ON RECOGNIZING A PERFECT MASTER

 
Question: Is there any infallible method of recognizing a Perfect Master?

Answer: Spiritual attainment to the planes one may not satisfactorily allocate or discriminate. All those from the first to the sixth plane come under the general category of "Advanced Souls" more or less. But when luckily one comes into contact with Perfection it represents unmistakable signs for a seeker of Truth who is patient and sincere.

There are three important factors that are characteristic of the state of Perfection. First Perfection is not only "Oneness with God" but the continued and uninterrupted experience of Oneness in everything. A Perfect Master continuously, without any break, experiences or realizes his own Self as the Self in all. This inner experience objectively manifests itself in the spontaneity of Love that such a one feels or expresses towards all creation. To him nothing is attractive or repulsive: good, bad; saint sinner; beauty, ugliness; wisdom, idiocy; health, disease are all different modes and moods of his own manifestation. When embodied Perfection loves, fondles, feeds any living creature, it feels and enjoys as if it is loving, fondling and feeding its own Self. In this state no vestige of "otherness" is left.

The second point is the undeniable atmosphere of bliss that Perfection radiates in its immediate vicinity and which a visitor cannot help feeling or noticing. A Perfect Master not only enjoys infinite bliss, but also experiences universal suffering. The poignancy of suffering, however, is nullified and subdued by the overwhelming joy or feeling of bliss. Hence, Perfection outwardly always appears blissfully calm and unperturbed in the face of every kind of pain, persecution and penury.

The third most outstanding characteristic of Perfection is its power to adapt itself to any level or strata of humanity. It is as nonchalant on a throne as it is obviously indifferent and undisturbed in a gutter. It is impecunious with the poor, and extravagant with the rich, lordly with kings, wise with the learned and naively simple and innocent with the illiterate and ignorant.

Just as a Master of Arts delivers or teaches English in a different way to a beginner than to an undergraduate, similarly, a Perfect Master adapts himself to the level of the one whom he wants to uplift spiritually. Each one to its need and everyone to its aptitude, is the perennial plan of personified Perfection.