Ensuring the credibility of a tantrik requires careful assessment of their qualifications, ethical practices, and reputation. By examining key factors such as transparency, experience, and spiritual integrity, seekers can distinguish genuine practitioners from fraudulent ones.
Your insights emphasise the need for vigilance in identifying genuine practitioners.
Here’s a structured approach:
1. Transparency in Identity
A credible Tantrik must disclose their real name and address, ideally verified through official documentation like an Aadhaar card. Lack of transparency may indicate fraudulent intentions.
2. Verification of Qualifications
Many individuals use titles like Dr, PhD, Guruji, Guruma, Gold Medallist, Baba, and Maharaj to enhance credibility. Always cross-check the authenticity of such credentials to avoid deception.
3. Assessing Genuine Expertise
Some people install free software and start offering consultations without actual astrological knowledge—a trend that escalated during the lockdown, often linked to unemployment. They commonly sell gemstones and amulets without proper expertise.
4. Validating Experience Claims
If a Tantrik claims 15-20 years of experience, take steps to verify this assertion through client testimonials, historical records, or personal investigations.
5. Authentic Consultation Locations
Bogus practitioners often rent temporary chambers to defraud clients—selling fake gemstones before disappearing. Ensure the Tantrik operates from an authentic and established location.
6. Scrutinizing Online Reviews
While Google reviews may seem reliable, fraudulent Tantriks manipulate ratings. Examine the legitimacy of accounts posting reviews before basing your judgement solely on feedback.
7. Checking Website Longevity
Fake practitioners frequently create new websites under different names each year to escape refund claims from past clients. Verify the age and history of their website before trusting their services.
8. Examining Phone Number Usage
Similar to websites, fraudulent Tantriks change phone numbers frequently to evade accountability. Checking the number’s history can help establish credibility.
9. Investigating Award Legitimacy
Some institutions accept payments from Tantriks in exchange for awards and photos with celebrities, which are later used for promotional purposes. Verify the authenticity of these advertisements.
10. Gathering Local Feedback
Consulting a Tantrik’s neighbours can provide valuable insights into their authenticity, reputation, and popularity in the community. Direct feedback from people who know them personally is crucial.
11. Evaluating Spiritual Integrity
A true Tantrik operates with a clear and pure soul—dishonest intentions compromise their spiritual authority. Ethical conduct is a fundamental requirement.
12. Assessing Accessibility
A genuine Tantrik is not readily available at all times via phone or in person; spiritual expertise often requires deep focus and limited accessibility. Excessive availability might indicate commercial motives rather than genuine knowledge.
13. Verifying a Tantrik’s Lineage and Mentor
A crucial step in evaluating the credibility of a tantrik is understanding who their mentor was and ensuring that the mentor is authentic and knowledgeable. Many reputable Tantriks inherit wisdom through genuine spiritual lineages, making it essential to cross-check their teacher’s legitimacy. If the mentor’s background is unclear or questionable, it may raise concerns about the practitioner’s credibility as well.
14. Must be a Brahmin
In the old days, marriage, sraddha, and worship were not possible without a devoted Brahmin, let alone tantra. Now many people who are non-Brahmins are also doing this work. Verify the Tantrik’s caste when assigning work.
15. Volume of Work Per Day
There are 12 full moons and 12 new moons in a year, so it is possible to do Tantric work only on a few special dates or Tithis. So it is not natural to work for too many people. The right Tantric is the one who does the work of a handful of people together in one day. If you have to work properly or get the results of your work, then you have to spend a lot of time behind a task. If you work in that way, the work of 3 people can be done with great difficulty in a day. The Tantric who takes on many tasks at once and completes all the work in one day; the results of his work are not as expected.
Final Thoughts
Presenting false information and manipulating beliefs for profit is unethical and can be considered a crime. Those who meet these stringent criteria can truly be regarded as authentic Tantriks with genuine spiritual knowledge. Drawing on 32 years of expertise in Tantra, Ramapada Acharjee offers these insightful recommendations.