Is it possible to get correct spiritual knowledge by meditating?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on October 24, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Swāmi, some of my friends say that these days, there are a lot of fake Human Incarnations of God. There is a risk of ending up with such false Gurus. So, it is better to meditate within ourselves, so that true knowledge will be revealed to us. Even if we get a doubt later on, we can again meditate and find out the truth. I have also heard that some of the ṛṣis received revelations of different śāstras like the Vaimānika Śāstra. These śāstras are examples of flawless technology, without any prior experimentation. It a gift of God to them. In a similar manner, can we also get spiritual knowledge by meditating?]

Swāmi replied: Engineering education is lower than spiritual knowledge. If you can get the higher spiritual knowledge by meditation, why do you not get the lower engineering knowledge by meditation? If getting engineering knowledge were possible through mere meditation, all these engineering colleges would have been closed because they are extracting a lot of money from you, just as false Sadgurus are extracting Guru Dakṣiṇā from you! Without a preacher or teacher, one cannot attain any knowledge with the perfect perspective. You have to eliminate false preachers through proper analysis. Fearing the cheating by students in examinations, we cannot demolish the entire examination system. The Sadguru knows how to preach a specific topic to a specific disciple. In your meditation, you have to rely on yourself entirely. But you are ignorant of the subject. You are neither God nor is God present in you to give you that knowledge through meditation. Your ignorant self alone exists in you. Even Jiddu Krishnamurthy, who preaches about self-learning, says that you should study the world and get knowledge. He does not say that you should close your eyes to get knowledge.

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