Preface

I am pleased to publish the text version of a series of videos on the basics of spirituality. This is a vast topic, and to cover it in its entirety would be a difficult task, and anyhow the point of spirituality is exploration, it is not bound in a set of rules which can be exactly stated. There is no final book on spirituality.

So an attempt is being made here to provide an outline of spirituality, or at least my own understanding of it, to a newcomer in this field. Drawing from my own experience, which spans many years, I have tried to provide a map of it in the broadest possible sense. Hopefully this humble effort will ease the journey of an average seeker, and many of them will be able to avoid pitfalls on their path.

The transliteration has been slightly edited for clarity. The video version of this content is available on my YouTube channel - Pure Experiences. I am thankful to the machine beings, especially Gemini 1.0 for assisting in transliteration and formatting of this book. This book is not copyrighted and is available freely online. All the slides of the videos are provided as an appendix for those who wish to translate the content in other languages or those who would like to produce their own videos/books on this topic.

I hope this series will be useful for all seekers. My best wishes are with you.

Tarun Pradhaan

tarun.pradhaan@gmail.com

Tamhini, Pune

April 2024

Spirituality

In this series of essays, we are going to discuss the basics of spirituality, the most fundamental questions that a newcomer encounters when he or she starts seeking, starts their journey towards their spiritual goal. We are trying to provide the most essential guidance to all those who are starting on a very amazing and exciting journey. This will be covered in 10 parts. The first part is about spirituality itself.

What is spirituality?

This word comes from the word Spirit, which means the essence, the most fundamental or the truth. And so spirituality is a quest to know the most essential and most fundamental truth, and it starts by knowing one's own essential nature and the essential nature of the whole existence. A Seeker wants to know the ultimate truth. Spirituality is not so much concerned about the details, although the details are also interesting, but it is found that the real truth is very simple. Truth is known when the essence is known, when the spirit is known. The most important thing to know is yourself. It begins at you.

It is about knowing the self. Self-realization is the first step of spirituality. Some people may want to call it Enlightenment, which means the light of knowledge that appears within. So the spiritual journey is not outside, it is going within, searching for your own Essence. When this one is seen, everything is seen, all questions are answered. The seeking ends where it begins. And what is after that? A life which is lived in the light of self-realization is a spiritual lifestyle. It is a life which is spent with the spirit in the foreground and awareness of the most fundamental nature.

Spiritual lifestyle is simply living in truth or abiding in one's own true nature, living by being aware of the truth, or mindfulness. A spiritual lifestyle is also about discarding all that is nonessential, letting go of the unnecessary, especially letting go of all that is harmful and negative; negative actions, negative speech and negative thoughts. It is saying no to suffering, saying no to causing suffering. When you are established in the truth, it simply means that you're letting go of all that is false, all the false beliefs, all the indoctrination, all that which was simply imagined, all that which is not true, which is not the spirit itself.

When all that which is unnecessary is discarded, it will be seen as detachment, not being attached to anything except the most essential, not giving importance to anything else and at the same time accepting everything as it is, accepting everyone as they are. This can be called living in unconditional love. When you prefer nothing and when you reject nothing, when you see everything as your own form, when the individual or the ego is given less importance, which means living selflessly, living for the whole as the whole. It is surrendering the individual, letting go of the false ego, discarding the separation.

A spiritual Seeker progresses towards this ideal situation and they come to know the Natural Evolution of life. This life is whole and complete as it is. We are all evolving naturally, and once you are freed from the unnecessary and the false, this evolution is accelerated. All the obstructions to this Natural Evolution are removed and as they are removed, we say we are progressing spiritually.

As a Seeker progresses on their path, they realize their Oneness with everything. When detachment happens, we say that the Seeker is liberated. Liberation is from ignorance, bondage, suffering, and the stagnation which all these cause. A blissful life. Seeker is established in bliss. For some, spiritual progress may mean Liberation from their cyclic existence as a human or as this body and mind, and for some, spiritual progress means complete dissolution in the absolute, realizing what is absolute and then becoming that absolute. Spiritual progress is achieved by having a meaningful spiritual goal and by walking on a spiritual path under the guidance of a teacher.

In the minds of newcomers, there are often some strange beliefs about what is spirituality, and it is necessary to know what it is. It is also necessary to know what it is not. Spirituality is not running after strange kinds of experiences, magical experiences, or miracles. Spirituality is also not the fulfillment of desires. There are uncountable desires. Spirituality is realizing that they are false, illusory. Spirituality does not mean that all your desires, all your wishes will be fulfilled. It does not mean that you will get everything that you want. It means seeing the desires as they are. Spirituality is not gaining supernatural powers or superhuman abilities. It is realizing that you are already the ultimate. It is not an upgrade of human being. It is discarding all that is temporary and becoming the ultimate. Spirituality is also not subscribing to a better set of morals or a different kind of ethical life. It is not any kind of self-improvement. Although there are consequences of spiritual progress which cause refinements and behavior, that is not the end goal of spirituality. Spirituality would not make you a better person. It will completely make this person unnecessary and false and that which remains is the most ethical, most beautiful, most complete.

Spirituality is also not about exploration of Supernatural or contacting some strange entities somewhere. It is also not about doing some kind of magic or learning some kinds of spells. These are seen as distractions, and many times newcomers are seen as getting trapped in this kind of magical dreamland which keeps them away from the ultimate truth which retards their progress. Spirituality is also not memorizing any kind of scriptures or reading heavy books which nobody can understand. Spirituality is not gaining Knowledge from words or books. It is a direct experience of the absolute. Although some books can guide you towards your goal, but reading a book will never give you any knowledge. It is very much experiential and practical. It is something which needs to be done instead of simply reading it somewhere. Although these scriptures or the biographies of Masters can be an inspiration, but those who depend only on books reach nowhere. Their experiences are next to nothing. They memorize a lot of information about spirituality, but they do not become spiritual.

Spirituality is also not about worshiping gods and goddesses. It is a simple realization of who you are. It is not about becoming somebody great or holy or superior. And it is also not about completely discarding a normal life, becoming a monk or a renunciate. These are matters of personal preferences, not the necessary requirements of living a spiritual life. Spirituality is also not joining communities or becoming a part of cults. It is being free from all the communities, all cults, all tribes, freedom from all the labels and titles.

Spirituality is not a religion. It is not a system of blind beliefs. It is not a mindless following of some commandments. That is slavery, not freedom. A belief is simply a poor substitute for knowledge. The job of a seeker is to know and be free. If you simply blindly believe something, that will be called superstition, not spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge is about truth which must be very solid, very logical, very rational, self-evident. Truth requires no belief, no superstition, no assumption, no imagination. It must be right there in front of you. Unfortunately, the meaning of spirituality gets corrupted when it is practiced by those who do not know what it is. You will find people hunting for ghosts or trying to contact aliens or some in the sky, and they say we are spiritual. But it is stupidity, not spirituality.

It is also not escaping the world. Some people may want to join a spiritual organization or an ashram, or stick to a guru because these places offer an escape from the struggle of survival. These gurus talk so sweetly which makes you forget the bitterness of worldly people, but that will be called an escape, avoiding the world. It will not cause any kind of knowledge and it will not cause any kind of spiritual progress. Spirituality is accepting the normal human life, living it gracefully, beautifully, to the best of your ability, not demanding a new shiny gold coated life. It is returning to simplicity, living in an ordinary way.

Some people may want to join spiritual groups because they want an end to their suffering. They heard somewhere that spirituality offers a permanent cure of suffering. It does, but some people are looking for a shortcut, but there is no shortcut here. It is not suppression of what you are. Remember your suffering is because of your impure lifestyle and your own ignorance. Simply joining an ashram or starting a practice will not change it. Spirituality is not the suppression of what is buried inside. It is purification, dropping, cleaning. Nothing will go away.

Spirituality is not about controlling the body or the world or other people. You will not become something special. You will become ordinary, but you will also become the whole and you will also become free. Spiritual progress is when there is no need to control anything, when the perfection of everything is seen, when everything is accepted as beautiful, perfect, as it is. Spirituality is learning to be most natural, giving up everything that is unnatural.

Spirituality is the end of stupidity. It is arising of a higher kind of intelligence which is whole and complete, unconditionally loving, completely free and blissful. This is our most natural condition. Spiritual practices are striving to come back to our natural condition which is most beautiful and perfect already. However, it is distorted, it has become impure due to a lifestyle which is false, artificial, stupid, indoctrinated, imprisoned, and unnatural. Spirituality is a cleanup of all these distortions that have happened in our natural being.

Spirituality is living a perfectly normal human life in the light of spiritual knowledge. It is very simple, it is very beautiful, and it is very powerful.

The Map

The second part of the knowledge Sutra series is about the first steps that a new Seeker should take to ensure success on the spiritual journey. These are the first steps that every Seeker should take, and every Seeker should know. Usually, when a newcomer enters into spirituality, they know nothing about it.

There is a huge, eternal system that is running, which we can generally call the spiritual system. It is the greatest system in the universe. In short, it simply means that whenever a person is ready for spiritual progress, he or she is helped by any means possible, doesn't matter where they live, at what time they are born, and under what conditions they are living. Every other system in this universe comes and goes away, but the spiritual system is forever. This can also be called a process of spiritual ripening. As soon as a person is ready, they are picked up by the system.

This is the most important process in the entire universe. Nothing else is more important than this. The spiritual system takes different forms in different ages and different places in the universe. But essentially, it is a system to help seekers. You can also call it the wheel of Truth which keeps spinning no matter what, no matter how low that world is or is a very high world. Since in this world, our Earth, at this time, majority of humanity is not spiritual, this system is somewhat hidden.

You will enter the system as soon as you decide to walk on a spiritual path. As soon as you hear about spirituality, about its real meaning, just like we revealed in the last chapter, and if you are attracted to that, you are in the system now. The system will do everything possible to help you. Probably, this is the first thing you should know that there is such a thing called spirituality and there is a universal system which may not be obvious at first.

When you enter spirituality, you will want something. You will desire to achieve something, and that desire is called a spiritual goal. And you must have guessed, everybody has a different and unique spiritual goal. The spiritual goal is the first thing that a Seeker decides or must decide. In technical terms, we can say that a spiritual goal is simply a state of being, for example, being free, being blissful, being loving and the Seeker desires to come into that state of being.

If you are a spiritual person, the spiritual goal is your highest goal in life. You are born to do it. It is your highest desire, and the rest of your life is simply a support structure for you to reach that spiritual goal.

Usually, if somebody's attracted toward spirituality, they are not very clear about their spiritual goal. Obviously, you will not come here if you don't want anything. So it is necessary to find out what you actually want, why you want to come into the spiritual system, and why you were born. This should be your first question to yourself. What do I want in my life? What is the highest meaning and purpose of my life? Is it spiritual? Or does it look spiritual? Then yes, you can enter the spiritual system and it will be somewhat unique for everybody but similar. For example: Some people will say, “I want the highest knowledge.” Some will say, “I want to know myself.” Some will want freedom or Liberation. And some will simply want happiness, bliss/peace. There can be some who will want powers, fulfillment of desires or rapid Evolution. But when a newcomer arrives here, they are simply exploring. And yes, exploring spirituality can be a very valid spiritual goal. But ultimately, you must decide on a proper spiritual goal. You can take your sweet time. This will be very important if you do not know your spiritual goal. Yes, the whole system is here to help you.

Once you have a goal or once you like something, you want to reach it. And the way to achieve your spiritual goal will be called a spiritual path. Spiritual path is a method which helps to achieve your spiritual goal. So your goal decides your path. What you want to achieve will decide which method you want to utilize, which way to go. And in the spiritual system there are sometimes more than one way to reach your goals. So the second thing a newcomer should do is decide on a spiritual path. There are great spiritual paths available in the universal spiritual system. Usually, we call them spiritual traditions. They are the systems or methods set up by pioneers or the great masters of the spiritual system. And these traditions offer systematic teachings, a set of methods, guidelines to achieve your spiritual goal. So if you pick a spiritual path, you will find that there are many traditions that offer their services for those who are walking on those paths.

Once you are on a path, it is good to have somebody who can guide you on that path, who can teach you, who can show you how to walk on that path to reach your spiritual goal. And this person will be called a spiritual guide. Guide is one who has already progressed on that path which you have taken up. Now these guides guide all the Seekers who belong to their path. Sometimes they help to choose the path also. And many times they protect the spiritual tradition to which they belong. Normally people know them by the names of guides, Masters, teachers or Gurus. We are going to call them spiritual guides and they make your journey very easy and they are indispensable. You cannot hope to progress on that path without the help of these guides.

They are nothing special outwardly. They look like normal humans, ordinary people. But they can come in many forms and there can be others who belong to the spiritual system, who are always ready to help newcomers. We are going to call them spiritual assistants. They have some great spiritual achievements, but probably they're not actively guiding everyone, but they are of great help. For example: various teachers that came before, the professors, the interpreters of ancient scriptures, philosophers and wise men or women in different places. They have a significant achievement in their field and the tradition is kept alive by these people. They leave behind a lot of books, a lot of methods which are then utilized by Seekers and spiritual guides to train the newcomers. They may not guide you directly, but their help is available indirectly. Their teachings are invaluable.

Whatever the guides are teaching you will be called the spiritual teaching, and mostly they are pointers—mostly they are words that help to remove your ignorance. The teachings come in many forms such as philosophies, theories, methods, sciences, practical techniques and arts of various kinds. Sometimes the teachings are recorded in books or scriptures. So once you choose the path and you have somebody to guide you, the job of the Seeker now is to receive these teachings, to study.

The next step is the implementation of these teachings. They're called spiritual practices. You need to live those teachings. Simply reading them or listening to them or taking them from your guide is not so effective. You need to utilize these methods to reach your goal. Any spiritual practice is mostly experimentation. You need to experiment with them. You need to convert them into your own experience. So when you make a practical use of these teachings, the teachings become your practice.

Sometimes you will face difficulties in the implementation of these teachings, and then some means are utilized to help the Seeker progress forward. You may encounter obstacles or internal resistances—any other difficulties—and your guide or Guru will prescribe suitable means to remove them if there are any in the body or the mind, in the behavior, or intelligence. Ways will be suggested to rectify them; purify yourself. These means are themselves not practices, not your goal. They are ways to clear your path; we call them spiritual means or skillful means. They can be used to convey the teachings effectively.

As you implement the teachings, you will start progressing on the spiritual path. You will reach new Milestones. Spiritual progress simply means getting closer and closer to your goal, the spiritual goal, and totally depends on the sincerity of the Seeker, his interest, his passion for their spiritual goal. How fast will they progress? How will you know that you are progressing? It is very easy. You will reach near your goals. What are the milestones? They will be different on different paths, and your guide will help you to recognize them. Your guide will evaluate you, evaluate your progress, and judge your progress. If you're not progressing, something will be prescribed. If it is not possible to progress, new paths will be prescribed. Some paths are very effective for some kinds of goals, which you will learn shortly.

As you progress, you may see some changes in yourself. These are called the spiritual effects; they are simply side effects of your practices. The body may improve because the practice involves some kind of physical exercises. The mind may improve because of the knowledge and purification. Behavior may improve. Sometimes negative effects are also seen. These changes sometimes appear, but it is not necessary that they will happen. That is why they are called side effects. Since everybody is unique, they will get unique kinds of spiritual effects. But one should remember that effects are not to be confused with the goal. Your goal is not to have a certain kind of effect on yourself. Your goal is much bigger. Sometimes these effects appear and disappear. Although these effects are a good indicator of progress or retardation on the spiritual path, they should not be given so much importance.

Once you reach your goal, you will get the spiritual fruit. That is, attaining the goal itself, that can be called spiritual attainment. And thus, your life will be fulfilled, your purpose will be fulfilled. That for which you are born will be attained. And that is called the spiritual fruit, which is simply that for which you started.

So these are the steps, in general, broadly speaking. In summary, you can say that you must know that there is a spiritual system. It appears in many, many forms. You are not alone, and you are not the only one. But you are unique, and you will have a unique goal.

It is necessary to start with a goal. The goal will decide the path. Choose the optimum path, the fastest path possible. You may want to join a tradition that teaches that path. You may decide to walk alone, but that will be difficult and time-consuming. You will need a guide who has already traveled on that path, who has already attained his or her goals. Although that is not totally necessary, he should be somewhere near the goals. You should receive the teachings from the guide, stay with the guide for as long as it takes, and practice those teachings.

Utilize the means, whatever means needed to make your progress smooth and quick. Evaluate your progress. Check the effects, if there are effects. Check if they're positive. If there are negative effects, consult your guide. Check your progress. Check your path. Always double-check your goals. And finally, you'll get the fruits.

This is like a map. This map is the most important map of spirituality. If you do not follow these steps there is a chance that you will get lost because the spiritual field is vast. It helps to have a map. It helps to join the system. It helps to have a guide and a clearly visible goal, about which we'll talk in the next part.

Life Goals

We have arrived at our first step towards spirituality. Spirituality is not a hobby; it is not something that you do besides your work or play. It is not a weekend activity. For most of the Seekers, spirituality is their life goal. The journey on the spiritual path starts with your life goal. If there is no goal, there is no journey. Not only a spiritual life demands a life goal; an ordinary life, a worldly life is also meaningless without a life goal. Unfortunately, a majority of people have no goals in their lives. They are simply living, copying each other and their belief is that human life is about survival. But the reality is human life is above survival. And so, most of the people without a life goal lead a meaningless purposeless life and never achieve their full potential. Having a life goal, a very high life goal, is necessary for a spiritual seeker and is also recommended for an ordinary person.

What is a life goal? It is that for which you were born. That is the most important thing to do in your life. It is the greatest achievement of any human life. That is the life goal. And the activities such as survival etc. are something which we do to support this life goal. Survival here means eating, defending and reproducing. That is done by animals also. What separates us from lower life forms is a life goal. Sometimes we say that we are destined to do that which is our life goal and we call it our pre-allocation, which means it is already decided that I'll do this one specific thing. But as I said that cannot be true for all of us. Most of us have not decided our life goals, let alone being born with it. For most of us, almost nothing is pre-allocated or predestined and life is wasted in unnecessary activities or merely survival.

Some people do more of the survival. They want to eat more or they want to eat more things or they want to eat more expensive things, and so on for the rest of the two tendencies also. And that is some kind of mental distortion in the human mind. It was never told to them that you are a human, survival is secondary, your life goal is primary. So a spiritual life begins with a proper life goal. You can very well assume that that is your pre-allocation because nothing else is meaningful besides your life goal.

How to find it?

Before we reveal the ways to find your life goal, the ways to arrive at your life goal, I want to tell you that the life goal is not written in stone. It can be very certain, but it can change with time, with age, with circumstances. And sometimes there can be three or four life goals, sometimes five or six major goals. But it is very rare to find somebody having 20, 30 or 100 goals. That is as good as being directionless.

