There is an age old saying: "When you are ready the teacher will appear.” What is that "readiness" required for the Guru to appear?

The Vedic scriptures have repeatedly instructed the need to surrender to a Guru, for attaining God.  However, the question that stumps a seeker is how to find a true Guru. 

   Fortunately, God helps the sincere seeker in this task.  He is seated in everyone’s heart, and so when He sees that we are ready, He not only brings us in contact with a genuine Guru, but also creates our faith towards the Guru by inspiring us with the feeling, “Yes!  This is the personality whom I was searching for.”  Without this inspiration that comes so strongly from within, we may stand before the Guru, and yet not recognize him as a true Saint.  Or we may recognize his Divinity, but feel no motivation to surrender to him.  But when God bestows His Grace, He inspires us and creates strong faith in the Guru.  Hence, it is said that when God sees we are ready, we find our Spiritual Master.

   Here, readiness means a sincere aspiration to attain God.  We must firmly decide that our goal is God-realization, and we must desire it intensely.  When God sees this readiness in any soul, He creates our connection with the Guru. 

   Often people search for spiritual teachers, but their desire for God is mixed with material aspirations.  In accordance with their motive, their faith is created in unauthentic spiritual teachers who pander to their material desires.  After many years, such seekers realize that their guru was not perfect, and they feel they have been cheated.  But it was their own insincere aspiration that was to blame for their developing faith in a wrong personality.

   Hence, the best way to find a genuine Spiritual Master is to develop and intense yearning for God.  When He sees this “readiness” in our heart, He will arrange for us to meet our teacher.