False guru analysis

Quack doctors flourish in places where people are mostly uneducated or do not have much exposer to scientific worldview. The quacks claim to have all the requisite skills to cure a patient. He dons the dress of a doctor; display medicinal books and also flaunt some fake degrees to convince people that he is indeed a qualified medicinal practitioner.
Just like quack doctors there are clan of quacks who masquerade as spiritual gurus. Such quack gurus too don the saffron robe of a sannyasi, memorize few verses and advertise themselves as God’s representative.
Just by buying a book of medicine and studying it on its own a person cannot become a medical doctor. Similarly just by reading books of Vedas and without being trained in any authorized sampradaya one cannot become a spiritual guru. There are four sampradayas or chain of disciplic succession descending from important acharyas or spiritual preceptors – Sri sampradaya (main exponent Ramanujacharya, it originated from Goddess Lakshmi), Brahma sampradaya (main exponent Madhvacharya, it originated from Lord Brahma), Rudra sampradaya (main exponent Vishnu Swami, it originated from Lord Shiva), Kumara sampradaya (main exponent Nimbarka, it originated from Kumaras, Lord Brahma’s sons)
To become a doctor one needs to join a government authorized institution and need to be trained by a qualified teacher, similarly to become a guru one needs to be part of these authorized institutions and be trained. It is mandatory for a guru to receive scriptural knowledge from a bonafide spiritual practitioner in a disciplic succession – srotriyam brahma – nistham.
A quack doctor is never able to diagnose the disease correctly and so his prescription fails to completely cure the patient. Many times because of wrong treatment patient even dies. An unauthorized spiritual guru too fails to provide correct solution to the diseased souls as he is unable to comprehend the true purpose of the Vedic literature. Vedas exhort all to inquire for the higher spiritual goals – athato brahma jijnasa – and not get bogged down by the flickering pleasures of this material world which is anyway temporary. However fake gurus dole out tons of misinformation claiming it to be the message of sacred books and engage the gullible people in mundane activities of amassing wealth and striving for position and power in this ephemeral world.
Before visiting a doctor we make sure that the doctor is genuine, his degrees are authentic and he has got it from a recognized university. So if we are serious about our spiritual life then before accepting anyone as our guru we have to make sure that the gentleman’s credential isn’t fake and he has been trained in an authorized spiritual university which is part of the 4 sampradayas.
And along with this we should be cautious about the gurus overall conduct. Whatever he speaks should be as per the scripture and should be in line with the teachings of the renowned spiritual seers. A genuine guru lives by the scripture and preaches by his own exemplary example.
Human life is utterly precious; it gives us an opportunity to get reunited with the Supreme Lord. So we should be extremely cautious in selecting a guru, a representative of God, because a guru unites us with the Supreme Lord. And he can do so only if he himself is having sublime relationship with the Lord.

(Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at Iskcon Kolkata. He blogs at http://krishnamagic.blogspot.co.uk/)