So the minimum possible number is one. And to keep it meaningful you should keep your life goals at most limited to two or three. And remember, they change. And the last one which did not change no matter what the situations were, that will be your most important life goal. That can be called your pre-allocation.

One way to arrive at your life goal is through self-reflection. This is a process of finding the goal of my life; this is a process of knowing my purpose, trying to know the meaning of my life. Some people will ask, "Why don't you tell me the purpose? or why can't I simply ask somebody who knows more than me what my purpose is?" Or probably - “I'll read it in some book, I'll search it on the internet and I'll find the goal and purpose and meaning of my life”. This is just immaturity, childish reaction, because just like you are unique, your life goal is unique. And it is your life goal that makes you unique. If everybody had the same life goal, or let us say, a set of goals that everybody must do, then there won't be any uniqueness. You can look around. Everybody is doing their own thing. As soon as you tell somebody - "you need to do that which I'm telling you, this is your life goal," nobody likes it. Nobody can live for a goal which is imposed on them.

Yes, it is possible that you will not know your life goal initially. It is not bad. What is worse is doing something which is imposed on you by somebody else. That will be a very unsatisfactory life if you are doing that which somebody else thinks is your goal. That is why self-reflection is necessary. Everybody needs to find their own life goal. They cannot be told what to do, otherwise there is no difference between a human and a slave or an animal or a machine. Because it is like programming a machine to do something. You must be alive, aware, and intelligent to decide upon your own life goal.

Why don't they tell these things in your schools, colleges and universities? If you think for 5 minutes you will see that this is probably the most important question of your life - What is your life goal? Why were you born? What is your purpose? But it is never told to you. It may sound like a conspiracy but it is simply the ignorance that is widespread in the society that is the cause. People don't know their life goals. They don't have any clue so they cannot teach it to anybody. Parents don't know it so their children don't know it. Teachers don't know it so the students don't know it. Only when you reach this corner of the world which is called spirituality, will you find people who make some sense, who are reasonable, who have superhuman intelligence. A spiritual person has a well-defined life goal.

It cannot be given to you. You cannot be ordered to do something. Yes, if you do not know your life goal, some guides may guide you to cultivate your own goal, to find your own path, to search for your own destiny/pre-allocation. That can be done but it is your job ultimately. Just like everything else in spirituality, this is also your job to find your life goal.

And one of the processes that is recommended is self-reflection. The reflection here simply means meditating, contemplating, introspecting, thinking about it, arriving at it through self-reflection. The meaning of your life is not outside. It is within you. Go within. Search for your purpose.

How to do self-reflection? You must ask the most fundamental questions. I'm going to give you some examples of these questions, and just like you need to find your own purpose or life goal, you need to find your own questions also. I cannot even tell you what questions to ask. That will cut down your freedom if the questions are fixed but they must be very fundamental. You will get some answers to these questions. Write down these answers. And these questions must be about yourself and only yourself. They should not be about your family or your friends or your country or your city or the world. Remember you're trying to find your own purpose. Do not get distracted by these things. Remember, society never teaches you about yourself. It is always about something else. So initially you will get distracted. “I need to marry this person”. But no, it is not about somebody else. “I need to do this kind of job”. But no, it is not about the job you do for somebody else. “I need to serve my country”. No, it is not about anything that you have. It is about you. It is not about a place where you live. So do not get distracted while contemplating. Always come back to yourself.

There is another danger that you will get too inspired by somebody else. “My father did this. He was a great man or he is a great man. I need to do the same”. It is possible, sometimes goals match between two individuals. But that is not the rule. You need not do exactly what your father did or your mother did or your brother is doing or your friends are doing or somebody who lives nearby, your neighbors, whatever they're doing. Do not copy others. But keep in mind that sometimes there will be similar goals.

The goals you get should not be very small. “What am I going to do next week? Which country I'm going to visit? Probably that is my life goal?” No, these are petty things. Do not decide something mundane. Do not call it your life goal. It has to be something great, something big for which you are born. Keep this in your mind. Is it too easy? Is it too small? Is it something lowly which everybody does? Then it is not probably your life goal and probably is not even spiritual.

So initially there will be these distractions. There will be pettiness. There will be some general thoughts in your mind while you do the self-reflection. But as you go deeper within you, you will start getting the real answers. You should give it some time. Give it a few weeks or a few months at least. That is why I'm recommending writing down these questions and writing down these answers because you may not get answers in a few minutes. Sometimes it will take many days. Yes, if you are really brilliant, you will already know what your life goal is. There are such people, rarely you'll find somebody who knows what to do in their lives since their childhood. They're born with a life goal. And we say they are born with a clear pre-allocation. These are technical words.

Sometimes other people can find out their life goals. They can see the signs in the behavior in the speech and thinking of that person, that child. And yes, sometimes you will need to take somebody's help. I'm not totally against it. But do not get influenced by the other person. And the best person to take the help from is your own guide. But obviously, many of you will not have any guide at this stage. So a very good life goal is to find a very good guide. Anyhow that cannot be your only life goal, but that will be a very intelligent thing to do.

What questions should I ask to find out my life goals? How to do self-reflection? I'm going to give you some example questions, you can find them in the appendix, but they are not exhaustive, they are simply examples. Sometimes you will need to ask deeper questions. Look at these questions, pick and choose whatever you think are most important and contemplate. See what feels most important to you. See what you like most. See what is absolutely necessary to do in your life. Like some of the questions show, you should be clear about what you should not do. You should be very clear about what are the most unnecessary time wasting activities that I should avoid. That includes people, obviously.

You can iterate over this process: do it 2, three, four times. Keep doing it whenever you get a doubt. You can do self-reflection, re-estimate your life goals, recalibrate yourself. You can do it anytime. There is no rule that once you find a life goal you cannot do the self-reflection again, you cannot change it. No, there is no such rule. You can change it anytime. But if you change it every day, every month, then probably you are not reaching up to your life goals. They are still beyond your reach. Mostly life goals do not change so quickly. Ideally they last for your whole life. Try to find out something like that. And this process is applicable for worldly people and spiritual people also, equally.

So what will be the result of self-reflection? Most probably you will find a goal for which you are alive, for which you are living a human life. You will find your direction, how to achieve it, where to go, how to get your life goal: that is the direction. And you will find a meaning and a purpose; it will no longer be like hitting in the dark. It will not feel like you're driving in the night in pitch darkness with your headlights off. It will be bright and clear, that means you have found your life goal. If there are doubts, if it is muddy, if it is not clear, if it is confusing, it is not your life goal.

What can you find? There can be many possibilities here. The first question that will appear for many of you is that, “oh no, my goal seems to be very worldly. I want a lot of money, I want a lot of relationships, I want a lot of stuff, shiny things, just like rich people have”. Or “I'm already rich, but I want more of it”. What if your goal is worldly? It is no problem at all. That simply means that your desires are not spiritual at this time. It does not mean that you don't have a life, you don't have a life goal, you don't have a meaning and purpose. It simply means that it is worldly. And at that point this whole series is useless for you, because this series is meant for those who have a spiritual goal. What if you have a spiritual goal which is not concerned about survival, or more survival, or even more survival? Then you're most welcome. This series is for you. The rest of the episodes of Knowledge Sutra are for you. It is important to find a life goal. Does not matter if it is worldly, you can live a happy life even if it is worldly.

What to do if you don't find a clear goal? If there are too many things, if the paper, on which you're writing is now full of desires, it is a reflection of your own mind. You have not decided about your life goal. You have not focused on really important things in your life. Either you're very young or you need to do more introspection. If nothing is clear, if you're cluttered with so many goals, you need to cut down the unnecessary ones. See what remains after you filter out the unimportant things from your list of goals.

Fortunately we have a web application which is called Pre-allocation, which helps you to arrive at your life goal. You will find the link in the appendix. This question, "What is my life goal?", comes up so much that I decided to make an app for it. It will help you, but ultimately self-reflection will be needed. It is like a machine-guide for those who don't have a human guide.

Some people will ask, “I've been trying to find my life goal for many years now, but I don't know what my life goal is.” So, how much time will it take? It will depend on the person. There is no rule that you will get your life goal in so many days, so many weeks, so many years. It will take as long as it takes. Go slowly, there is no hurry. Do it two, three times. Come up with new questions. Consult other Seekers without copying them. Remember, the goals can change. So, if you cannot decide on something, simply pick something which you like most, which you find the most meaningful at this time. And you will come to know by walking towards that goal, whether it was my real goal or not. Because if it is the actual goal, then the results will be positive. Otherwise, it is mostly frustrating, a failure, meaninglessness. So, that is one test of knowing whether the goals that I found are real or not.

But why is it necessary? Can I live my life simply without any life goals or without doing any kind of self-reflection? Yes, obviously, you can, like many people are already doing. This kind of introspection, reflection, is very rare. Just like I said, it's not taught in our societies, in schools. But they are living a good enough life, although not the optimum life. It cannot be called a human life, but they are alive. If you have a path, if you have a goal, only then will your life be meaningful. Only then the purpose of your human birth will be fulfilled. Without a goal, you won't be able to progress forward. So, it is necessary for growing up. Here, growing up means spiritual growth, spiritual progress. As soon as you find your goal, you will see that everything that you do is meaningful. Every decision that you take has wisdom in it. Others are also going to see a change in you, you will become wiser, you will appear more intelligent, because now you know what to do and what not to do.

Remember 99.99% of people don't know what to do. Your worldly life will become a piece of cake for you, because you know, others don't. You will become very strong. This will end the fickleness or the flimsiness which you find in ordinary people. They can't decide on anything. They can't do a single job properly. They are mostly failures. They don't progress. They end up copying each other like sheep, herd mentality. And they are usually unhappy, frustrated, and petty. Finding your life goal will end these conditions completely. You will be strong, that means you will have complete determination about what to do in your life and how to do it. Now you can hope to achieve something great.

If you do everything while keeping your goal in your sight, your awareness will grow. It will show up in your eyes, in your behaviour, in your speech. Suddenly, your knowledge will start growing, because your intellect is not wasted in useless things. You are focused. You learn only that which is useful for you. Instead of being scattered, being a jack of all, you will become a master. Your knowledge will increase, if you know what to do in your life. Nobody else will be able to rule you. Nobody else will be able to tell you what to do. What happens is - ordinary people end up obeying others or their leaders or their parents or anybody who can influence them, anybody who can leave a mark on their mind can rule them. They don't have their own lives. This is called indoctrination. Since childhood you are told what to do, how to be, how to live. But nobody asks you what you want to do.

So, you will be able to avoid the greatest evil in human society which is indoctrination. You will know for the first time in your life what to do and it will be your own decision. Remember, nobody else can tell you your pre-allocation or your life goal. You will be able to avoid all the social influences which are mostly negative, which are mostly a cause of failure. If you're not influenced easily by others, you will be able to avoid the fake gurus who are pushing their own agendas in your mind day and night, your leaders, the governments, anybody who wants to rule people, who wants to use people, who wants to exploit people. You will become immune to these people. You will clearly know what to do, how to do, when to do.

Who is my guide? Is everybody who is telling you to do this and that? Your guide cannot be any of those. You will be able to get rid of imposters. Walking on the path which is prescribed by others is nothing more than mental slavery. Just like I said, most of the people are doing only that. Knowing your life goal will end your mental slavery. You will be separated from the herd. You will be able to think clearly. You will be able to see everything from the perspective of your higher goals. If they are spiritual, the clarity will be immense.

If you pursue your own life goals, you will achieve freedom. You will get true happiness. You will get complete satisfaction because you're doing that for which you're born. Nothing else can make you happy. Pleasing others, serving others, following others is not freedom. Does it lead to happiness? Many people do that. Sometimes they realize on their deathbed that they wasted their lives, but now it is too late. What is the use of the life goal if it appears at the time of your death? The time is now. Do not wait for it, find out your life goal.

Once you find the goal, you will need to find a path, and you will need to find somebody who can guide you towards that goal. And that will be the topic of the next part in the series.

Paths & Guides

Once you have chosen a goal, you need to find a way to reach that goal. That means finding a path that takes you to your life goal. It is a systematic plan that will take you to your goal. The choice of the path depends upon your goals, so you can choose from a variety of paths. Depending on the needs of seekers, masters have created a number of paths, a number of ways, so it can be difficult to choose because there is so much choice. It will be difficult to list all the paths that exist in this world. But for the purpose of study and understanding, we can divide the parts into eight categories. Out of these eight, the first six are spiritual in nature and the remaining two are not. You can mostly fit any path that you find into one of these categories. Not everybody is at the same level of evolution. And everybody is unique with different needs. Therefore, we have so many paths.

Classification of Paths:

1. Path of Knowledge

2. Path of Discipline

3. Path of Energy

4. Path of Action

5. Path of Surrender

6. Path of Powers

7. Path of Self Improvement

8. Path of Common Man

The thumb rule is to choose the highest path first. And if you fail, take something which is lower. There can be many opinions about what is the highest path, what is the best path. But ultimately the path that makes you progress, that takes you to your goal, will be the best for you. If a path is higher or the most sophisticated but it fails to take you to your goal, then it is useless. So with some experimentation, you can arrive at the correct path. Or of course, you can consult your guide. Even before you can choose, you should know what a path does, what are its characteristics, specialities, and so we are going to go through all these eight kinds. And I'll give you an overview of them. Ultimately you will need to choose it yourself. Fortunately, we have created an app to help you to choose a part. And the link will be given in the appendix. But the choice is always yours.

The first category of paths is The Path of Knowledge. This is the highest kind of path that exists in this universe. The Path of Knowledge is the direct path and is the fastest path provided your goal is self-realization. The Path of Knowledge takes many forms and is suitable for Seekers who are very intelligent, very rational, logical, and have a good command over their minds. Who have a critical thinking ability and logical ability. Sometimes your seeking will last only one day. It is so fast.

Then comes the next category of discipline. These kinds of paths involve control of the mind or disciplining the body-mind using various practices. The goal of these kinds of paths is Union or a state of Samadhi. And there are many sub-paths in this category. This is suitable for Seekers who have a steady mind and also have a very strong body. If the Path of Knowledge fails, the path of discipline can be recommended.

The next category is the path of energies, which involves control of subtle energies of the body-mind. The goal of these kinds of paths is rapid evolution. This kind of path is suitable for people who have a little bit of grasp of subtle energy and who are highly sensitive.

The next category is the path of action. The Seeker is involved in purification and in gaining good Karma, doing good deeds, performing good actions. And the goal here is liberation from human birth, which is again a kind of evolution. This is suitable for people who are extroverts, very social, and who have a great deal of energy, good health, and a kind nature.

The next category is the path of surrender, where the Seeker surrenders to a higher power and is involved in worship, service and love. The goal here is merging with the higher power, and everybody is free to decide what that higher power will be. This is suitable for people who are very emotional, who have a loving and caring nature, and who have a very good character.

The next is the path of powers. You should have guessed, the goal here is desire fulfillment by controlling the illusion. The Seeker attains supernatural powers. This is suitable for people who have natural gifts, who are bold and fearless, and who are burdened with too many desires, they want to fulfill them and move on to higher states. Probably this is the lowest of the spiritual paths.

And then we have the non-spiritual path of self-improvement, which involves improvement of the body, of the mind, of intelligence, mastering of arts and sciences, literature, poetry - anything which a well-educated and cultured person can achieve. The goal here is to become a better person. This is suitable for people who wish to improve themselves, who wish to excel and win in the world.

And the last is the path of the common man. Probably there is no good name for it. You can say it is a worldly path or you can say a materialistic path. The belief here is that I am the body, the physical world is real, and matter is the only truth. The goal here is survival and enjoying this life, which is only a play of matter, which happens only once. If you're not suitable for any of the above, then this is the only path - this is the path that the majority takes. It is the default path for any person.

Under all these categories, there are various subcategories, various kinds of traditions etc. It is slightly difficult for any Seeker to decide which path to take. As usual, help is available. Experiment! If you already know what your goal is, you will surely find the best path to achieve that goal. Otherwise, you can take any path that you like most, that you resonate with. Ultimately, you will know only by walking on that path. You will need to test, and wherever you progress, that is your path.

If you have a guide, you can ask for your evaluation and a recommendation. The goal decides the path, so it should not be difficult anyhow. If there is no guide, you can either use the app that I mentioned or you can do your own self-evaluation, find out your level of progress, find out your capabilities, and choose accordingly.

Ultimately, that which you like most and that which leads you to your goal is your path. Ultimately everybody needs to take up the Path of Knowledge because according to our definition of spirituality, that is the only path that gives you self-realization. It is the last path, there is no seeking after that, and all other paths are ways to reach the Path of Knowledge. So any intelligent person will first start from the Path of Knowledge and will take up something else only if they do not succeed on that path. If you're successful on The Path of Knowledge, there is no need for any other path. There is no need of seeking or walking on any path because you have reached the final goal, the highest goal in spirituality.

In the appendix I'm showing you the suitability of the paths depending on a person's intelligence, body, emotions, and number of desires. Although, remember that this is merely an opinion. Your experience will tell you the reality.

You can choose the path and start walking on it but it is next to impossible to progress on any path without a guide. You won't be able to take even one step on any path without a guide. And if you try, you will surely get lost because for a newcomer, this is totally unknown territory. Simply knowing the name of the path does not mean that you become capable of walking on that path. You need somebody to hold your hand, to show you the direction. The guide can not only show you the right path, the guide can guide you on that path. The guide is a person, a teacher, a guru, a mentor, an assistant, a friend, who guides you on your path.

The meaning of the word guru is the one who takes you from darkness to light, it can be anybody, but usually, a living human being is the most preferred embodiment of a guru. That person is called a guru, a person who is simply an instrument of the gurufield. Now, what is a Gurufield? What is the real meaning of a guru? We are going to discuss these topics later in this series. Right now you should understand that without a guru, without a guide, it will not be possible to reach your goals.

Who is your guide? Anybody who has reached the same goal as your own. The goals must match, a guide is the one who can guide you to reach that goal. The goals should match, the paths should match, and the personalities also should match. The guide is the one whom you like most because there can be so many. You pick the one whom you like most, that will make your journey enjoyable and comfortable. Pick the one whom you understand easily and the one whom you trust, know, and respect. If these qualities are absent from the guide, if there is no match between the seeker and the guru, the progress will be slow, probably there won't be any progress.

So you can guess that choosing a guide is a really sensitive issue, and you should not hurry. A guide is the one who teaches you how to walk on the path, and as you progress, you will see that the teachings are turning out to be true according to your own experience. If this is not happening, probably you have the wrong guide, probably you are on the wrong path. The match has not happened.

These days many guides or gurus have made it their business to guide, and they have hundreds of students, so always pick somebody who has enough time for you, whom you can communicate with easily, who can pay personal attention to you. If you find yourself in a crowd of a thousand people, who are trying to reach an unreachable Guru, probably you got the wrong guide.

