Whatever we are now is the result of whatever we have been or thought in the past, and whatever we shall be in the future will be the result of what we do or think now.

But this does not preclude our receiving help from outside, the possibilities of the soul are always quickened by some help from outside, so much so that in the vast majority of cases in the world, help from outside is almost absolutely necessary.
Quickening influence comes from outside, and that works upon our own potentialities, and then the growth begins, spiritual life comes, and man becomes holy and perfect in the end.

This quickening impulse which comes from outside cannot be received just from books, the soul can receive impulse only from another soul, and from nothing else.
We may study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual, but in the end, we find we have not developed at all spiritually.

It does not follow that a high order of intellectual development always shows an equivalent development of the spiritual side of man, on the other hand, we find cases almost every day where the intellect has become highly developed at the expense of consciousness soul.

Now in intellectual development, we can get much help from books, but in spiritual development, almost nothing. In studying books, sometimes we are deluded into thinking that we are being spiritually helped, but if we analyze ourselves, we shall find that only our intellect has been helped, and not our soul. The books cannot give us that impulse from outside. To quicken the spirit, that impulse must come from ourself soul.

That soul from which this impulse comes is called the Guru, and the to which the impulse is conveyed is called the student. In order to convey this impulse, in the first place, the soul from which it comes must possess the power of transmitting it as it were to another and in the second place, the object to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it.

The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready plowed, and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a growth of spirituality takes place.

These are the true teachers, and these are the real students. Besides these, the others are playing with spirituality just having a little intellectual struggle, just satisfying a little curiosity but are standing only on the outward fringe of the horizon of religion.

There is some value in that real thirst for religion may thus be awakened, all come in the course of time. It is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as the field is ready the seed must come, as soon as the soul wants enlightenment, the transmitter of God force must come.

There is the soul barrier to the receiving of momentary emotion for real religious yearning.
We find that in ourselves. Many times in our lives, somebody dies whom we loved, we receive a blow, for a moment we think that this world is slipping between our fingers, and that we want something higher, and that we are going to be religious. In a few days that wave passes away, and we are left stranded where we were. We ofttimes mistake such impulses for real thirst after religion, but so long as these momentary emotions are thus mistaken, that continuous, real want of the soul will not come, and we shall not find that transmitter.

So when we complain that we have not got the truth and that we want it so much, instead of complaining, our first duty ought to be to look into our own souls and find whether we really want it. In the vast majority of cases, we shall find that we are not fit; we do not want, there was no thirst after the spiritual.

There are many though immersed in ignorance, yet, in the pride of their hearts think they know everything, and not only do not stop there, but offer to take others on their shoulders, and thus the blind leading the blind, they both fall into the ditch.
The world is full of these, much of them wants to be a teacher to obtain a lot of money, trying to package and sell through sermons to finding God.