Therefore many seekers try to find a spiritual leader who solves these problems and leads them in the background. A competent master who leads us can be a big help and is most cases necessary in our negative world ! People who are under all circumstances against masters developing their small EGO and their own seperatistic PERSONALITY ! But in practice this faith in the hidden leadership and protection by a master is mostly an illusion !

For many spiritual seeker gurus are an absolute authority or a symbol of the divine goal. Gurus are often looked at to have reached the highest goal (Satguru), but very often they are only a disciple of a late master or the legal successor of a guru. Only few gurus have reached the true mastership of step 20 of the Universal Path(Mahatma). Very often they have the position of a father or mother (babaji, mataji) for their disciples.
Many gurus expect that the disciple surrenders to them and gives up his EGO, loves the guru and so gradually identifies more and more with him (Guru - Yoga) who serves as a gate to the divine.
Most Gurus have founded a spiritual organisation and have a specific teaching and specific exercises. Almost all gurus say that they belong to a tradition like White Brothership or Radhasoami or Buddhsim.
But many Gurus have a double tongue .

You should not expect that gurus spread the strongest exercises for the quick enlightenment (which would soon be spread everywhere and be abused for worldly purposes) - or that they give You protection. The divine providence allows very seldom to use the power. The DIVINE is not at all interested in the individual enlightenment. The individual soul is only a means in the divine plan and rather unimportant for the forces of infiniteness. Too many masters would be out of control, and in the divine plan the common enlightenment is planned for a time in the very remote future of the earth - with small prior periods where Avatars help mankind.
In our part of the milk-stret the divine ONE, the Logos of Sirius, wants that masters control those students who try to go their own path (like Buddhism). He doesnt want that and does not accept the free will of man at all ! Therefore "surrender to the divine" has much a wider meaning in reality.
Of course there are several really enlightened masters(Step20) under the well known gurus and teachers, and there were real Satgurus in the past.

Besides the gurus exist the TEACHERS like Buddha Gautama was and many Lamas and several Yogis of different scools are. Furthermore exists more or less progressed people all over the world who have founded a scool and teach a small aspect of the path - from their limited point of view - mostly relying on old books or traditions.
Here the personal developement stands in the foreground, and the disciple is not so much bound to the master. He can uphold the personal spiritual Ego. To reach step 21 und 22 of the UNIVERSAL PATH every master must give up the higher EGO for the price of an infinite divine Ego, mostly on the ray of a higher divine master who leads him. But only selected masters are allowed to pass the gate(Agama) to these further steps.

The various Kriya-Yogascools
Supreme Master Ching Hai from Vietnam ( Quan Yin = Surat Shabda Yoga !)
The unofficial Sikh-Masters and their groups
The Kundalini-Yogascools (Yogi Bhajan etc.)
the Eckankar - Organisation
SANT MAT, Radhasoami : Rajinder Singh, Huzur M. etc. (Surat Sabda Yoga)
the yogascool of Shivananda (Hatha-, Mantra- and Raja-Yoga)
the various masters of Sufism
Mata Amritanandamayi ("OM-MA"- Breath - Meditation...)
Bhagwan "Kalki" and Amma(Livinginjoy).
Sri Chinmoy from New York who 1972 left the Aurobindo-ashram in south-india ( His teachings)
Ji Kwang Dae Pop Sa Nim (buddhistic Mandala-Meditation)

and several less known gurus und teachers and small scools like Theosophy and the Arcanscool of A.A. Bailey.

"The third claim is "surrender to the master". But that does not mean servile observation of the orders of a master or a teacher behind the scene , as it is demanded in many esoteric scools. It is much simpler than that. The real master, who demands our attention and obedience, is the master in our hearts, the DIVINE soul, the inner Christ.
In the first time this master shows his presence through the "silent small voice" of the conscience , spurs us to a higher, selfless life, and warns immediately with a forceful voice, if we deviate from the straight honest path. Later she is recognized as the "voice of the silence" , as that abandon , which comes from the "word that has become flesh" ( Logos, Sabda ), which we then are ourselves.
(Extract from A.A.Bailey : From Intellect to Intuition, page 88)