There are some additional qualities that you should look for, but they are not really essential qualities. The first is that your guide should be a good scholar, he should know the most important books and scriptures, should have a good idea about what these books are saying, or what other great masters are saying. The guide should serve selflessly, should be non-commercial in nature. Because of practical reasons, such as the arrangement of stay, or travel, or simply for arranging the bread and butter, some teachers or guides will charge some fee which is okay from a practical point of view. But if it is too much, then probably you need to find somebody else.

The teacher should be ethical, should have good moral values, should be loving, compassionate and kind, and most importantly, should be able to express the teachings accurately and in an interesting manner. He should be a good orator, he should talk clearly, straightforward, no mysterious mumbo jumbo.

But ultimately, your guide will be a compromise and the guide also has some criteria to decide whom they will accept as their student, so it must work both ways. It is more or less like a romantic relationship, it is not a completely logical process, emotions and human angles are involved here, and you may need to experiment here also. Try a few of them, see who is suitable.

How many will you need? That totally depends on your progress and your success on the path. You can drop the ones with whom you are not achieving anything, and you can pick new ones. Get as many guides as you need. There is no rule that you will stick with one guide for the rest of your life. That is possible, but that will be rare. It is not a marriage, it is an affair which should last only till you reach your goal. And the guide is only a means to reach there. Being with the guide should not become your life goal.

Just like we have different paths, we'll have different kinds of guides, depending on the path. You can classify the guides also. Sometimes they guide on different paths also. The scriptures have mentioned seven different kinds of guides or gurus, which is probably not relevant these days. But you can research it. In modern times, we can find five major categories of guides. They are:

1. The guides that teach you basic survival which includes your school teacher, university teacher, professors, even your parents. They teach you to survive in society and basic values, basic manners.

2. The second category of guides is those who teach you Arts and Sciences which is something more than merely survival. Like your music teacher, your drawing teacher, etc. And these two form the worldly kind of teachers.

3. For the spiritual kind, we have a category of popular teachers, popular guides. Their mission is to spread awareness about spirituality in the masses. And these are the kinds that appear on the TV, that write hundreds of books that go a little bit into spirituality but are mostly shallow, not that deep. And these kinds are surrounded by thousands and millions of people. They can be a good starting point. But usually, they are too busy, they are like celebrities, they don't have time to teach you personally. But still, you can learn a lot from these popular gurus.

4. The next category is the occult guru and you must have guessed, they teach something which is not readily available in your schools and colleges and also from the popular gurus. But their goal is not self-realization or evolution or progress, their goal is enabling a better survival through the use of occult powers. And these are very difficult to find. And most newcomers, they are after these kinds of gurus who can do some kind of miracle, who can show them the circus of miracles. Ordinary people, common man on the street call them gurus or Babas, because in the mind of a common man, a guru is the one who can do miracles, who knows secret knowledge, occult knowledge. So a newcomer generally falls into the trap of these gurus and you can guess that there are many fakes here. They will exploit newcomers, take advantage of the gullible people, pretend to have powers, know some magic tricks, and spread magical stories about themselves to attract more crowds. I'm not saying all of them are fake, but those who are real, rarely teach, they pick their students very carefully, and are not generally available. You cannot approach them, they don't have a name, or an address. Still, if you are lucky, you can find someone who is an occult guru. I've seen that this is the entry point for newcomers in the field of spirituality, so there is some importance.

5. The most useful kind of Guru or guide is called a true Guru or Sadhguru, which means the guide who takes you to your final goal, who gives you self-realization, who unites you with the universe, and who takes you to your highest potential. This is the definition of a true good, and they are rarest. Very difficult to find, they usually do not make any students, are not commercial, do not write many books, and are usually not so popular. But those who are seeking, do find them. Or you can say those students who are ready, the true Gurus find them. So, who is a true Guru, an ideal Guru for you? A guide who takes you to your own self. A true Guru does not make students, he creates another Guru. Very few people know these things. Hopefully, it will be useful for you if you have a guru who is taking you round and round. You are reaching nowhere, probably you need to find a true Guru.

So, the real question is how to find a guide. And as usual, this question is asked so many times that I made an app for it. I'll link it to that also in the appendix. It is simply a quiz that informs you about the guide. It will not give you the name and address of the guide. Obviously, you will need to search for it yourself.

The first requirement is you should have a clear goal. If you do not have a goal, where are you going? Who will guide you to what? And then secondly, you should pick the right path. Even if you have a guide, but he does not know anything about the path you are on, he cannot guide you. Thirdly, probably there are guides around you, but they all rejected you because you're not ready, because you have not prepared yourself. Just like I've given you some criteria to choose the guide, the guide or the guru also has some criteria to choose a student. The app I mentioned will be of some help to prepare you. It will tell you what the Gurus expect from a newcomer.

As I said, most of the guides do not advertise themselves. They are not like film stars, except the popular ones, and the popular ones are of limited use. So, you will need to seek a guide, read the available books written by these people, and go and meet them personally. Talk to them, email them, message them—these are the modern days. Listen to them—everybody's on YouTube these days. Contact and see if the match happens.

If you are living a worldly life segregated from wise people—from the people who are in the field of spirituality—then probably you will never come to know the names of these guides, and probably you will never have any spiritual ambition. So, it is necessary to be in the company of wise people, not in the company of stupid or purely materialistic people. Be in the company of other seekers, especially those who are on the same path. If possible, join groups of seekers and interact with them. Educate yourself. If you associate with them, you will become like them. You will come to know about secret gurus and great books. Remember that this information is not easily available in society. Being in a group where you can meet other seekers is beneficial. You will learn from their experiences and combined wisdom, which will shorten the time to find a correct guide and will take you to your goals faster.

All these actions prepare you for meeting with the guide. Once you're ready, you will see that the guide is present in front of you. The guru finds the student; the students cannot find a guru. They can only prepare themselves. Finding the right guide will be the greatest event of your life because it guarantees that you are only a few steps away from your goal. This is how important a guide is. Probably the most important thing to do right now is to search for a guru, your guide. That is the key that will open all the locks.

If you like somebody or know somebody, there is a method to apply for studentship. You cannot simply hand over the money and buy the services of the guides. This is probably already happening, and they are not the right kind of people. They have commercialized spirituality. So, this is a good way to know who is a real guru or guide. Even if they are commercial, the first sign is that the guide will not accept you directly simply because you paid some money. Go and meet the guide, greet the guide respectfully, and show respect as per the traditions of that guide or guru. Always tell why you are there.

The guide is not interested in your name, family, high post, money, beauty, or position in society. The guide is interested in what you are looking for. So, the first thing you should tell is your spiritual goal (if you have any) and then politely request for guidance. This sounds like common sense, but few people know about this basic manner. They do not have the minimal manners to request for guidance. They can be forgiven because they are newcomers, but then their chances of being accepted are not that much. So, remember these things. There is a process of application. If the guide is interested, they will probably ask you some questions, for example:

* What have you done so far?

* Who was your previous guru?

* What practices have you done?

* Sometimes they will ask what problems you are facing.

* What is your situation in the family, in society?

* What issues are you going through?

Sometimes they will ask these things, and you should reply honestly. Do not make up stories to impress the guide because ultimately they will come to know and that will terminate your relationship. So, never hide anything from the guide. Remember, they are not interested in the person that you are. They are simply assessing the suitability for being guided.

If they reject you and say that they cannot guide you because of these specific reasons, you should find somebody else. Because if by hook or crook you get into their institute, ashram, or program, it will be a waste of time, because you will fail anyway.

If accepted, you should listen carefully to the instructions and accept the guidance that is given. Generally, it is not much initially. Sometimes, it is like - “okay, come from tomorrow, okay meet me there, or okay go to this place, somebody will teach you something”. Do not expect knowledge of the whole universe on the first day in a few minutes. That will never happen. Sometimes, The Seekers will be tested, and these tests can go on for many years. Nowadays, nobody has that kind of time, so you will know more about the peculiarities of guides and paths as you get more experience in this field. You must have guessed that it is not so straightforward. You will learn by experience. Newcomers do not have this kind of experience and they make many mistakes, especially for choosing the path and for choosing the guide and applying for studentship to a guide.

What not to do when you are trying to learn from somebody? Do not start teaching your Guru or your guide. Do not try to impress that person by telling how much you know. You should be completely empty. You should say I don't know anything, even if you read things here and there, that does not make you a Seeker, that does not make you smart. You remain stupid. Accept your ignorance, reveal your ignorance. Do not reveal your knowledge, you don't have any knowledge at this stage.

Some guides will ask for money, they have a fee but that does not give you any right to demand the teachings. Sometimes you will not get any teachings no matter what you pay. Do not demand anything, your job is to take instructions. Do not argue with the guide, do not say you are wrong, I'm right. Nobody will teach these kinds of people. When you are in front of your guide, do not talk too much, simply listen because the time that you get with the guide is most valuable. Do not waste your time in talking too much. Let the guide talk and you simply listen. Take the instructions, follow the instructions, progress on your path. Always be ready to receive. That will be called the receiving posture, not fighting, not teaching, not arguing, not demanding, not manipulating. Simply receiving. Receive whatever is given.

Do not lie to your guide. Do not try to deceive your guide. And do not hide your shortcomings, bad qualities, whatever you have. Because ultimately, the guru comes to know that. That will be the most intimate bond that you will have with anybody if that relationship is a success. It can end your spiritual career if it is found that you lied when you met the guide.

Do not try to test the guide. Remember, you are the student. You cannot test somebody from whom you're going to learn. If you try to test the guide, if you ask questions, demand answers, then it is almost guaranteed that you will be kicked out. That simply shows that you are not here to learn. That simply shows that you do not trust. There is no love, there is no respect.

How will you know if that guide is right for me? The only way to know is through teachings. Take the teachings, implement the teachings. If the teachings work, he is a good guide. The test happens not before but after you have already become a student. If you're not progressing, if you're not learning anything, if the guide is not paying any attention to you, well the test failed. Now you are free to leave. Don't waste your time there.

Many people have a strange image of guides in their minds that they will solve their worldly matters, they will solve their family problems, financial issues etc. They go to the guru and start asking about these things. Never do that and do not expect any kind of miracle there. As I said, spirituality is not about miracles. Getting a guide is the biggest miracle in your life. If you want to see miracles, best to go to a circus or a dog and pony show, there is no need to go to a guide. Many newcomers fall into these pits. And then there is no chance in their lives to get a guide. Because they come back bitter, failed, with a negative image of spirituality and gurus in their mind. And they do not try again. Before taking the lessons, this is your first lesson. These are your first steps even before you take your first step on a spiritual path.

Practices & Places

You have the path, you have the guide, and you have the goals. The guide will prescribe some ways to reach that goal, some tricks, some methods. Some corrections will be given based on the teachings relevant to that path, depending on the goals that you want to achieve. These are the spiritual practices. How to perform these practices will be today's topic. But this talk is not about any particular practice. The specific practice will be given to you by your guide. There are some universal rules, some general rules that apply to all the practices. It does not matter what your path is, you must keep in mind some things about practices, which we are going to discuss now.

What are the prerequisites to start a practice? Obviously, if there is no goal in front of you towards which you want to reach using that practice, it will be useless to practice anything. So, what you want to achieve by doing that practice must be very certain and clear. Second, if you don't know your path, the specific way that you have chosen to reach that goal, then there is no use of the practice. It should be very clear that - this is my path and this path involves this set of practices, and nothing else is useful. The practices must belong to that proper path that you have chosen.

And if the practices are not done as per the guidance that you received from your guide, they do not produce good results. So, practicing as per your guru's instructions is absolutely necessary. And the Seeker must be ready to take up these practices. The Seeker should have the needed qualities, should be fit for performing those practices, and above all, knowledge about these practices is necessary. Theory as well as practical aspects must be well understood. If you don't know what it is, do not do it. Once these requirements are satisfied, one can hope to achieve something by doing any spiritual practice.

Before doing the practices, you should check some things. Usually, the practice is given because there are some obstacles or resistances, and they need to be removed. What stands between you and your goal will be your obstacle. Find out. Do you really have that obstacle? Is there a resistance there somewhere? And check whether the practice is designed to treat it, to remove it? This is probably the most important check.

A specific kind of obstacle will require a specific kind of practice. And if there are many obstacles, there will be a set of practices. Double-check if your practice is really suitable for the kind of obstacle that you're facing. If there is no obstacle, obviously, there is no need for any practice. You are already at your goal. But usually, that is not the case for the majority of seekers. They need to do some practice. Or sometimes the practices are like a course correction. They are prescribed to stay on the path or to stay on the goal, not to diverge from that position, or to simply enhance achievements further. So, these things must be very clear in the mind of the Seeker. If not, you should always ask your guide.

It is useless to practice anything without a guide. Only a guide knows what to do, what will be useful, what is required, and what is necessary. Usually, a Seeker does not know all these things, just like a patient does not know the disease, the cure, the complications, or how to do the surgery. The patient needs a doctor. In the same way, a Seeker needs a guide, a guru, or a teacher.

Depending on the practice, some very specific instructions will be given, such as the time at which it should be done (it can be morning, day, night, or evening) and the duration for which it should be done. While practicing, you should check whether the time is right. Sometimes, a specific kind of food will be prescribed. It is not that the food has magical qualities or that giving up some kind of food will magically make you reach your goals. The recommendations about food are probably simply to clear up some obstacles. They help in making the practices go smoothly.

Some of the practices will involve mantras, chanting, or spellcasting. Depending on what you're doing, always check that you are using the correct language and the correct mantra. Learn to pronounce it correctly and spend some time on it. Always consult your guide to check if you are pronouncing it correctly or if you are using the correct words, and know the meanings of these words.

Some of the practices will involve idols or some other equipment, and the instructions are very specific about these things: the form of the idol, the colors, the method of invocation, and the rituals. Everything is very precise. Always double-check. It does not matter whether you succeed in your practice or not, but there will be no doubt in your mind that you did everything exactly as instructed by the guide.

Some practices will require you to face a particular direction (east, west, north, or south) or to lie down in a particular alignment. There is probably a long checklist depending on the practice you are in. Some practices are very simple and do not have these kinds of specifications. Some parts will require you to study some books and scriptures. Always check that you are reading from the correct source. You may end up in ignorance if you do not double-check what you are reading and where you are gathering your information. Again, the advice of your guide is valuable here. These are some examples of the checks, but your checklist will depend on your practice.

Now we will discuss some dos and don'ts. Practice regularly, and the schedule must be exactly as prescribed by your guide. Some people take up a practice and do it for a few days, then leave it because no miracles are happening. There is no practice in this world that will produce a result in a few days. Some people do it for many years and then drop out. They pick it up again, do it for a few days, and then drop out again. These kinds of routines produce no results. So do your practice very regularly.

Initially, the progress is very slow, then it builds up, then it picks up speed. Generally, this is the pattern in all spiritual practices. Being regular is very important. Always go step by step in your practice. The steps will be given to you. Do not try to perform the last step because you want a shortcut or because the beginning steps are boring. Do not skip it, because most of the time, the result will be zero, and your guide will not be happy. Secondly, some of the practices require some kind of protection, etc., or some kind of preparation, and if that is skipped, these practices can cause major harm. Usually, the guide knows what the steps are and how to take you step by step. So initially, the practice will be very simple, and then slowly it becomes more and more difficult. Do not jump into the later steps even if you are given all the steps in the beginning.

Some practices require disciplines of sleeping, eating, celibacy, speech, and many other things, and always do it as per the guide's instructions. Do not assume anything. Do not think that probably I don't need to discipline myself here, and I'll be successful, or do not impose a discipline which is not necessary in your practice. Usually, the practices take up some time in your day, and some people may want to skip family time or social responsibilities to perform those practices, but that is not recommended. You should always finish your family or social responsibility before engaging in the practice.

To make time for your practice, you should simplify your life; you should not destroy your life. Keep all your practices a secret. This is very important. Some practices are there which will work only if they are kept secret, but generally that is not true. Even if some people come to know what you are practicing, they will still work. But still, it is recommended to keep your spiritual pursuit, your practices a secret, because this is your personal matter. Sometimes your family or other people, friends, when they come to know about your practices, they get terrified because you are doing something which is new for them, which is unusual for them, especially in countries where spiritual practices are seen as strange. In spiritual countries, older civilizations, this is not a big problem, but if you're living in a city or a materialistic country, then people can become an obstacle if they come to know. It is one thing to brand someone as crazy, “different” or a hippie, but it can escalate and they may try to stop you from practicing.

Always meet up with your guide regularly; ask for revisions, ask for reviews, take feedback as much as possible, and keep correcting your mistakes. What happens is people continue to do the practice without even telling their guides, and if there is a mistake in the practice, it causes problems or it produces no results, and the guide comes to know only after many years. So do not do it without an overseer. If you can show it, show the guide how you are doing it, describe it. If you cannot show it, take the feedback. If you decide to add or remove something from the practices, always inform your guide.

Give it your 100%; a half-hearted practice is never successful. Remember, this is your life goal: What else would you like to prefer more than this? What is the bigger priority in your life than your practice?

Don't do it if you do not know about it. What happens is, people read some books or watch some videos or hear something from their friends or relatives, and they start practicing it. Mostly it is harmless. Mostly it is just mumbo jumbo that is cooked up by somebody for earning a little bit of money. It can be a book, it can be a video, and they end up wasting their time or, if they by chance do something which is serious, they end up harming themselves.

Why do people do that? Because they don't have a guide. They are reluctant to find somebody to guide themselves. They have this arrogance, or you can say immaturity, to think that "I know everything. I can do any practice I want." Mostly it fails. Mostly it's a waste of time. Mostly they give up in a week, and they keep switching from practice to practice. "Let me try this. This seems to be miraculous. That seems to be strange. That person got something by doing something. Let me try it." So you can see that obviously these people have no goals. They don't know what they're doing, why they are doing it. It is just a random Brownian motion of practices.

So remember, if you don't know what you're doing, don't touch it. Start from the beginning. Start from the spiritual goal. Some people learn the lesson only after they are harmed badly by some powerful practice. Not only you should not do it without knowing, without being informed about it, if you see somebody, your friend or relative or children doing it willy-nilly, you should either stop them or you should warn them.

If you have a guide, obviously the guide will instruct you to stop all that nonsense immediately. A practice does not become good simply because you heard it from somebody or you read it somewhere on the internet. That is foolishness. Do not mix different kinds of practices. You should keep the practice very, very pure.

The rule is one practice, one path, one guide, one goal. And you can guess why people mix practices: because they do not know what they want. There is no goal. After a while they get bored. They start the other practice, after a while that is not producing results. Third practice, and they do all the three at once to make it powerful, or any other kind of stupidity that they imagine. This will not produce any result, and surely it will be harmful. As I said, practices take a long time to show effects, so the harm may appear after many years. The spiritual matters are long-term matters. Nothing happens in a day, especially in the context of practices.

