How can we preach divine knowledge to the doubting public?

[Many people feel that spirituality is all nonsense. They are ready to believe in energetic forms of God but not Human Incarnations since they see many fraud gurus. If I tell such people about You, Swamiji, they will make fun of me. They will say that I am falling prey to a false guru and that instead, I should only believe in energetic forms of God. I have no problem even if people make fun of me, but if anyone says anything about You, I cannot stand it. Because of this fear, I am unable to disclose to even my parents and in-laws. Please guide me. (This question is part of a Mahā Satsaṅga or grand spiritual discussion between Swami, Shri Parikshit, Smt. Bindiya and Dr. J. S. R. Prasad.)]

Swami replied: There is a fundamental mistake in your approach towards the devoted public. First of all, without mentioning any names, you should establish the importance of the contemporary Human Incarnation of God, which is more relevant to humanity than Energetic Incarnations. Energetic Incarnations are relevant to the upper world which consists of energetic beings. You should say that Hanumān reached the highest goal by worshipping Rāma and that Rādhā reached highest goal by worshipping Krishna. Both Rāma and Krishna were neither Energetic Incarnations, like God Viṣṇu or God Śiva; nor were they past Human Incarnations. They were contemporary Human Incarnations of those devotees.

Then, you should say that the Human Incarnation should be recognized by the excellent knowledge that He gives since knowledge alone gives correct direction to souls. You should show them the excellent spiritual knowledge that is being given by the contemporary Human Incarnation. You should also explain to them that miraculous powers are not the deciding criterion to identify the Incarnation because even demons can perform miracles. You must recommend the study of the divine knowledge given by the contemporary Human Incarnation in whom you firmly believe. After reading that knowledge, those devotees will also become devotees of the contemporary Human Incarnation in whom you believe. If you introduce your contemporary Human Incarnation to those devotees saying that He performed some miracle for you, they might not be impressed. They too might have experienced miracles from some other preachers who are actually demons. One cannot distinguish the Human Incarnation from such demons based on the criterion of miracles. Hence, only the excellent spiritual knowledge is treated as the unique identity mark of the Human Incarnation and not a miracle.

Of course, all devotees believe in Energetic Incarnations. The specialty of the Human Incarnation is that you can see, talk and clarify your doubts, while this benefit is not available in the case of Energetic Incarnations. You cannot see them easily, because they are irrelevant to humanity. Even if they appear to you after your long and severe penance, the appearance is only for a few minutes. God does not appear for long in energetic forms since the energetic forms are not relevant to this material world in which human beings exist. You should ask the devotees if they feel they are greater than Hanumān and Rādhā, who worshipped only their contemporary Human Incarnations and attained the highest fruit!