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Originally Posted by Geeta
 Yes and 'true' teachers reveal it only to those who are truly worthy of receiving that knowledge. No matter what lineage or culture the true teacher belongs to, they always test the disciples before passing on their teachings.
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You have raised a very good point about TRUE teachers testing the disciples before passing on their teachings.
I recall my second meeting with my teacher after I was very impressed with our first meeting during which she gave me a meditation book.
Although I was a beginner in mediation at that time, I somehow managed to read the entire book in one week and came back the following week with questions. When I entered her presence, I told her that I had read the entire book and had questions.
After a long silence, she stared directly at me and said: "You read the whole book in one week?"
Fearing a quiz, I got uncomfortable and answered weakly, "sort of".
She then asked: "And you practiced?"
I was feeling very uncomfortable by then and responded again: "Sort of".
She then looked at me sternly and said: "PRACTICE. Only then can you ask questions. Now, you may leave."
You can only imagine my reaction to being dismissed like that. My ego was badly bruised and I didn't go back to see her for a while. I would go to the ashram when she wasn't around as I liked the group there but I avoided the place whenever she was there. Eventually, people at the ashram couldn't really answer my questions to my satisfaction and they urged me to come when she was there and ask her. I stubbornly refused saying that I didn't like her.
However, eventually, I decided to test her and ask her questions AFTER I had PRACTICED for a while. I figured that the worst she could do was to dismiss me again. To my surprise, having PRACTICED, she answered my questions far better than anyone else and I was hooked.
In retrospect, her abrupt dismissal of me on my second visit was the best thing that could have happened to me. Without PRACTICE, it's all just talk and she refused to engage in intellectualizing with me about meditation techniques. From that point on, I was hooked for over 30 years and ended up writing the introduction to her meditation book in which I emphasized the importance of PRACTICE as per my own experience.
We still had some turbulent times during our teacher/discipline relationship but, in retrospect, she was the perfect teacher for me even though those "tests" were pretty painful (to my BIG ego) at times.
Obviously, like Yukteswar, my teacher had very few real close disciples. There was a book, Living Women Saints of India, in which she was described as the "No Nonsense Yogini", a description that fitted her (and Yukteswar) very very well.
I could not have found a better teacher.
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