The competent living Master
 
A competent living Master is one who has reached perfection and who has been commissioned by God to reconnect the souls with God by transmitting his own life impulse, the active principle of God. The Master enlivens the soul which is lying dormant in the body under the weight of mind and matter, and gives a conscious inner experience of the active God-Power manifesting in these two aspects, inner Light and inner Sound. The activation of the inner connection between the soul and the God-Power is called initiation.
 
Often the question is asked why Masters of the past cannot help us, but it is a universal law that man can learn only from man. As Light comes from Light, so Life comes from Life. Saints who appeared in the past bestowed their spiritual benefit only on those who came in contact with them; they cannot do anything for the present generation. As a great doctor of the past cannot help a patient of today, Masters of the past were limited in their sphere of working to their own time span.
 
It is not possible to recognize a competent Master at the level of intellect and mind, but through intense longing for God, or by intense prayers, he comes into our life. On further progressing on the path, the competency of the Master can be verified by the initiate inside, at the level of soul.
 
For a seeker, one important criteria of a competent Master is that he leads a very simple life without outer show, and that he lives on his own earnings.