Quest of spirituality and pOli sAmiyArkaL

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Spiritual quest has always been part of the human make-up. Even among people who don't believe in God, there had been always questions like 'whether life has a purpose' (why are we here, why so much crime / suffering, is it possible to know the future, what happens at death etc.) Even many who are strong believers of the theory of evolution have at times wondered whether there was one original cause at all or whether there was a law-maker behind the laws after all. (A nice example - the famous writer Sujatha, please refer to his quoted article about "obituary column" in his obituary thread). Often such evolutionists are also altruistic (defying survival-of-the-fittest theory), philanthropic etc.

Unfotunately, there have always been some smart humans who use this quest of spirituality in human make-up to their selfish advantage, by claiming themselves to be 'sAmiyArs'. At the same time there are many others who try to educate people on spirituality without any kind of selfish interests.

A typical average person is baffled as to how to identify the real spiritual guru from a pOli. Today's newspaper has this horrible news of one person with such claims committing a suicide along with his lover:
http://dailythanthi.com/article.asp?...date=4/17/2008

What are the views of hubbers as to the identifying marks of a good spiritual guru? How to avoid pOlikaL? (Please don't side-step into any controversy related to religion / caste etc. as the Hub forbids discussion in those lines)