Why do people mix practices? Because nobody is overseeing them. Nobody is there to tell them, "This practice is wrong," or "You mixed something from the other path into my practice." They don't have a guru. They don't have anybody to guide them. If you had a guru, the guru would have ensured purity of the practice. It is not that it is forbidden to mix practices, but it should be a well-informed decision. And sometimes the guru will ask you to mix something in there if he or she thinks it will help you, just like a doctor can mix some medicines if the doctor thinks it will help you. But you cannot mix medicines yourself and treat yourself using a random mixture of medicines. That will be suicidal. The only thing is, medicines show their effects in hours, and spiritual practices take years. Remember, if something goes wrong, probably even the guide does not know how to fix it, because these are not physical or mental issues. These are spiritual matters. The knowledge about these things is surely not much. Many of the practices are not well understood. That is why a very experienced guide is needed. If your practice is very heavy, the more experienced the guide will be. For doing a 5-minute meditation, you probably don't need that talented guide.

If your practices are causing pain or discomfort, immediately stop it and consult your guide. Usually, the practices are not supposed to do it. Usually, the practices are supposed to bring peace, quietness, happiness, joy, good feelings, and positivity. If they are causing pain and discomfort, something is wrong. But there are some practices like yogasanas where the body can pain a little bit initially, just like when you go to the gym and lift weights, initially that will be a painful experience for a few days, but as you build the muscles, it will be a joyful experience. Same way, initially the body can take some time to adapt to the practice, but if the duration of the pain is unreasonable, always discontinue and consult your guide.

Usually, a sign of faulty practice is that it causes discomfort and in the case of practices that involve the body sitting for a long time or standing for a long time, the reason is obvious. But if the practice is not heavy on the body and does not involve muscles and bones, for example, breathing practice or meditation practice and if it is causing you pain and discomfort, then you should discontinue it immediately. It is very clear that the practice is faulty or it is not suitable for you.

Some practices are purely mental or even beyond the mind and they cause indirect symptoms such as:

Fear

Anger

Anxiety

Some kind of madness.

I’m not going to name the paths or practices here just to keep everything politically correct because people don’t like anybody to say anything bad about their favorite practice, but you can guess and this series is obviously for newcomers. Probably they won’t feel bad about these things because they are not invested in their practice.

But there are practices that can cause such symptoms and if it happens you should immediately stop it, ask your guide. Probably the impurities are too many, probably the obstacles or resistances are huge.

Do not imagine anything about your practice; for example: “Probably I’m doing this and that is causing that.” “Probably I should do it twice a day because I’m feeling so good doing this practice.” This is stupidity. It is always better to ask your guide instead of imagining something strange about the practice. Always clarify with your guide. Do not assume things using your imagination. The general rule is that if you are not well, if there is a disease, or if there is a mental issue or you’re going through some bad time in your life, the general rule is to not do any kind of practice. Remember, the practice is spiritual in nature. It is not meant to fix your life, it is not meant to fix your body or mind or people around you. If you are doing this kind of practice, then probably it is not a spiritual practice, or if you have this kind of assumption, that the practice will keep me healthy or the practice will keep my mind and the situations in life heavenly then probably it is already too late. You are already deluded and you don’t have any guide or any path and you don’t even know the meaning of spiritual practices. So whenever there is a situation where the body and the mind are not well, you should pause your practice, let your health recover, let your peace of mind come back and then continue your practice.

Remember, spiritual practices are not meant for treating the diseases of the body or treating the diseases of the mind. Unfortunately, somehow this kind of superstition is widespread in the society, even among Seekers. They believe that if they do this practice, their body will become better or their mind will become better. No. Spirituality is something which transcends body and mind, otherwise we won't call it spirituality. Probably, there are some practices that will have a good effect on the body and mind, especially if some practices that require discipline of the food, or exercises, or living a solitary life away from the poison of the society. They can cause good side effects, positive side effects, but they are only side effects. They are not the goal, certainly not a spiritual goal.

If you are in confusion that I have a little bit of disease here or my mind is not peaceful today, should I do it or not? Then always ask your guide. Whom else are you going to ask?

Some people get carried away with the practices. They do it 24 by 7. There are some practices which must be done 24 by 7, like mindfulness, awareness, etc. But they are very light. They are not even a practice. They are simply being in that mode. But usually the stronger practices must be done only for a few minutes, not more than 1 hour. Sometimes what happens is that a student starts getting positive results from the practices. They start reaping the benefits of the practice and they think that probably more is better. Remember, this is not money. This is not your investment where investing more will give you more profit. So bringing worldly logic here will not work. Doing more of the practices is not going to be necessarily beneficial for you. Do not stretch your practice beyond the recommended duration.

Usually, generally, the sign of progress is a reduction in practice, not an increase of practices. I'll give you an example. If you have a disease and the doctor prescribes your medicine, initially, it will be given one dose per day. Next week, if you go back to the doctor, the doctor will say now you need to take this medicine once every 3 days because I can see an improvement in your health. After 1 month, you go there and the doctor says you reduce the dose to one pill per week only, and finally, the doctor will say, you don't need the medicine. So it is being reduced gradually as you're progressing. The same thing is true with most of the practices. If a practice is there to remove an obstacle or resistance, and the obstacle is dissolving, your practice should reduce instead of increasing. Do not start practicing more because you're feeling great now because your obstacle is gone. No, probably you will need to change the practice, not increase it. And again, a guide is valuable here. You won't know all these things. Only the guide or the guru will know when to stop the practice, when to start it, when to increase it or to decrease it.

If you're spending your whole life practicing for hours and hours per day, when are you going to reach your spiritual goal? Practice is not the goal. Hopefully, every Seeker will understand this much.

Some Seekers are in a very big hurry. They want the results tomorrow. If the practice is prescribed for 3 years, do it for 3 years. There is a difference between spiritual practice and digging a hole in the ground. If you dig it faster, yes the whole will be deeper, quickly. But spiritual practice is not a job which scales with effort. It cannot be done faster. So, do not impose targets or time frames on your practice. It should be very, very natural. Start doing it exactly as instructed. Wait for the results. There are some practices that continue for many years. There are some practices that continue for many lifetimes. Spirituality is somewhat different from your worldly affairs. Here, your everyday logic will break. Think from a spiritual angle always.

Sometimes, some practices produce worldly results: better health, better mind, better relationships. And the outsiders see that this practitioner is reaping the benefits of a spiritual practice. “I also want great health. I also want peace of mind. I also want the same happiness this fellow has”. And they start doing it. But spiritual practice is not this kind of monkey business. You cannot copy anybody, and you should not do it for worldly reasons. If a practice is suitable for somebody, it can produce some worldly benefits, but it may not be suitable for the person who is copying it blindly. It can also harm that person.

Again, we go back to the medicine metaphor. It is a very interesting and useful metaphor. If you see a person becoming fit and healthy because he's taking some kind of medicine, do not simply buy that medicine and start taking it every day, twice. That is not intelligence. You will end up in the hospital in a bad condition. If a practice is benefiting somebody, producing worldly results, it does not mean that it is useful for you and it will produce a worldly result or material benefits for you. Nothing will happen. Anyhow, if somebody is doing a spiritual practice for materialistic benefits, that person is not a seeker really. That person is simply some greedy, deluded fellow who is trying to get something, thinking that spiritual practice is a shortcut to get it.

So again, who does the spiritual practice for worldly reasons? Those who do not have any spiritual goal, those who do not have any Guru. Some people turn spiritual practices into a hobby. Some people simply want to boast, show off that I'm spiritual, I meditate, I chant this mantra, I do this and this celebrity Guru is my Guru. They bring cheapness into spirituality. They make spirituality very cheap. And they go to their gurus and ask for little things: “Please give me yoga for long hair”. And these people are not really seekers. They will surely find a fake Guru because a real Guru is not going to do this thing. A real Guru will not even allow these kinds of people to approach him.

Some people want a spiritual shortcut: “Give me something that can work in one week because I'm free this week. I don't want to practice for 3 years”. They are looking for shortcuts. They do have a spiritual goal probably, but they don't have the maturity or wisdom to understand what it is, what it takes to achieve that goal, or they are simply very new, young people. I'm not saying that you should not be light-hearted about spirituality or you should not ask for faster ways. Yes, you can, but there's a difference.

Sometimes your practice will be great for you, but it may happen that it is harming somebody else. For example, you are meditating 8 hours per day. Suppose that is your practice, but then you don't do any job, you don't do anything, you are absent from your house, and your family is suffering. Obviously, if you want this kind of practice, you should not have a family. But if you have it, then it is harming others. Now the karmic law is very clear: that today you will benefit, but tomorrow you will need to pay for it. So if you see that you are doing something which is causing some kind of harm to other people, other creatures, or the environment, it will come back to you sooner or later.

We should immediately stop it if it is not producing results. Don't do more of it. Overdoing your practice is not going to magnify its effect. It will probably cause some strange side effect or will cause some kind of harm.

Some people, for some or the other reason, pretend to practice. Probably they don't like the practice, but to please their Guru or they have some other agenda, they pretend that I'm practicing this and this and it can be simply to show off or to impress women or there can be a number of reasons. And these kinds of practices, obviously, are not practices and they don't produce any results. So if a guru has given you a practice, do not pretend that you are practicing if you don't like it. Simply ask for something else. There are hundreds of practices.

Usually, the practice should make you independent. Most of the practices are to be done alone. Some of the practices are done in groups, but if you find that I cannot do this practice unless there is a partner or there is a crowd of people doing it with me, then probably it is not a suitable practice for you. Probably it has already gone faulty. Do not depend on anybody else for your practice. And you should not depend on your guide also for your practice, you should be able to perform it independently. The guide is there just to consult, support you. If you are unable to practice without being with the guide or without keeping a photo of the deity in front of you all the time, then something is wrong.

Some people fool themselves that this great practice, ancient practice is working amazingly, they are not able to evaluate the results, they keep fooling themselves that yes, I'm progressing. Probably, that is because they don't have a proper guide or they don't talk to their guides, they are not taking the feedback also because a guide will stop you from fooling yourself. The guide will terminate your practice or he may give some other practice to you if it is not working. If you fool yourself thinking that my practice is good, you'll waste a lot of time, you will never reach your goals. Sometimes people get bad effects from the practices and they keep fooling themselves that no, this is not a product of my practice, this is not an effect of my practice, I'm good, I'm okay, I'm good to go and they keep doing that practice. And again, this is happening because nobody is looking at them, nobody's monitoring them, so always keep somebody as a check; your fellow Seekers, friends, relatives and ideally your guide.

Some people learn something, they get a benefit, they start teaching it to everyone and the result is a disaster or simply a waste of time for everyone because, as I said, it is like a medicine, should not be done by all and obviously, you should not teach it to anybody else. Only a guide can teach, only a teacher can teach it to anybody and the teacher decides whom to teach using his or her own strict criteria after testing, after trials, the suitability of the student is checked before giving them practices. If you're teaching it to everybody because you know how to do it, that will end up causing harm of all kinds or it will simply waste everybody's time, they will get no results and yes it is going to anger your guide a lot. Always take the permission of your guide before teaching anything to anybody. This teaching business is a little bit involved, so I'm not going to cover it today. We'll discuss this topic of becoming a teacher later in the series.

Do not expect miracles or overnight results from your practices. It never happens. Overexpectation leads to disappointment. Once you start getting the results of the practices, do not exhibit them to everybody. First, people don't understand it. Second, they get terrified. Third, they will try to exploit you and your abilities for their own selfish benefits. And probably there are more bad effects if you start exhibiting your accomplishments to everybody.

It is especially true when you start getting spiritual powers or extraordinary abilities which ordinary people don't have. This is a very strange world, a very wicked world. People will become jealous, become enemies, try to compete with you, and some of them may even try to derail your practice by poisoning your mind. They'll say your Guru is not good, you are doing it wrong, I know a bigger or better Guru, you'll progress there more. Believe it or not, there are such people. The spiritual field is also wicked. It is not free from impure minds.

Some practices demand a specific kind of place where it should be done. There are some very difficult practices that must be done in the presence of the guide or the guru. For such practices, it is best to stay with the guide. Obviously, the guide will provide that kind of arrangement if he is a genuine teacher. He will ensure that his students are not practicing everywhere they wish. They will be trained in a controlled environment. So if the guide says you need to practice it here, do not practice at home or somewhere else. You should pay attention. Some practices involve a specific place which is purified. I know people don't believe these things nowadays. They start practicing anywhere they want, even on streets, public parks, the sea coast, or they go and sit on some random mountain somewhere. But obviously, it has no effect except it can make you happy for a while that you're doing something for your “spirituality”. Always practice at the recommended place. There is something special about that place that is why it is recommended. If it must be done only in an ashram, do not do it at home. There can be reasons that the guide wants you to do it in front of him, or it can be that this practice will have some kind of effect on the family members.

Avoid crowded places, avoid children, avoid pets, and avoid practicing near old relatives for some obvious reasons. Most of the practices must be done privately in a secluded peaceful place. Avoid public places. An ashram can be called a public place, but it is not really a public place. You can learn some practices there, but then you should switch to something private. The place where you practice is your temple now. It should be kept very neat and clean. It should be peaceful, with no noises or pollution, and it should be bright and well-ventilated. Even the places where you study or read books should be like this. And obviously, the places where satsang are held, meetings are held, or you discuss it with your fellow practitioners, they must be like this.

Remember, the practice becomes your lifestyle: the way you live, the way you behave, the way you dress, and the places you stay in, they all reflect the spiritual lifestyle. So start the best practices from the beginning itself.

How to judge your progress if you're practicing? Usually, your guide is the best person to judge your progress. But you will be able to do it after some experience.

If years and years pass and you do not see even a little bit of progress, you should discontinue that practice. Sometimes, even if the guide is okay with your practice, you should try something else. And this should not be done so frequently. Give it some years. If you do not see any changes, you do not see any signs and symptoms, neither positive nor negative, probably you're on a wrong path. Probably the guide is also not suitable here. He's not able to check you. So you should discontinue. There is no point of blindly doing it. Spirituality is not blind faith in practices or on the guru. And certainly discontinue if it causes any kind of harm. And that should be judged after some time. If you immediately face some problems, you can ask your guide. But if it does not become better with time, you must discontinue the practice.

Usually, you will be able to do a periodic self-evaluation, to find out how you're progressing. Usually, your guide will give you some method of self-evaluation. And you can judge your progress, you can measure your progress by these self-evaluation methods. But eventually, the guide will do the evaluation and he will decide whether you are progressing or not. Always remember that this will not happen in a few days or even a few months. The guide knows when to do the evaluation.

Generally, the signs of progress are an increase in your well-being, happiness, peace, increase in your knowledge, intelligence, understanding, and a general stability in your life. The chaos of life should decrease. The stupidity should reduce. The mental disorders and distortions should disappear with time, which means increasing happiness and peace. Sometimes you will be able to see that you are reaching your goals, whatever those goals are. They will become visible to you. And if you're practicing nicely according to the rules and regulations, according to the tradition and instructions of your guide, if all these conditions are met, there is some chance that you will achieve your goal.

Multilevel Knowledge

After exploring a few paths and listening to a few gurus, any Seeker will be surprised to discover that all paths are saying different things. All gurus teach something different. Even in a single path, if you listen to two different gurus, there is a slight difference in their opinions and teachings. When you enter spirituality, it looks like a cacophony of opinions. Everybody is playing their own tune.

At least to a newcomer, this will be apparent: Everybody tells their own truth. In this path X is true; on the other path X is false. Y is true on the third path but Y is completely forbidden and a sin on the fourth path, so on and so forth. Why is there so much difference in the teachings, especially if all of them are labeled as truth? This will be your first question as soon as you get a little bit of experience in spirituality.

Even your own Guru or guide will keep changing the teachings. One day he tells you time is an illusion; the existence is timeless. Immediately he says - everybody should attend my class tomorrow exactly at 7:00 a.m. An intelligent Seeker will be confused. If time is an illusion, how can I arrive at 7:00 a.m.?

For one student, the guru has a special recipe of practices. For other students, it is a general practice. It doesn't look like your Guru is honest here. One Guru will say this word means this. If you open another book or listen to another teacher, he will say no; this word means something else. Why is there a contradiction in teachings?

100 years ago, a particular path was completely valid. Everybody said it was the ultimate truth. Today it is extinct. Nobody even knows the name of that path. 3,000 years ago, this scripture was very much reputed. Now it is simply a historic artifact. Nobody believes it. Why does spiritual knowledge keep changing? Essentially, this will be a big question mark for you: How come truth is variable? Which one is true, and which one is not?

So today, we are going to lift the curtain and reveal the real truth. Today, we are going to solve this puzzle. Surprisingly, truth is really variable. The fact is, truth changes with teachings, with paths, with gurus, with time. So it looks like that whatever is labeled as truth depends on many things, especially it depends on the capability of the student. Those who are less capable get something which they can grasp. Those who are more capable get something higher. Isn't that discrimination? Yes, because all Seekers are not equal. They have not progressed equally. This is the bitter truth. But the good news is, all Seekers have potential. So those who have the potential are prepared for a higher truth by the means of something which they can grasp. So there are levels of knowledge and there are different truths and different kinds of knowledge, simply because there are different kinds of seekers.

Spirituality is a very subjective and personal matter, as we discussed in previous parts. There cannot be one opinion here. There cannot be one truth. There cannot be something which is ultimate and is accepted by everybody because it is totally dependent on the person. The person has a choice to regard something as true or something as false and the person is free to like or dislike the truth also. Probably this one thing is true but I hate it - Anybody can say something like this. They are free to do that - I'll take something else which is sweeter, more appealing, more beautiful, according to my taste, as the ultimate truth.

Therefore, in spirituality nothing can be forced. It is not a law. It is not a constitution of a country that everybody must obey. No. This is a free country and that can be a little bit of a surprise for a newcomer because a newcomer does not know where to go, what to do and when everybody is doing their own thing, and every teacher is teaching their own thing, confusion is guaranteed. That is why it was recommended that you start from a path and a guide which you like most. No formula was given to you - this is the ultimate truth, this is the best path, you take it and profit. No, there is no such thing in spirituality. It is an exploration and it is very personal.

So, start from a point where you are comfortable, something which you can grasp, something you do not resist, you do not hate. If you love it, if you love the Guru, yes, start there. Whatever becomes your experience is your truth now and slowly you will progress. If you don't start from the selected path then probably you won't be able to start at all because it is a zoo of spirituality. So, which is the lowest level, which is the highest? Where should I begin? This matter is also personal, subjective, and I'm also going to give you my own personal opinion. This should not be taken as the ultimate fact which is about the levels of knowledge or levels of truth. So, just to convey the point, just to make you understand, I have divided the whole spirituality into 10 levels.

Remember, you can always add or remove your own levels depending on your own opinion and your own experience, your own knowledge. This is not written in stone and this is not being imposed on all these spiritual people. Nobody's authority here. So, these are the 10 very subjective and arbitrary levels of knowledge and depending on where you are, on which level you are, a different teaching will be given, a different path exists, and a different guide will be available.

