You can likely find many people and a number of institutions
willing to tell you, for several hundred dollars and a little of your time, that you are
an enlightened being. Then you can go through life behaving very strangely and
irresponsibly while assuming your behavior is a genuine aspect of higher consciousness.
If you seek enlightenment and the incomparable help of a Master, you generally have to
qualify. Sometimes qualification is amazingly easy. Once 
Sarada Devi, a Master herself, in addition to
having a special role as the wife of Paramahansa Ramakrishna, was riding in a train
through the Indian countryside. At one station she saw a boy who had spiritual signs.
While the train paused, she compassionately went to the young fellow, accepted him as a
chela, and initiated him. This kind of qualification and acceptance is rare but is
possible.
