charged. Just to give names is not difficult. However, an initiation is only valid, when the attention of a power is given who has at least the competence of the fifth plane (Sach Khand, plane of consciousness), and therefore is able to liberate the soul from the wheel of births. He who on the physical plane pretends to be a Master without being able to guide the soul on the higher planes can never be accepted as Master. In this case the true inner Master (Gurudev) and the outer so-called "master" do not tally. The attention of the disciple is divided and the soul cannot progress.