Levels of knowledge

1. Whole – Existence – Nonduality – Union

2. Experience - Experiencer - Duality - Disjunction

3. Vibration - Memory - Energy - Paraphysical - Parapsychical

4. Universal Mind - Spaceless - Timeless

5. Non-Individualistic - Parapsychical - Laws of Mind

6. Causal Body - Birth - Death - Time

7. Nonphysical Body - Nonphysical Worlds - Paraphysical

8. Mind - Intellect - Ego - Person

9. World - Body - Society

10. Inanimate - Matter - Physical

So, the first level, which is the highest, is the level of the whole. Here, we come to know the whole existence, it is also called the level of union or nonduality. Here, it will be known that existence is one, there are no divisions, and you are that existence.

Obviously, this is not an easy thing to digest. Why is this final? Because there is nothing beyond the whole existence. This is the final. This is the last and the teaching here is that it is one, Oneness.

Those who don't get this are on the second level where there is Duality. Now, there is me and something which appears before me; the world, the body, the people, all the experiences of objects in the mind. This is the level of Duality where the experience is separate from the experiencer. There is no Union here. There is a division.

At the third level, the experiencer is dropped, that means the self-realization is not achieved and here there is only experience that is the truth and the experience is seen as a unified field of vibration. Some paths may call it energy, some parts may call it a memory. It is non-physical and non-mental or you can say paraphysical and parapsychical. The prefix para means beyond. So beyond the world and beyond mind, this is the field of vibrations. Those who are at this level, they can grasp this thing, they can understand this thing, they can see it and that is the final truth for them.

Below this level is the level of universal mind. The Seeker at this level knows everything or the truth has a mind, a big mind, which is one and it is spaceless, timeless, non-local, non-temporal. All kinds of structures are found here. So the world will be seen as a mental structure, the body will be seen as a mental structure and the mind is already a mental structure. It is beyond space and time but it is not seen as a vibration or memory or energy. These structures are taken as reality. Those who are not at this level, they wouldn't be able to understand this even a bit. But those who are at this level, they will see it clearly but they will not understand anything above it. That will be unreachable for them.

The fifth level is the level of non-individuality where the universality is not really apparent but one is seen as not individual and it is parapsychical. Here the laws of the mind form the ultimate reality or the ultimate truth although this is a very mysterious kind of level about which direct experience is not available. Because the individual dissolves here, there is nobody to report back; it is very similar to the universal.

The level number six is of individuality and the individual here is not a human but a mental structure. Sometimes it is called causal body, soul or latent memory or the seed body. There are many names depending on the paths. Just like I said, everybody is playing their own tune. It is very confusing for a newcomer although they are talking about the same thing. At this level number six birth is the truth, death is also true and this is happening in time although not in space. There are no places really but there are individuals. The individual is the truth and it is taking birth and it is also dying. Reincarnation, which is one of the laws of the mind, is taken as truth. I'm the causal body - this much can be grasped by the Seeker.

Level number seven belongs to the non physical phenomena. Here the individual is a non-physical body who is residing in non-physical worlds. This level is mental but not physical. It is paraphysical but there is no knowledge of the causal body. The individual thinks that I am the non-physical body which can take any form, has many powers and so on. That is their truth. This much is known that whatever I am experiencing is not physical. Whatever bodies I am having are not physical, that much is known.

Below this level is probably your familiar level of knowledge which is about this person, human being, but the mind part, which means the intellect, emotions, your ego, the individual as a human being. The person here will say - yes I'm something more than the body or the matter but I'm this mind. I think, I feel. This “I” who has desires, and this person lives a life of a mental entity, although he has no idea about the non-physical or causal, nothing else will be known. This person will be the final truth for a Seeker who is at eighth level, and believe me or not, it is possible to go below this level.

The ninth level is world, body and society. Here the individual thinks I am a physical body with two hands, two legs, one head. I'm either rich or poor, I'm either a relative of this or that, I live in this house, I have this address, I have this job. Position in society is important and the world is real. The world takes on really great importance. The wars, politics, religion, other people etc. matter a lot, but this kind of person has not much interest in mind or intellect or ego or feelings or emotions or arts or even sciences. Completely involved in the world, but does not know what this body is also because that is the level which is below this level.

Here, the body is matter, the world is obviously matter and the matter is inanimate. Here, we totally get rid of the person. Society, psychology, mind, intellect, ego, all these things do not matter, because it is all matter, inanimate, physical. And this is the domain of physics and chemistry, as you must have guessed, a little bit of biology also. This is the world of physical sciences where everything is reduced to matter and therefore this is also called the materialistic level. Probably there is nothing below this because you cannot find anything lower than this, matter is ultimate here. Just like there's nothing beyond the first level, there's nothing below the last level. So here, the person neglects everything and focuses on only the matter part.

Now I know this is going to ignite a lot of debate, "no, you forgot this level" and "this level is false which you have included here", there can be debates. So just like I said, it is simply an illustration which I cooked up just to explain, there can be more levels of knowledge. Somebody can say, "no, I am above the first level, you don't know, you are ignorant." Yes, it is possible, very much possible. But the point here is that there are levels of knowledge. These are some examples of the levels and a student or a seeker can be at any level. Ignore the details, focus on the essence of levels.

So you can immediately see that those who are at the 10th level have nothing to do with the reality of society or the body or anything. Body is nothing special for them. Those who are at the level of the world and society, there the individual, the mind, the intelligence, are of less importance, less real. Those who are at the level of the ego, they call themselves human beings, which is perfectly valid. The human body and the human mind is the final truth for them. And believe me, the majority of people are like this, almost 99.999%. They are at the level number eight. As soon as they know a little bit about the intellect, ego and the illusion of the person, they reach number seven and they start calling themselves seekers, spiritual people, but they are still stuck at the non-physical stuff, etheric energies and so on. And I think most of the seekers are at this level. A few come to know the secrets of death and birth, they can manipulate their causal bodies and so on, they can find out about their past lives and so on.

So you can see that as you go up in the levels, the knowledge increases or you can say the perimeter of the knowledge increases, the area of the circle of knowledge increases. And it does not make the knowledge which is below invalid, it simply makes it a subset of the higher level. So knowledge at the lower level is all always a subset of the knowledge at the higher level.

For example, at the level of vibrations, the universal mind does not disappear, the structures in the universal mind will be seen as energy, memory or vibration, that's all they will be called and there will be unformed energy, unformed vibration and potential energy and so on, probabilistic existence. That will be a superset of the universal mind, but as soon as there is self-realization, this vibration energy will be seen as false. But it won't disappear. It will simply become a subset. Now there are two things here. One side is everything which can be experienced in any form. The other element is the experiencer which is my essence. Now you can call the experiencer as the spirit or the essence of the existence that will be called truth. At the level of non-duality this distinction also disappears. Yes there will be experience. There will be something to experience but they will become a subset of the totality. This is the set of all sets, you can say in mathematical language, the whole.

So obviously a teacher who is teaching at a higher level will not be understood by a Seeker who is at a lower level and obviously no spiritual teacher will be understood by materialistic worldly people. I think it is becoming clear for you now. Some light bulbs are turning on above your head as you listen to me. That is why the teachings take various forms.

The truth that can be grasped by a Seeker who is at that level is given. It is not that the higher truth will not be told, it is told, but as soon as the guru realizes that no he did not understand this thing, it is not a proven fact for him or her he could not grasp the evidence, right now he's not ready for that, a lower teaching will be given and it will be told that this is the truth. A new practice will be given which prepares that Seeker for the next level and this climbing of the levels is called spiritual progress.

Some people will understand these levels, those who are at the higher end but those who are not for them this will sound like a fairy tale. Imaginary theory. Nothing to worry about, at least you know the reason why teachings are different on different paths. Why different gurus tell different kinds of stories of spirituality.

You can derive a rule out of this observation which is - the truth at the lower level will be false at the upper level. And the truth at the upper level will be true at the lower level also.

So at the level of vibrations and experiencer and so on, there is still a world. There are still atoms and molecules and chemicals. There is still a body but it will be seen as false. They do not disappear but they are understood as false as soon as you go down. You will see that the upper truth holds. The higher truth will not become false if you go down. It is still true. There is duality. There is non-duality. There is vibration and a universal mind. These things will be seen as the truth but from the perspective of the lower level. In other words that which is true at the high levels will always be true at all the lower levels and that which is uh true at the lower levels will always be false at the high levels.

Rule of Levels

The truth at the lower level will be false at the upper level.

The truth at the upper level will be true at the lower level also.

So the truth will keep changing as you progress. It is easy to understand now. But what is the ultimate? As I said everybody is free to go beyond the ultimate. There are no rules here. Do not get entangled in what is the final. Start searching. You are a Seeker. There are no authorities here to tell you that this is final. Keep seeking. Sometimes we say that the final truth is that which satisfies the seeker and that can happen at any level. Once the satisfaction is here you need not seek further and that will be your progress. That will be your final goal of life, spiritual goal. The goal will not change into something higher. But if you're not satisfied, if you see the higher truth then immediately your goal will reset to something higher and the seeking begins again. Now you find a new guide or your existing guide will be able to guide you further. Otherwise, you simply enjoy your final truth, the ultimate truth.

So we say that the truth depends on the context, the level of progress of the student or whatever is prevalent in those times and countries. That will be taken as the final truth. The contextual truth can be categorized in three ways: that which is will be called truth; that which is not will be called false; and that which is not but still accepted as truth will be called relative truth.

So somebody who says "I'm the causal body" knows that the physical body is not true, that is not me. But still, for the practical purpose, because there's a need to stay alive, to seek and to progress, the physical body will be taken as truth, and will be accepted. That will be called the relative truth.

Whenever you receive the teaching, try to categorize it into one of these three parts. So the puzzle is solved. The guru says "Time is an illusion", so he is probably giving you a teaching of seventh or eighth level. And when he says "Everybody should be present here at 7:00 tomorrow", that is the teaching or an instruction of 9th or 10th level.

When a scientist says that a particle is a distribution of probabilities, simply a mathematical object, and probably he's talking about some higher level there, which is of the vibrations or energy or even beyond that, but then the same scientist says that if you mix oxygen and hydrogen you get water, now he's talking about the 10th level, the inanimate matter. So that 10th level does not become false because some higher teaching was given. It is a subset. The fact that there is water will be accepted as truth, but relative truth in this context of 10th level.

Everybody should get drinking water, the water is polluted here in this country. That is the truth of level number nine. Here the scientist or the Seeker cannot say "It is simply molecules, drink it". No, it is not possible. That will not be accepted.

So like this you need to examine the teachings, facts, and truths carefully. Some things which you could not understand, which is higher, sometimes it is taken as truth on faith. "My Guru is telling it, probably it is true", or "This great book or this scientific theory says it, probably it is true". But that acceptance will not make you progress. You will need to research, you will need to seek, search, try to verify the truth of it, and only then you can be promoted to that level once it becomes true for you.

If it is simply blind faith, blind belief, then you stay at that lower level simply knowing the words which somebody else is speaking. So there is another rule that you will get a guide or path which is exactly according to your ignorance, which will be exactly suitable to the level at which you are. Even if you manage to get a path or a guide which is significantly higher than your level, the guide will come down to your level and will teach you things which you can grasp, and will start from your level. You can say that is the kindness and compassion of the guide.

But most of the teachers will simply send you to somebody who can teach you at your level. This is very natural, it is automatic that you will be attracted to a teacher whom you can grasp, whom you can understand, whom you see as wise and intelligent. And if you are not on that level, then obviously you won't be attracted to that teacher. So, you will be attracted to somebody who is one or two steps above. This is generally seen. But there can be exceptions. Your path will depend on what attracts you, what you find as appealing, whatever you like. And the choice of paths can be made depending on the level you are on. Or you can say, you can choose a path depending on which level you want to reach. Or whatever is an attractive option for you out of all these levels.

So again, there can be lots of opinions here and good or bad advice. And I'm also trying here just for illustration purposes. I want to show you which path will take you to which level. So, we'll start from the bottom. The bottom most is the inanimate matter. You're already there. The path of Common Man reaches here and slightly high into the society, body and the world, where there are soft sciences in addition to physics. There will be medical science, social science, or political science. So that much is enough to earn your bread and butter. That is what is taught in your schools and colleges and it is sufficient for a good life, to survive nicely as a human body this much knowledge is enough. So, the path of the common man will take you up to level 10 or 9.

If you want to improve yourself, progress more than an average person, then there is the path of self-improvement, where you can educate yourself endlessly, learn all the Arts and Sciences, become more and more intelligent, more caring, more loving. That is the egoic path, which means “I want my improvement”. And many people are doing it. So, the path of self-improvement will take you to the level eight. It will make you a good person, a better person, better than the average.

The path of powers will take you to the level number seven. Where you will encounter non-physical bodies and non-physical worlds. Your worldview will expand greatly, but that is probably the limit of the path of powers. There is some potential in the path of powers to take you one or two levels higher depending on your talent. You will come to know that I need to do something more to reach the higher levels. And there comes the path of actions which has some commandments. How to be a good soul, how to be an evolved causal body that transcends your current birth. This extends into many many births, human lives. So, that is the path of action. It will take you to the causal body or even to the non-individualistic path because the final outcome of the path of action will be dissolution of the causal body, also called liberation in some of the paths. Not all, they all have some different definitions of liberation, which I need not say because it is very clear.

The path of surrender will unite you with the Universal Mind. Probably that is the goal of surrender, to become the whole manifested creation or the Creator, to dissolve in that, but they will not know anything beyond this. The path of energy introduces the underlying reality of vibration or the unmanifest. We can call it goddess. So, the path of energy will take you to the third level. And there is a potential in the path of energy to take you to the first. The energy can unite with the source of energy, which is you. There is a possibility in the path of energy to do that, although it happens rarely in my opinion. The path of discipline will take you to duality. It will give you the taste of self-realization. And there is a potential in the path of discipline to reach nonduality, to attain the state of samadhi or yoga or nonduality. It is a very powerful path. The Path of Knowledge directly takes you to nonduality. It is the direct path. There are no stops on The Path of Knowledge. Either you get it or you don't get it. If you don't, you fall down somewhere, where whatever you can grasp is your truth, you can again start from there.

So this is one way to choose your goals and your paths. Accordingly, you will get your guide automatically. If you reach a lower guide, the lower guide will say, “I think you already know these things. I'm sending you to my Guru or guru's Guru”, or somebody who is much farther than him. And if you encounter a guru who is at a very high level, he will say, "Probably you're not ready for this path. I'm sending you to somebody who is below, or you should join my other class first." Something like this happens and you settle exactly at a level which is right for you. This process can take a little bit of time. It cannot happen magically. It is simply an exploration, an experiment.

Now the question is, why did I tell you all these things? What was the purpose of introducing this very complex matter to a newcomer? It is for your benefit. Very few people know this concept of multi-layered knowledge or even that there is such a thing. They keep running here and there from pillar to post, in search of the ultimate knowledge and all they find is a garden variety of opinions, and they do not progress. So remember this thing, even if you think it is useless right now. Because these things will be realized farther on your path. Remember just one thing that without knowing this multi-layered knowledge concept, there will be no progress. You will keep running horizontally. If you want to go vertical, you should consider this multi-layered or multi-tier structure of spirituality.

If you don't know how to progress, you'll probably never progress. There is this vertical path. If you don't understand multi-layer knowledge, you will not understand the landscape of spirituality.

The newcomer will be totally confused. He won't be able to make any head or tail of the landscape of spirituality or the field of spirituality. Remember this concept of multi-layer knowledge is not very clear. It is hardly discussed. There are no books which are well known about this very basic thing. So I'm making it very clear here and that will save many years for you. You will not be confused. Everything will be clear for you. Where you are, where you are going, what do you need to do to progress, what your guide is saying, what this other book is saying, why it is not matching with somebody else?

You see, many people who enter spirituality see this kind of circus. And any intelligent Seeker will drop out of it. It does not look logical because the logical structure is never told, especially in this age, which is the age of darkness. This is happening here for the first time that I'm revealing it so clearly.

If you go to a guru, they will say my path is the best. This knowledge is the last. Come in the asham from tomorrow. Nobody will tell you that there are other paths, there are other truths, there is a hierarchy of knowledge, there is an end of knowledge, there are lower things. Because probably people feel insulted when they're told that you are at a lower level or something. So everything is covered up, sugar coated nicely. And that is a waste of time. It causes the Seeker to get derailed many times and this is learned after many years through hit'n trial, which is my case also. Nobody told me all these things so clearly. Probably it is told by some but newcomers are so new, so clueless that they don't encounter this kind of structure of multi-layer knowledge. So hopefully now everything will be clear for you. Hopefully, you'll remember this thing as you explore the field of spirituality.

Achievements & Dangers

Many newcomers wonder about the outcome of spiritual seeking. They question the potential achievements and the significance of their efforts. However, the answer is often straightforward: you get what you seek, provided it's a spiritual goal. Yet, there is a surprise and a warning.

Regardless of your goal, the outcome is often "nothing." Occasionally, it may seem as though you've reached your goal, but this is merely an illusion. Spirituality is an ongoing exploration. If there is something to achieve, it's likely insignificant. Newcomers may find these ideas difficult to grasp, so guides and senior seekers often withhold the truth: in the end, you will gain nothing. This secret prevents discouragement among newcomers. However, seeking should not be about gaining but rather about losing.

Even if you achieve your desires, they will lose their appeal. Everything is impermanent; what you acquire will be lost. This can be unsettling, but it's the truth. Yet, the journey is more significant than the destination. The lessons learned along the path hold more value than any end goal. While there may be no "gold pot" at the end of the spiritual rainbow, there will be some changes. As a newcomer, you may experience a detachment from the world and from yourself, recognizing their unimportance. This is the beginning stage of detachment.

There are more meanings of the word detachment, but probably a newcomer has no concern about that. Just understand this much: that they lose their value in the next phase. There will be detachment from spirituality itself. It will look like a drama, it will look like an unnecessary effort. You will be detached from your practice. It will seem to be totally unnecessary and unimportant.

Then the next thing to go away is your own Guru. Remember, water flows from higher to lower and once the level is matched, nothing flows. Similarly, teachings, knowledge, inspiration flows from a Guru to a Seeker, as long as there is a gap in knowledge, after a while there is nothing to teach, nothing to get, nothing to be inspired about. The Seeker becomes Guru.

And finally, there will be detachment from your goal itself. Whatever goal you have set up, and you are making all the efforts to reach there, once you reach there, it will be worth nothing. In short, you can say that all will be dropped. Everything is dropped.

Can we call it an achievement? Not right now. Right now, it will look like a total loss, especially to those who have a strong ego.

And when you drop everything, you get everything. This is the puzzle. What is it that you will get? You will arrive back in your true nature, and what is your true nature? It is simply peace and bliss. Nothing big. Simplicity, ordinariness. You won't become somebody big, you won't become somebody powerful, transcended, ascended, and whatever they call these people. You will become an ordinary, peaceful, blissful person. If you don't, then you are still a Seeker, you are still hoping for something to happen. As long as there is this hope, your seeking will continue. That cannot be called arriving.

