How Can Someone Want to Be Cheated?

Question: How Can Someone Want to Be Cheated?

1. How to balance approaching and being approached? Everyone should approach pure devotees to seek spiritual knowledge, but nobody does. Out of compassion, oftentimes it's the pure devotees who are approaching mundane people to enlighten them in spiritual knowledge. When you are preaching, is it that you approach them and tell them a lot, or that you only tell them a little, and if they are interested, they will naturally approach you?

2. Those who approach bogus gurus are not sincere. In this age, many people are misguided. You told me that those unfortunate individuals who are cheated are not sincere, it's because they want to be cheated. Well, I never understand about this. It seems that they also want eternity, knowledge and bliss. Could you kindly tell me what is the meaning of "want to be cheated"? What are their subtle desires? Can you give an example?

Answer: By Desiring to Be Told, "You Are God."

The preacher has to judge by the result. Whatever is most effective for the delivering the fallen, conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead is the strategy which should be adopted. What is proper in one situation may not be proper in another situation. Therefore the preacher should always be attuned to time, place, and circumstance and adjust his teaching style accordingly.

We cannot say that those who approach bogus gurus are not sincere. They may be sincere and misguided. But a sincere, seeker of the Absolute Truth will not be satisfied after having met such cheaters and will continue looking for a bona fide spiritual master until he finds one. It's the ones who stick with the bogus gurus who are showing their lack of sincere desire to know things as they are.

For example, I have just recently been informed about a bogus guru who teaches his disciples that they are God. A sincere, honest person will realize that this is nonsense and will look elsewhere for a spiritual master. But someone who would like to consider himself to be God will stick with the bogus guru who tells him that he is God.