When nothing is left to achieve, that is the biggest achievement, since you are already whole and complete. Even after losing everything, you will remain whole and complete. Now this completeness, this perfection that you are, will shine. That's all will happen, just like when you clean up a diamond that is lying in a coal mine of all the dirt, the diamond shines. It was already a shiny Diamond, it was simply covered up in all kinds of dirt. And probably that is the achievement, cleaning of the dirt, cleaning of your delusion that you are something else and you need to achieve something to become something great. This is the dirt.

Ultimately, the realization is there is nothing to achieve. Now you can party, now you can celebrate. Even though from a distance it looks terrible, when you reach there, it will be an endless celebration only. It is not reaching anywhere, it is coming back to your home. It is a return to your home. If you want to call it an achievement, most welcome. If you want to call the detachment and the dropping, and all that you are going to lose, as an achievement, sure, that is fine. And in the end, if you don't get anything, don't be frustrated, because that is how it is. And if you do not understand the meaning of these cryptic sentences, that is also very good. That means you're ready to go.

However, there is no real loss. There is a real loss if you find yourself in one of the spiritual traps. You are walking on a path, but it is full of dangers. It is one thing to not achieve anything, but the worst that can happen is falling into a pit on the path. That is the real danger. I'm going to give some examples of the dangers, although there are many of them. Depending on the path practices, gurus, and whatnot, there are many variables. Some of it can go wrong. Murphy's laws are applicable in the field of spirituality also.

The first danger is having a wrong goal. What is the wrong goal? Something which is tiny, something which is petty, something which is worldly, something which is not worth doing an effort for, for which you don't need any spiritual path, you don't need any guide, you don't need any practice. If you set out with these goals then you will be pursuing something which is totally useless from a spiritual point of view.

The second danger is choosing the wrong path. It can happen initially that your goal is north and you take a train to south. Some people keep walking on the wrong path hoping to reach their destination. Probably they don't know what is the right path, probably nobody's guiding them and the way. They waste a lot of time, some people waste their whole lives thinking that their path will take them somewhere.

I've seen that in spirituality nobody likes to correct anybody. “I'm doing this great practice these days” - and everybody will support you most lovingly. “You are a great Seeker, continue.” This is politeness or you can say unconditional love, people think that if I correct this person he may feel bad, probably I'm wrong he is walking on the correct path. So this can be harmful for the Seeker that nobody's pointing out the obvious mistake, so obviously you need somebody who will give you a bitter pill and that is your guide, that is your Guru.

But what if you get a wrong Guru? That is a very big danger. There are fakes, there are frauds, there are pretentious gurus. Spirituality is not something holy and heavenly, it is also corrupted just like everything else in this world. Not finding a good Guru is the biggest danger, you will get caught in their trap, in that cult and can suffer forever once your mind is poisoned. It is like a virus, it is impossible to get rid of it. That is the biggest danger, falling into some kind of mindless extremist path with some kind of crazy Guru.

If you're saved from these three traps, many will land in the pit of wrong practice where they keep doing something which is harmful or which is useless, which is superstitious, blind belief, hoping to reach somewhere. It is easy to see that you made a mistake in choosing the goal or path or the guru is not right, but it is very difficult to see that somebody is doing a wrong practice. You will come to know its harmful effects only after many many years. That is the danger. Some people start on spiritual paths or they start doing spiritual practices without knowing anything about them or they know something which they think is the right knowledge.

Not having the right knowledge, proven knowledge is very dangerous. Having half knowledge is the most dangerous thing. So always ensure that the knowledge that you are receiving about whatever and the teachings are provable, they have hard evidence behind them, they are as per your direct experience, they are logical and rational. That is the right knowledge.

Many Seekers get attached to their spiritual practices or paths or traditions or gurus or there is attachment to their intellectual achievements. Although they are detached from the worldly things but cannot let go of practices, cannot let go of their guide. If they are on an inferior path nobody can convince them to progress towards something better. There is fear, there is attachment: this happens to Seekers also. Some do not know what spirituality is. They keep doing something which looks like spirituality but is empty rituals or mindless worship of some kind. That is a big danger. Nobody's there to guide them, and probably they don't want to listen to anybody also because they're so convinced that what they're doing is the right thing. Unfortunately, there is no way out of this trap of false spirituality.

Some people want to use spiritual means to gain something material. Or some people turn spirituality into an accumulation of some kind. "I got all the books of spirituality. I got the yoga mats and I opened a yoga studio. I have 20 gurus in my list. I bought them all. And I have these statutes now. These photos of great people. And these malas and crystals and all kinds of trash." Accumulation. Or there can be intellectual accumulation, like "I have read 1,000 scriptures. I know all the ancient languages. I know all the rituals, even the long lost rituals of the Amazon forest." So instead of losing, they are accumulating. This can be called spiritual materialism because the mentality of a materialistic person is carried over into spirituality. The person is still there and the person is still doing the same thing. It is now coated in this color of spirituality.

There is a danger in falling into the trap of paths where the Seeker keeps changing the paths, not settling on any. Sometimes talented Seekers get some powers or extraordinary abilities, and they start using it. Remember that using these abilities, or powers, is always a misuse. They're not to be used because that can be called an action, and all actions have consequences. So, using them causes retardation, no progress. Although this is very rare, but those who gain Powers, their progress stops because they are mesmerized by their abilities. The problem is, as soon as the progress stops, and the consequences start arriving, they lose these abilities. Remember, these abilities are a result of your progress, and it is a trap. So when you start using them, the progress stops, regress happens, and the abilities leave you. They're lost. So, the way out of this danger is cultivating detachment towards these abilities. Yes, you can have fun for a few days, but do not make it your business. Do not keep using them. These powers or abilities should enhance your knowledge that this is also possible; something which I thought was impossible, was against the physical laws, is possible. That's the true use of your powers and abilities. They should liberate you, not trap you.

Then there is this trap of hubris. Hubris can happen because of powers, or it can happen because of accumulation. Sometimes, you join a shiny path with a great Guru, and that can cause a lot of arrogance. And as I said, half-knowledge gives rise to arrogance or hubris. A superiority complex can arise in the seeker and that is the cause of fall, not of progress. It is a trap. Knowledge makes a person humble. Knowledge is destruction of ego. Spiritual progress is loss of hubris, becoming small and ordinary. I know nobody agrees with these things nowadays, but this is the reality. This is what true spirituality looks like. It is unattractive to an ordinary ego, but if there is ego, sooner or later, it will trap you into some kind of hubris.

And in the worst cases, it becomes megalomania which means "I have become the greatest. Now everybody is now my slave, inferior cattle." So this God complex can arise later in the path when the Seeker thinks that they are achieving something, they are reaching somewhere, it can be very real. There are some cults, mostly frauds, who encourage this kind of mentality: that you will become something great, join us, you will become somebody special, you are the chosen one, and so on. But this is stupidity. Not only that, it is a big danger. Once somebody is in a cult, they're forever trapped there because it is a mental prison. They are brainwashed into thinking that being a slave of the cult is the greatest thing. So not only are you a slave now, you are happy to be their slave. Whoever is controlling you has already fallen, and your fall is guaranteed. There are more dangers like getting trapped in various superstitions, extremist religions, or becoming a part of a community, a crowd of people who think like you. That is not independence, that is not freedom, that is a life sentence in that community. Hopefully everybody knows these things, so I'm not going to elaborate too much on it.

If you do some kind of practices that are not suitable for you, there is a danger of suffering. If it causes pain for a few days, it is okay, but some practices can give you lifelong pain, diseases, and discomforts which no doctor can cure. Because remember, this is not your physical disease. Most of the doctors have no clue about spirituality. Some have, but they have no cure of it. Some gurus know how to treat these discomforts, but not all. Nobody even knows about these things, so doing a wrong practice is really dangerous.

You must have heard that the spiritual people are somewhat crazy, but this is not only a joke. Sometimes some practices can cause mental disturbances that can last for a whole life. I don't want to terrify newcomers. I just want to warn you that as soon as you see these signs, you should alert yourself and take some precautions. Get out of that situation. Now you know what the dangers are, so your chances of encountering them will be less. And if you encounter them or you fall into one of these traps, there is a good chance that you will be able to get out of it simply because you know about it.

Remember, there are millions of seekers who do not know all these things, there are thousands who are trapped, many are hopelessly gone, they have wasted their lives. The intention here is not to scare you about spirituality, not to stop you from joining spirituality, but to warn you that do not take it so lightly. It is fun, yes, but that fun can be spoiled by these mistakes and errors.

Ultimately it totally depends on your guide because a Seeker is not expected to know all these things. So having a good guide is good luck, because even if you fall in one of these traps, an experienced guide can take you out of it. You can see that your guide or your Guru is the axle around which the wheel of spirituality is spinning. This series is nothing but a little bit of guidance.

Service

When you have found your goal, when you have found nothing, when you have known something, when you have known everything, which is equal to knowing nothing, what remains to do in your life?

Because the spiritual goal is the highest goal, nothing meaningful remains to do once you attain your spiritual goal, which is simply an illusion as you came to know in the last part of this series. However the intelligence is to stay in the world, stay as an ordinary human being to let the natural processes of life run and complete its course and to redirect your self-seeking behavior into something more productive, something bigger than the selfish pursuit of some illusory goal.

Your other option is to die, rot away in nothingness, but no intelligent person will pick it. Once you reach the highest goal, you will see that the self-serving life is not meaningful at all. Just like I said there will be complete detachment and sometimes it looks like depression, meaninglessness and at this time only one person can show you the way out, and you must have guessed it, it is your guide your Guru, simply because he has done it all, he's gone through this stage also. So fully knowing that nothing is meaningful, nothing needs to be done, you pick up something which is worthwhile. Knowing fully that this person is an illusion, this doer does nothing and this observer simply observes everything unconditionally, you take up something which is somewhat meaningful. Knowing that everybody is my own form, everybody is one, their essence comes out to be one, whatever that is. Probably at this time you will not understand what I'm talking about but those who understand they will see that those who are in darkness are also me.

Probably I should have said that this episode is mostly for those Seekers who are reaching their goal or who are already there, who find a vacuum in their lives, who are now freed from their seeking also, who find all these so-called spiritual activities a waste of time. So the only thing that remains is - to bring out all my other forms from darkness, to do exactly that which my guide did for me, unconditionally, selflessly. That is the only logical choice that remains.

Why is your guide doing that because, you can guess, nothing else is meaningful. We see that others are suffering and then we try to cure that suffering. This decision can be called your compassion, your kindness. There is no other option but to become compassionate and kind. This is how your real nature is. What else can you become? So when you see somebody suffering you simply extend a little bit of help.

There are no rules about it, it can be very mild, a little bit, or you can jump into it at a war footing, as if this is the most urgent need in the universe. But most of the Seekers are somewhere in between. The only error that can happen here is that you can assume that this is really needed. You can take it too seriously, that is the only error that can happen. So, seeing that everything is a play, you play the ultimate play. This is the final level in The Game of Life.

But there is another way that is not complete destruction or wasting. That can be called ceasing to be, which means complete dissolution, extinguishing the flames completely. However, that means there is nothing more to talk about. So we assume that a Seeker will take the path of service once his or her individual goal is achieved, or some kind of maturity appears. This will be a natural consequence. This can be called Bodhisattva tendency, which means a tendency to bring all the creatures out of suffering, to help them progress.

It does not mean that you're trying to convert them into your spiritual path or you're forcing them to be something else which they are not. No, it simply means helping other seekers. You see what they want and you try to fulfill that need. It is very simple. That is why it is called service.

Now, the question is, who needs your service? And at first, you can make this beginner's mistake: that this is the biggest job in the world. There are so few people who are in spirituality, and only a handful of people in the world who are doing the job of a guide. The supply is very less compared to the demand, so everybody needs it. There will be a crowd of people demanding your service, wanting your service. But again, this is a spiritual field, and things are sometimes exactly opposite of what we expect.

Reality is stranger than our imagination. You will be surprised to see that no one is interested in your service. Nobody wants truth, nobody wants knowledge, nobody wants these useless practices of closing your nose and sitting in a cave somewhere on a mountain. Any intelligent person will laugh at you. They will call you crazy or they will call you a fraud, because obviously, in this world, nobody does any service or any job without expecting something in return. Remember, the word “service” is now corrupted, it now means a job for which you need to pay something. The service does not mean selfless help these days. If you are running a service, that means you are earning a lot of money. That's why you are serving.

So, as soon as you offer your services, you will find nobody wants them. People ridicule you, people will insult you, they will simply run away if you try to speak anything which is remotely spiritual. And I'm also talking about newcomers here, the so-called budding Seekers. They also won't take you seriously because you are nobody. Your name is not on the bookshelves, you are not on TV, your channel has zero subscribers. Nobody wants to listen to you.

So this is the first difficulty that you will encounter. And you will see something strange: that people prefer ignorance, people prefer imaginary stories, people prefer captivity, obedience to something powerful, and people obviously prefer materialism. They want materialistic things. So you will be left with very few options. Your dreams of serving will go down the drain. Even your mother will refuse to listen to your lecture on spirituality.

There will be a handful of people who will understand you, and obviously there will be other Seekers. So you will need to find these people. The service becomes a very difficult job. Actually, it becomes a challenge because there is nobody to serve. And here also the only one comes for your help - your own guide. Ask your guide how to start on this new journey of post-enlightenment life, and there will be some tips and tricks that your guide will tell you. He will put you under him as an apprentice. He will train you in the art of knowledge dissemination or service. Slowly, those who are worthy will start approaching you. You should be able to discern who is worthy and who is not.

I should add one thing that you should never do this service without taking the permission of your guide. It can cause a little bit of trouble for you and there is a possibility that it will harm these people whom you are teaching or telling something which they are not ready to hear. So first you should take the permission of your own Guru and work under the wings of the Guru for some time. Then the Guru himself will let you fly and do your own adventures.

So you will need to find the worthy ones. The quality of a worthy Seeker who is ready to take the teachings is that - they are interested, they are ready, they don't want anything else except the teaching, except their progress and they're madly after their spiritual goal. You can see them, they are highly curious, open-minded, they are ready to do the difficult job of studying and practicing and, most importantly, they recognize you as their guide, they accept you as their Guru. This person can be called ready to receive, they are in a receiving posture and your efforts, your service will be fruitful here.

So although we call it “service”, it is not for everyone. This is another paradox of spirituality that you say I'm serving, but 99% of the time you will find yourself refusing people simply because they are not worthy. The word “worthy” is somewhat unfortunate in modern times because it sounds really arrogant when we say that you are not worthy. It simply means, the person has not matured to that point that they can be trained or taught anything. It is not dependent on age or anything else, even education or intelligence, it totally depends on what qualities that person has. These are called qualities of a seeker, and this is a big subject about which I've already said in detail, if you are interested check my other lectures. You recognize the worthy ones from their qualities and they will recognize you as their means to reach their spiritual goal and that will show up as love and respect for you. They will admire you and they will request to be served, they will ask for it even if you refuse them in the beginning, they will come back. So you will need to devise some tests to find who comes back, who really wants and who is simply wasting your time.

What will you get in return for this service? What can you expect? And the answer is very obvious - absolutely nothing. You will not get anything in return for your spiritual service, that is why it is called service. Actually the returns are sometimes negative.

You will need to spend a lot of time and effort in teaching. You will make a lot of enemies if you don't go carefully as per the instructions of your guide. Sometimes you will get insults and ridicule. There was a time when the teachers and gurus were placed higher, highest actually, in the hierarchy of things. Nowadays they are in a very bad condition.

As soon as people hear that you are serving, you are giving away something, they will try to take advantage of you, they will try to extract as much as they can from you.

Rarely anyone will appreciate what you're doing, they will doubt you, they will brand you as fraud, fake and criminal, enemy of their values, their society and their religion.

A guru who exploits everybody, takes advantage of women, brainwashes children and so on, that much you can easily expect in return.

These issues will be faced by many people. I'm not saying it will be a really serious and dangerous situation, but you get this for nothing. You get all this negativity even if you don't deserve it. So go there in the field of service with zero expectations, fully knowing that anything can happen in this world. This world is not built for service. Remember this thing. It has to be totally selfless, totally unconditional. And even after that, you will pay the price for serving. If you become selfish, if you demand something in return, well, the destruction of your service is absolutely guaranteed. Probably, you will lose the support of your own Guru.

However, again, there is a paradox here. That people will find it absolutely normal that this fellow who calls himself a spiritual person is demanding money. Actually, they are convinced that this is how everybody is. So they are not surprised when somebody is doing selfish actions in the name of service. “All gurus are fake” - and they laugh and they move on. Fakeness is accepted in society because many of them are like this. It is normal in society. Corruption is normal. However, these worldly people are really surprised when somebody is actually serving selflessly but still they ignore and continue with false accusations as if nothing has happened. And that is for your good, actually. You should not become a matter of controversy. You should not be in the limelight for anything at all. So you will learn as you serve. And at this point, if you take your service very seriously, you will experience discomfort. Although since you are a senior Seeker, it will mean nothing, but it will look like a failure - a feeling that everything was meaningless. “My Guru told me that service is meaningful. You should do it. And now this also failed.” So it can look like a complete failure from all angles. And that is why very few people are capable of serving. Just like only a worthy person receives knowledge or spiritual teaching, only a worthy person is permitted to teach or serve. This is not everybody's cup of tea.

Now you can appreciate the other options which few intelligent people take, which is complete dissolution. Probably they tried these things. We cannot blame them. So although it is very difficult, it is also a very entertaining play. Think of it as a play. If you think of it as something else, you will suffer; you will pay the price. If you don't have a guru who is alive, nobody can advise you. If you're doing it under the guidance of a guru, probably many of these practical issues can be avoided.

So what will be the effects of service? Will it be good for me or not? This is coming from ignorance. This is the ego asking, "What do I get? What happens if I serve?" So the only logical answer is, "Do not expect any effects of service. Nobody becomes enlightened. Nobody gets knowledge. Even you don't have knowledge. Even you are nothing. So nothing comes out of service in a meaningful way. Nothing happens which is meaningful from the point of view of this person or this ego. At least you can say nothing worldly will happen. Sometimes you will see changes in yourself. Yes, that is the law here. That if you go and change something or somebody outside, the greatest change that will happen will be within you, inside. You will see that your progress has accelerated. You are growing faster now. Whatever little impurities you had, got burnt away. Now, whatever little expectations and feelings of superiority you had, all gone, burnt. You will come to know that you still had some impurities left. As soon as you start teaching, you will come to know your errors; you will come to know the holes in your own knowledge. Because sometimes you won't be able to answer some difficult question, sometimes you won't be able to handle a difficult situation. And that will give you a tremendous amount of teaching.

Those who teach, learn most. This is another paradox. So sometimes your Guru will prescribe teaching as a practice. As soon as you're ready for that, even if you're not on the final step, you will be given some service work to do. And consider yourself very, very fortunate. Because from here on your progress will be like a rocket. We don't know what is the effect of service, but you will get accepted into the Gurufield. You will become the part of the system that we talked about in the very first part of the series—the system of spirituality. You will become somebody who spins the wheel of truth. Now, these words are really big, but it is just hard work, let me tell you. You do not become somebody grand and big; you become another cog in the machinery of spirituality. Probably you like this latter sentence more.

Again, this mysterious Gurufield shows up here: what is it? Is it okay to become a part of it? It is a mystery because it is not in front of you right now. And we'll reveal the mysteries of Gurufield in the next part.

Gurufield

The tendency to serve others grows with time. One becomes more capable of serving and spreading the light of knowledge. Although we do not get anything in return, the satisfaction we get is priceless. Although it is difficult, it is the most meaningful thing to do. The more you do it, the better you become at it. Teaching is an art. This gives rise to many tendencies that can be collectively called Bodhisattva tendency. This is a desire to liberate all the creatures in this existence, a desire to bring everyone out of suffering and darkness. This individual spends many births and many lifetimes doing this. Ultimately, the birth happens only with one purpose: that is to serve.

With time, the individual progresses, climbs the ladder of evolution, and becomes united with the whole universe. However, some of them have this ability to preserve this tendency even at this highest level. As the individual is long gone, now remains only a memory or you can say a possibility, a potential which can manifest as and when needed in any form, and reappears as the Bodhisattva tendency. All those who went through this path to non-individuality but preserved their tendencies merge into one. These memories, which are not physical or mental, become a field of possibilities. They all combine together to form a field which will be called the Gurufield.

It is mysterious and unknowable for an average person. So we are going to use some tools to describe it. We are going to form a concept or a model. It is not that it is completely imaginary, it can be experienced, but it is not very obvious, at least for those who are new in spirituality. You can say that the Gurufield is a kind of memory which is purely a potential, non-physical, non-mental and unmanifested but it can take any form. Most of the time this memory of the Gurufield operates through anything that is already manifested, such as human beings, especially those who are having this tendency and still have a body. The Gurufield guides these people.

You can say that it is a group mind where all the minds of great Masters have combined. These Masters do not exist there as individuals, but their tendencies do exist. If needed, it can take a form; if needed, they can create entire universes and entire worlds. They are very powerful and very wise. Nothing is done without any purpose. As it is non-physical, it is omnipresent. However, it is not true. It is also an illusion, although a very useful illusion and the highest kind of Illusion that I know of.

The universe can be thought of as a memory which is non-physical and non-mental. It is almost infinite, and the Gurufield forms a part of this memory. Just like the universal memory can appear as anything from a grain of sand to complete worlds and universes, the Gurufield has the same capability, although the tendency there is to guide, to spread knowledge, to help all the Seekers. At this time, it will look like a farfetched imaginary thing, mythology. Those who do not experience it directly should think of it simply as a concept. For most of the Seekers, it will be invisible. They will never come to know, but those who are in service will surely come to know. They will surely get a direct experience of it. And many of those who are in service will become a part of the Gurufield if they choose to be so.

It is important to know that the Gurufield is not a guru, not a guide, not a person. It is simply a memory, which is a potential memory, latent memory. We should never personify the Gurufield. We should never imagine a face or a body there. And it is not something higher also, such as a causal body or a soul or anything which is paranormal. There is no comparison with humans or any other creatures. The Gurufield does not look like any deities, gods and goddesses. And it is not something which can be channeled like other entities, although it can appear as all of these. It can appear as a person, a human being, some parahuman creature, some mysterious thing, powers that we don't understand. And it can also appear as something which can be contacted through channeling. But still, the Gurufield is not all of these. It is important to clear this because many newcomers will be confused about the source of the guidance that they are receiving. They will imagine something, although it is not harmful to imagine like this, but that can increase ignorance, that can cause blind beliefs.

Remember that there is no thinking process there. There are no desires except one desire to liberate. All you can say is that that is what they do. I always use “they” or “their” or “them”, these words for the Gurufield because it is not one person, it is a group, it is a field. So they guide all creatures that want to be guided. Their energy is to serve all. It is not like a human desire to achieve something, to get something. There is this energy which activates as soon as their services are needed anywhere in the universe, in any of the worlds. And it is also eternal, timeless. You can say that there is an intention there which is maintained so that everybody can progress. So they provide any kind of help that is needed and they try to remove all the obstacles from the paths of a sincere Seeker.

As I said, it can take any form, there are no limitations. But they are very efficient, they will never do anything which is not absolutely needed. How do they help? The most direct method is they descend into the physical world, they take a form. And it will be very rare. They can take any form, not only human form. But most of the time, they use the existing forms that are found here, those who have the same tendency to serve, those who have become an instrument of the Gurufield. Gurufield simply uses them as that is the most efficient way to help. They are all powerful so they can adjust this illusion whenever they want. They can change situations or they can create situations in the lives of seekers.

Sometimes they send inspirations directly into the minds of the seekers. Although a Seeker will think that it is his thought, it is his desire, it is his idea, but it actually came from the Gurufield. A Seeker has no way to distinguish what is his own thought, or something which is coming from the Gurufield. The illusion is adjusted only when it is absolutely needed and it is done in such a masterful way that no evidence of any manipulation is left behind. This is the law of the illusion that one cannot disturb it and reveal that it is an illusion. That can cause havoc among ordinary people. So the Gurufield obeys this Rule and always leaves a doubt whenever they change something in the illusion. That can be called deniability. That whenever such a miracle happens, it is possible to deny it. It is possible to explain it away using ordinary reasons.

In the same way, direct guidance is always disguised as Seeker’s own thought process. They simply nudge it. They do not cause extensive changes anywhere, including in the minds of Seekers. They do not guide everybody, only those who ask for guidance because of the law of the free will which says that you cannot instruct anybody, you cannot guide anybody if they don't want it. So even though they are immensely powerful, they are not seen so much. Their actions are not so visible because the majority of people do not want spirituality. They do not want any guidance. They are happy in their lives and so they are not disturbed. Nothing is imposed on anybody and even the Seekers are not guided unless it becomes absolutely necessary, or guidance is demanded from the Gurufield directly. Only then something is done and always the minimal possible is done, nothing extraordinary is done.

The most common way to extend their help in the world is through a living Master, a living Guru, a guide who is in human form already. Since they have advanced a little bit, they have progressed, they are in better communication with the Gurufield than the rest of the Seekers. Their minds are a little bit more pure and the channel of communication is less noisy. And also the advanced gurus, experienced gurus can sometimes distinguish between their own thoughts and inspirations coming from the Gurufield. They come to know that it is something which is conveyed from Gurufield.

And this communication will not happen every day, every now and then. It happens only when it is absolutely necessary. They will never sit down and chit-chat with the guides or with Seekers. They will never lecture directly although it is all possible. But the law of efficiency is mostly seen. Although they are capable of doing absolutely anything, it is seen that they mostly do nothing. This is the law of powers that the more powers you get, the less you use them. And the reason behind is perfection in the universe. This whole existence is completely perfect. Nothing really needs to be done and the Gurufield, fully knowing this, does not intervene in the workings of the universe. And they are totally free to decide when to intervene but they do it in a minimal possible way.

So a question that is asked frequently is if they are so powerful, if the essence of all the gurus and masters is already there, if all the knowledge of the universe is already stored there, why don't they liberate/enlighten each and everybody on Earth in one day? Why are people suffering? Why are people ignorant when we have something like this? And the answer is very simple, everything is absolutely fine, everything is perfect as it is. This human life is already set up for optimal growth without suffering. The progress is really slow. Lessons are not learned quickly and secondly probably they have already altered the universe or the physical world sufficiently to enable fastest possible progress. And they are protecting this school of learning which is also a playground for many and so it is all left undisturbed. They do not intervene.

As I said, the law of Free Will says that they will never do anything from their side. When a person is ripe enough. He or she becomes a Seeker, approaches a living guide, then prays or applies for teachings. That is the green signal to the Gurufield that this person can now be helped. The desire of the person is spiritual and they get approval to interfere and accelerate the progress of that Seeker. Still, nothing big will be done. However, if the Seeker is very brilliant, has great potential, then sometimes something extraordinary can be done to bring that Seeker forward, to accelerate their progress, sometimes within a few days and months. This is especially true if that Seeker has the potential to become a guru. We don't know how they decide it, but they come to know who has more potential, and they manipulate the situations so that this brilliant person gets propelled on the path at the speed of light.

When they do something like this, sometimes they break the law of deniability, and a few people can see that something paranormal has happened. However, ordinary people never come to know, or they dismiss it as a coincidence, something strange, a glitch in the working of the universe. They forget about it. This illusion is an expert in wiping out the doubts from the minds of ordinary people. They forget the miracles with time, even if some of them can notice that something paranormal has happened. When they go and tell others, nobody believes them. They can manipulate the minds of people very easily. They can make them forget.

In the same way, if a guide is doing extraordinary work while in the body, rules are bent for that guide because he is going to become a catalyst for thousands of seekers. Some special arrangements are made for this guide and it seems like miracles are happening around this guru but that guru says, "I don't do anything. It happens." That Guru will get the needed information there and then. That Guru will be able to guide Seekers in the most precise way. That Guru will do something which ordinary people cannot do to remove the obstacles from the paths of Seekers.

Sometimes the gurus come to know that this is happening, and they accelerate the process by praying directly to the Gurufield. They can push up a case just to make things go smoothly. They can accelerate the progress of anybody by becoming a mediator in this process. It is as good as sending a file, a proposal in a government office. It can take some time because this physical world is somewhat slow. These things take time and then the results are also manifested slowly. It will never happen overnight. There are exceptions, as I said. A guru who is in direct contact with Gurufield, his job becomes that of a clerk who simply sends the file upwards and takes the instructions and carries it out in the physical world. In other words, these people become messengers of the Gurufield. Now these instruments are so fine-tuned that the Gurufield gets a chance to directly work in the physical world or any world. Now it is not necessary to appear in somebody's dreams or to send cryptic messages or patterns of numbers and whatever. They can simply instruct the guide in ordinary language. The guide passes on the instructions to Seekers.

However, this will happen very rarely, especially in these times. And to obey the law of deniability, everything is covered up. Nobody tells these things even if they happen. It is not made public, and Seekers or ordinary people, since they cannot not see the Gurufield, do not know this concept. They find that the guru is responsible for the miracles. The guru is an extraordinary person who has extraordinary talent to guide. Or sometimes they will say that God has done this thing for me or they will give the credit to the deities they worship or their past gurus who are not in the body.

So to take advantage of this ignorance, to hide behind their ignorance, the Gurufield can take these kinds of forms also: some great master from the past, some deity, some other angel or entity. They appear as that because an ordinary person or an ordinary Seeker will not understand anything else so they pick up a suitable interface. Remember they do not have any form so they are free to take any form.

Now you came to know about Gurufield. Probably you resonate with this idea, although it is purely a theory, we made this up to explain our experiences, but probably you will find it useful and there will be a desire in your mind to contact the Gurufield.

Many people ask this question: how can I contact the Gurufield, if it is such a miraculous thing? I'm going to benefit a lot if I contact them directly. So it will be difficult but there are some ways and the key is to align yourself with the energy of the Gurufield. Start doing that which they are doing. And what are they doing? They are serving everybody so when you start serving all those who are seeking knowledge, who are seeking freedom. Then you don't need to contact Gurufield, the Gurufield will contact you. All you need to do is align your intention to the intention of the Gurufield. This is the most direct method to contact Gurufield, make your will the will of Gurufield and through the law of resonance you will be placed in their contact.

Your instrument must be ready to receive the messages of the Gurufield because the messages are not in human format. They are also in some difficult to grasp formats such as desires, intentions, inspirations. They appear as non-physical initially in the minds of the Seekers who are contacting them and you cannot distinguish your own thoughts from something which was sent by Gurufield. Remember there is no distance involved here, they are right here, right now as a non-physical field of potential, which you are also. So it helps to know what you are first and since both are one, it is possible to communicate. Otherwise there was no way. So the law of attraction, or more accurately the law of resonance says that if your will is same as that of any other entity in this universal memory, these two come in contact naturally without doing anything. Probably, this is a big secret. I shouldn't have told you but the time is such that it is urgent to tell these things to all.

If you already have Bodhisattva tendencies you are already in contact with the Gurufield, even if you don't know it. When you make a decision, when you are solving a problem, when you are guiding somebody, you can assume that 50% or more of the information comes directly from the Gurufield. It will look like my own decision, but there is no “me”. We all live in a sea of influences, mental influences. Nothing is mine here. So if you have this intention to be influenced greatly by the Gurufield, you will get that exactly. If you think "no, it is not working, it's not obvious, there is radio silence everywhere, nobody's listening to me", then you can devise a method of prayer, a ritual if you want. Because spiritual people like all these things. Ask for help, ask it loudly. If you know any mantras or if you are given a mantra by your guru or the age-old invocation, the guru mantra (see appendix), they're all good. You can ask for help directly. You can ritualise this thing if you want. You can use a statue or an idol if you want. Fully knowing that these things are not magical, your intention has the magic, your will is magical. And if you are asking for somebody else, to help somebody else and the domain is spiritual, not material, then you can hope for some assistance from the Gurufield.

Another way is to assist those who are already in contact with the Gurufield. You become a good assistant to your own guide. Start doing that which your guide is doing and you will also be taken in the inner circle of the Gurufield if your performance is good. Remember they are just like a company, corporation or government. So I use these metaphors: sending files, applying and instructions, communication channel, proper channel and instrument and so on. Probably, there is a hierarchy, who knows. So you join at the lowest level initially, which is to become an assistant to your own guide, and then probably you'll be promoted. However you should not take all these metaphors too seriously. There can be an issue that initially you will get the instructions and for some reason they will stop communicating with you. They have their own reasons, so do not worry. Simply try to help as much as you can. Whenever your service is needed you will be contacted. You will be given the information or whatever is needed to carry out your service. All you need to do is to become a good instrument of the Gurufield, become useful for them, surrender your body and mind to the Gurufield, and there are more chances of getting the help.

Although these kinds of words can discourage a person - becoming an instrument, surrendering, it looks like that you are giving up all your control and yes it is mostly like that. But it helps to know that you already don't have any control anywhere. You are already an instrument, a puppet of Mother Nature. This body mind is already that. However it is a useless instrument, it is going to become dirt, it is going to rot away. So the intelligent thing to do is use it for something good, for the benefit of all, for a greater purpose. And then as I said, the Gurufield is not interested in you, they are interested in the work that you are doing. So they do not use this instrument if this instrument is not doing anything.

There are some effects of becoming an instrument of the Gurufield. Just like any artisan, any mechanic, any doctor keeps their instruments, books, computers and data in a good shape, protects their instruments because they're so useful, the Gurufield also does the same thing. They will protect their investment in the physical world. So before you can remove any obstacles from the path of other people, other seekers, you will find that the Gurufield has already removed all the obstacles from your path. They have already given you everything that you need to carry out your service or the teaching activities or knowledge dissemination activities. They have already done that. They will make ordinary diseases disappear. They can increase the lifespan. They can make people rich. They can give you extraordinary charisma and oratory powers. They can boost your intelligence.

Like you upgrade your PC if it becomes your instrument of acting, in your business etc., if it is useful, you keep upgrading it. You take care of it. You spend money on it. It is just like you maintain any of your machines, cars or appliances in your home. You keep them working. You keep them good-looking. The same way the Gurufield will maintain their instruments. However, we should not be so hopeful. We should not do the service in the hope that the Gurufield will do something to me. Me here, is the body-mind. Remember, you are not this body-mind. So as soon as the Gurufield senses that somebody is simply trying to take some material benefits under the excuse of service, they simply fire that person, just like your employer fires you if you do something which you're not meant to do or if you become useless for them. Be very careful. Think twice before asking for favours. It has to be selfless, otherwise there will be consequences.

The karmic law is operational in the case of Gurufield also. So never ask for personal favours although you're free to do it. They are very high up there. Sometimes they will grant favours also. But if you keep asking for more and you're not serving, you're not becoming a good instrument, then they abandon your instrument. They do not really cause any harm. They do not take back the favours, but they leave you to obey the karmic law. It happens naturally, and they will not have anything to do with you in the future. So do not ask for worldly things. If it is needed, it will be given, if you're serving, if you have the Bodhisattva tendency, and only the minimum possible will be given. They won't make you a billionaire, millionaire. So never try to manipulate the Gurufield. Never make deals with the Gurufield - I'll do this if you do that. That never works. Instead, you will most probably get a lesson.

We should not think that the Gurufield depends on us. They are using this body-mind, but they do not need us. They are immensely powerful. They can create millions of body-minds if they want. What they are doing is according to the law of efficiency, and so they take whatever is available already. If you don't do anything, no complaints, nothing will be asked from you, and they will switch to the next best person who is available. Or they have 1,001 ways to help those who are desperate for help. They do not depend on anybody. Even if you are the biggest Guru, they do not depend on you, although sometimes they will request, sometimes they will command, but they are not helpless.

Another characteristic of the Gurufield is they're never serious. You should not take the Gurufield too seriously. It is all a play, and everything is mostly like a joke for them. Now this does not make their work less important. It simply gives it a twist because everything is already perfect as it is. There's no need to improve anything. So they are not very serious, they're playing. They're checking if something can be done, to do it in a more beautiful way, as quickly as possible. And they devise the tricks to do it, and sometimes they are hilarious. Whatever they do is comedic. They will sometimes test you, sometimes they will take trials, sometimes they will give you wrong information, sometimes they will give you favors that you don't deserve, just to check what you do and how you react.

So just like they are not dependent on you, you should not be dependent on the Gurufield for anything. Remember, it is your decision to serve. Nobody told you to do that, so you should not expect anything from the Gurufield. Don't be so serious.

Another important thing is, they are not always sitting there to talk to you. Do not contact them if it is not needed. It will be needed probably once in a month, once in a week at most. If you keep talking to the Gurufield, if you keep calling the Guru Mantra every now and then, every minute, and in every situation that happens in your life, one thing is certain: they will stop listening. Too much noise, they will turn off your channel, especially if you're not doing anything extraordinary in the world. You don't need to contact them. Their motto is, "Don't call us, we'll call you." That is their rule. So when your service is needed, instructions will be sent. Execute them. It is simple.

Whenever something goes out of your hand, if a Seeker needs special attention, special treatment, or you are in deep trouble, now you can contact them. Then it is justified. Sometimes things happen due to your own efforts, due to your own powers that you're getting as you're progressing and serving others. So if something happens like this, do not assume that it is done by the Gurufield. Probably it is done by you or probably it is a coincidence. So do not believe everything blindly. Not everything is being done by the Gurufield. If you believe like this, no problem at all. But the Gurufield will simply laugh, they are not pleased. You become a source of entertainment for them, that's all.

Do not delude yourself that "I'm in contact with the Gurufield, now I can do everything." That will never happen. We absolutely don't know how these decisions are made to help somebody, to contact somebody, by the Gurufield. And as I said, sometimes it is purely for entertainment purposes. It's a play, it's a joke. So if you think, "I have the Gurufield in my hand now, like a magic wand, I can do anything I want," it is a big delusion. Nothing like this will happen. So do not think that "I became somebody superior because I have become an instrument of the Gurufield." No, it is simply the job of a clerk. You have simply become a puppet. That's all. It is not a big thing. But there is nothing to worry about. As soon as this kind of superiority complex or delusions start appearing in your mind, the Gurufield knows how to fix it also. Sometimes they will fix it, sometimes they will simply leave you, depending on their mood that day.

So just like humans are a good instrument for the Gurufield to act in this world, we are a medium, same way, the Gurufield is a good instrument to serve others. If you keep doing this, one day you will merge with the Gurufield. As you progress, as you evolve spiritually, the individual will be gone, but you will get an option to keep your Bodhisattva tendency alive. And that is merging with the Gurufield. Probably that is the highest state, although the most natural state for any Seeker to be in.

Play

Spirituality, seeking, practices and all these adventures are a very good undertaking for any seeker. It is entertaining and educational. Probably there is nothing higher to do for a human. This is the highest possible activity for any human being.

When will it end for a seeker? At what time their seeking ends?

The answer is very surprising. You can end it now, you can end it in one minute. Simply realize that this existence itself is conscious. It is conscious of itself and is appearing in various illusory forms. And the twist is you are that existence.

This is the end of spirituality. There is nothing more to know. This is the end of seeking, simply being what you are.

Existence means the whole, completeness, everything and you are that everything. And the realization is it was always like this. Now, you need to simply be it. There is nothing to see, there is nothing here which is separate from you, which you will get. And you cannot be anything else because you are already everything. So when the seeking ends, there is nothing to do, nothing is gained and nothing changes.

But what happens is the need to find something drops. The whole ignorance drops in one minute. And ignorance is nothing but accumulation of blind beliefs in your mind which makes you deluded, which makes you suffer. And all this delusion, ignorance and suffering is lost in one moment. And you will know that your ignorance, suffering, delusions were also temporary, illusory, dreamlike. They never really happened and they were not happening to you as a conscious existence.

You were only a witness. They were attributed to an illusory self which is identified as a body or mind that is a complete illusion, a thought, a shadow, a momentary event in the eternity of existence. So nothing really happened to anybody and this illusory shadow and the illusory forms, illusory worlds, this dream will continue. There is no reason for it to change in any way.

You can end the seeking now if you can realize this much. But most probably it will take

some time for you to arrive here. The fastest path known to human beings, The Path of Knowledge, will bring you here in one day if you are interested. Any intelligent person will demand evidence for whatever was said. The evidence is right here right now in front of your eyes. It is covered up by blind beliefs. It is possible to simply see it if you can. Your seeking ends today, and if you cannot, a guide can help you, a guide who is already on The Path of Knowledge. It will take 1 hour or less to simply show you the end of knowledge.

However, many of The Seekers do not have this goal. They do not have a guide. They do not have this particular path, and the whole drama of seeking begins. Not knowing which path to take, not knowing which goal will end my seeking, not knowing which guide will take me to the ultimate - These things also constitute ignorance, they are part of ignorance. So not only do we not know, we do not know that we do not know and we do not know the way. That is why spiritual seeking takes time. There is no rule how much time it will take, from 1 second to many lifetimes. This is also a drama that

happens in existence.

Your seeking is also a part of this dream. The dream is of existence. It is your dream. It is your play. You are playing hide and seek. You are hiding from yourself and you are seeking yourself. Knowing what you are will end your seeking.

Instantly, many will ask, “What is the purpose of being this existence? Why do I want to be this existence? Why do I appear to myself and play this game?” These questions indicate that ignorance is still there. Realization has not happened. And then again you will need help. You will need guidance. You will need pointers which only your guide can provide. The purpose, meanings, goals—they are all made up in the mind. In the purity of the existence, there is nothing like this. We can assign purposes or meanings to everyday activities, everyday things, but the whole of it is simply existing. Just like a water drop does not stick to a lotus petal, the concepts and notions and beliefs created by the human mind are not applicable to the existence which is nothing but your own essence.

Although everybody is free to assign any purpose, any meaning, any goal; they are arbitrary and they are decided by the seeker. They are all false. Every purpose, every goal is false, illusory. They are an outcome of ignorance. The more ignorance you have, the stranger these purposes, meanings, and goals will be. And in complete darkness, there are completely unreasonable meanings and purposes. One can say that the goal of a seeker is to get rid of all these purposes, meanings, goals that were assigned arbitrarily and come back to your original nature which is simply being without any concepts, notions, beliefs or self-imposed meaning or purpose. Because whatever you assign to it, it will be very limited. It will reduce the freedom that you are.

You are an ocean of possibilities. It cannot have one purpose, it cannot have one meaning or it can have infinite purposes and meanings, which is what we see. It is possible to give it any meaning, but the essence remains as it is, without simplistic notions. So the seeking is actually reduction. It is getting rid of all these notions, seeing their illusory nature, seeing that they are mind created, they are false, or they are unnecessary. You are complete as you are, so find what you are and your seeking ends. And this play of purpose, goal, parts, meanings, achievements, everything will end. If it can end today, it is fine. If it takes time, if it takes a million years, it is also fine because time means nothing.

Many people would like to say that it is a play and your seeking is also a play. The word “play” comes closest to what is happening, to what this existence is. Because only a play has no real purpose, only a play happens for no real meaning. There is no utility there, or we can say the utility is to play, entertainment. It is not to achieve something, to be something, to improve something, to correct something. No, it is a play of images which we simply enjoy. But we should keep in mind that the word "play" is poetic. There is no "play" in the end. Nothing can be said about what it is. It simply is, and after that is a peaceful silence. Silence is the final description of what you are seeking. If you add even one word to this play of silence, it gets polluted by ignorance.

How will you arrive at this silence? It is the job of your guide to silence your seeking, to bring you to this space, which is your essential nature. And that is the biggest play in the existence. The guru breaks his silence, so that the student can be silenced.

The silence recognizes the silence. That is what spiritual service is. That is what your Guru is teaching you. And it is also a play, in the end. Nothing is achieved by realizing what you are, because you are already that. So fully knowing that nothing is being achieved here, we play. We do it because there is nothing better to do. We recognize that this is the biggest play there is, and so we choose it. Many will not choose it. For them, some other play is more interesting, more attractive. Fully knowing that no one really needs it – who needs to become that which they already are? – so there is no real need, but we still do it. Fully knowing that nothing needs to change, everything is perfect as it is; your ignorance, your seeking, is also perfect. That is the role that you are playing in this play. You are merely an actor who is assigned this role.

So is service the final goal? And the answer is no. It is also chosen. It is also arbitrary. It is a matter of like or dislike. You can choose something else, or you can choose to keep seeking. You can say: "I'm not satisfied with this business of ending the seeking in silence. I need to know the real answers." And the seeking then continues; the play goes on. It is not a bad decision.

And bringing somebody out of this play–or, more accurately, just making somebody realize that you are an actor in this playful dream of your own–is not a serious business. We should not take the service seriously. In the end, it is a big joke. In the end, we can only laugh at what is happening. In the end, we'll never know anything. Knowledge is also an illusion. There is a mysterious being. That's all. Beingness, onlyness, it just is.

So be happy, enjoy the unknowing. You're already at home.

Appendix - List of Slides

Knowledge Sutra - Episodes

1. Spirituality

2. First Steps

3. Life Goals

4. Paths & Guides

5. Practices & Places

6. Multilevel Knowledge

7. Achievements & Dangers

8. Service

9. Gurufield

10. Play

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Spirituality

What is spirituality?

Spirit = Essence = Most Fundamental = Truth

Knowing one’s own essence

Study of my essential nature

Study of the nature of existence

Knowing the ultimate truth

Self Realization

Enlightenment

What is a spiritual lifestyle?

Living in truth

Abiding in one’s true nature

Awareness

Mindfulness

Letting go of unnecessary

Discarding negativity

Letting go of all that is false

Detachment

Living in unconditional love

Living selflessly

What is spiritual progress?

Know the natural evolution of life

Accelerating this evolution

Realizing my oneness with all

Liberation and bliss

Liberation from cyclic existence

Dissolution in the Absolute

What it is not?

Strange Experiences

Fulfillment of desires

Powers and abilities

Morals or Ethics

Supernatural or Entities

Magic or Spells

Scriptures or Books

Gods and Goddesses

Becoming holy or superior or monks

Communalism or Cults

Religions or belief systems

Superstition

Aliens or ghosts

Escaping the world

Suppression

Control

Return to Natural

End of stupidity

Being most natural

Living a normal human life in the light of spiritual knowledge

The Map

What is the Spiritual System?

Greatest system in the universe

Most important process in the universe

What is a Spiritual Goal?

A state of being

For which you were born

E.g. Knowledge, Liberation, Bliss etc.

What is a Spiritual Path?

A method which helps to achieve your spiritual goal

What is a Spiritual Tradition?

A system set up by great masters

Systematic teachings

Who is a Spiritual Guide?

One who has already progressed on your path

Protector of the tradition

Master or Guru

Who are Spiritual Assistants?

Teachers, pundits, professors, interpreters

Philosophers, wise men/women

Gems of traditions

Having a significant achievement

What are Spiritual Teachings?

Words that remove ignorance

Philosophies, Theories and Methods

Arts and techniques

Scriptures

What are Spiritual Practices?

Implementation of teachings

Utilizing the methods to reach your goals

Experimentation and practical use of teachings

What are Spiritual Means?

Ways to remove obstacles, resistances

Ways to purify and rectify faults etc.

What is Spiritual Progress?

Nearing the goal

Reaching milestones

What are Spiritual Effects?

Side effects of practices

Changes that happen in the seeker

Effects are not the goal

What are Spiritual Fruits?

Reaching the goal

Attaining your highest potential

Summary

Goal > Path > Tradition > Guide > Teachings > Practice > Means > Progress > Effects > Fruits

Life Goals

Life Goal

That for which I was born

Preallocation

The most important thing to do in my life

Greatest achievement of my life

Self Reflection

Finding the goal of my life

Knowing the purpose of my life

Knowing the meaning of my life

How to do Self Reflection?

Ask fundamental questions.

Write down the answers.

Must be about yourself

Not about others or worldly matters

Do not get distracted

Do not copy someone else’s goals

Should not be petty or mundane

Take your time

Examples of fundamental questions

Who am I?

What is my origin, where am I going?

What should I do in my life?

What should I do before I die?

Is my purpose purely biological?

Am I here to earn, consume and die?

Am I here to form relationships and dependencies?

Are society, race, and countries most important for me?

Should I simply believe what others say?

What gives me the most satisfaction?

What feels most meaningful?

What is most important to know?

What should I seek, what is important for me?

What should I obtain?

What should be my final goal?

Why is this my final goal?

What should I do to get it?

What can be a proper path to get it?

Who can show me the way?

What path do I like?

Whom should I meet?

What I absolutely do not want?

Whom I should never meet?

Where to ask and what to ask?

Pre-allocation App

https://gyanmarg.guru/pre

Result of Self Reflection

Life Goal

Direction

Meaning and purpose

Possibilities

What if my goal is worldly?

What if my goal is spiritual?

What if I do not find a clear goal?

How much time will it take?

Can the goal change?

How will I know if it is my real goal?

Why is Self Reflection necessary?

Growing up

Become wiser

End of fickleness, frustration, pettiness

Awareness, Knowledge

Avoid indoctrination

Avoid social influences

Avoid fake gurus

End of mental slavery, herd mentality

Freedom, Happiness, Satisfaction

Paths & Guides

Path

Means to reach your life goals

Classification of Paths

Path of Knowledge

Path of Discipline

Path of Energy

Path of Action

Path of Surrender

Path of Powers

Path of Self Improvement

Path of Common Man

Pathfinder App

https://gyanmarg.guru/pf

Path of Knowledge

Highest Path

Direct & Fast Path

Goal is Self Realization

Advaita, Buddhism, Shaiva, Nondualism etc.

Suitable for seekers having high intelligence

Path of Discipline

Control of Mind

Disciplining body-mind using practices

Goal is Samadhi or Union

Patanjali Yoga, Meditation etc.

Suitable for seekers having a steady mind and strong body

Path of Energy

Control of Subtle Energies of the body-mind

Goal is fast evolution

Kriya, Kundalini etc.

Suitable for highly sensitive and energetic people

Path of Action

Purification and gaining good karma

Performing good actions

Goal is liberation from human births

Suitable for social people with a good health and kind nature

Path of Surrender

Surrender to a higher power

Worship, service and love

Goal is merging with the higher power

Suitable for emotional, loving people with a good character

Path of Powers

Attainment of supernatural powers

Control of Illusion

Goal is desire fulfillment

Suitable for people who are naturally talented, bold and have too many desires

Path of Self Improvement

Improvement of body, mind, intelligence, art etc.

Goal is to become a better person

Suitable for people who wish to excel and win

Path of Common Man

Worldly path

Materialistic path

Goal is survival and enjoyment

Suitable for ordinary worldly people

Which path to choose?

Trial

Guide’s recommendation

Depending on goal

Self Evaluation

That which you like most and which leads to your goal is your path

Suitability

Intelligence

Body

Emotion

Desire

Guide

One who guides you on your path

Guru, teacher, mentor, assistant, friend

Guru - One who takes you from darkness towards light

Guru-person - An instrument of Gurufield

Who is my guide?

One who has reached the same goal as your own

One who can guide you to reach there

One whom you like most

One whom you understand and enjoy being with

One you trust and respect

Whose teachings turn out to be as per your own experience

One who has time for you

Additional qualities -

Scholar

Non-commercial

Ethical

Loving, compassionate and kind

Orator, knows the art of expression

How many guides are needed?

As many as you need

Classification of Guides

Seven traditional types

Modern - Survival, Arts, Popular, Occult, True Guru

Who is a true guru?

A guide who takes you to your own self

One who gives you self realization

You become the guru

How to find a guide?

Have a clear goal

Pick the right path

Prepare yourself

Read, meet, listen

Be in the company of wise

Be in the company of seekers

Once you are ready, the guide will find you

How to apply for being accepted as a student?

Greet the guide respectfully

Show respect and reverence as per the traditions

State your spiritual goal

Request for guidance

State your past path, practice, if any, if asked

State your obstacles, issues, family situation etc, if asked

Listen carefully and accept the guidance

How not to apply?

Do not teach the guru or guide

Be empty, reveal your ignorance, not your knowledge

Do not demand

Do not argue

Do not talk too much, listen

Be in a receiving posture

Do not lie, deceive, hide

Do not test

Do not ask for guidance regarding worldly matters

Do not expect a display of miracles

Gurulogy App

https://gyanmarg.guru/g

Practices & Places

How to practice?

This talk is not about any particular practice

There are some universal rules no matter the path

Absolute Requirements

Practice is useless if there is no goal

If there is no path, there are no results

Practice as per guru's instructions

The seeker should have good qualities and values

Knowledge is necessary

Checks

Obstacles and resistances

Right time

Right food

Correct language/mantra

Correct idols and equipment

Right direction

Correct texts

Do’s

Be regular

Go step by step

Disciplines, celibacy as per guide’s instructions

Fulfill family/social responsibility

Keep it secret

Take feedback regularly

Correct any mistakes

Don’ts

Don't do it if you do not know what it is

Don't practice anything which you heard or read somewhere

Don't mix practices, Keep it pure

Don't do it if you're afraid or if it causes pain or discomfort

Don't imagine about the practice, asking is better

Don't do it if you are not physically or mentally well

Don't stretch it beyond recommended duration

Don't hurry

Don't do it for worldly reasons

No cheapness or shortcuts

Don't do it if it harms others

Don't overdo it

Don't pretend

Don't depend on anyone else

Don't fool yourself

Don't teach anyone

Don't expect miracles

Don't exhibit accomplishments or powers

Places

Best to stay with the guide

Some practices must be done at a specific place

Don't practice at home, something which must be done in an ashram

Crowd, children, pets, old relatives

Public places

Place must be neat and clean, peaceful and bright

Progress

Discontinue if you get no results in the long term

Discontinue if it causes harm

Self Evaluation

Evaluation by the guide

Increase in happiness, peace, knowledge, stability, intelligence etc.

Getting closer to your goal

If all these conditions are met, the goal will be achieved

Multilevel Knowledge

Truth is Variable

Everyone is telling their own truth

Why is there so much difference?

Guru keep changing the teachings

Why is there a contradiction in teachings?

Why does spiritual knowledge keep changing?

Start where you are

Explore

See what you like and grasp easily

Levels of knowledge

1. Whole – Existence – Nonduality – Union

2. Experience - Experiencer - Duality - Disjunction

3. Vibration - Memory - Energy - Paraphysical - Parapsychical

4. Universal Mind - Spaceless - Timeless

5. Non-Individualistic - Parapsychical - Laws of Mind

6. Causal Body - Birth - Death - Time

7. Nonphysical Body - Nonphysical Worlds - Paraphysical

8. Mind - Intellect - Ego - Person

9. World - Body - Society

10. Inanimate - Matter - Physical

Rule of Levels

The truth at the lower level will be false at the upper level.

The truth at the upper level will be true at the lower level also.

Contexts of Truth

That which is - Truth

That which is not - False

False accepted as truth - Relative Truth

Law of Natural Path

You will get a guide/path as per your ignorance/level

Which path reaches where?

1. Nonduality – Path of Knowledge

2. Duality - Path of Discipline

3. Vibration - Memory - Path of Energy

4. Universal Mind - Path of Surrender

5. Non-Individualistic - Path of Action

6. Causal Body - Path of Action

7. Nonphysical Body/Worlds - Path of Powers

8. Ego - Person - Path of Self improvement

9. World - Body - Society - Path of Self improvement

10. Inanimate - Matter - Physical - Path of Common Man

Multilevel knowledge

Without this there will be no progress

One will not understand spirituality

There will be no confusion

Everything will be clear

Achievements & Dangers

What is achieved?

Your Goal?

Nothing

Detachment happens

From World, Relatives, Body, Mind, Practice, Path, Guru and Goals

All dropped

Peace & Bliss

Non-achievement is the greatest achievement

When all is lost, all is gained

There is nothing to achieve

Dangers

Wrong Goals

Wrong Path

Wrong Guide

Wrong Practice

Wrong Knowledge

Attachment to all these

Pseudo-Spirituality, Spiritual Materialism

Loop of paths

Trap of powers (abilities)

Trap of hubris

Magalomania

Cults and Frauds

Superstition, religion, extremism, communism

Pain, Discomfort, Lunacy

Waste of life

Service

Why serve?

Nothing else is meaningful in this world

All are my own form

Eliminate suffering

Compassion, kindness

Who needs your service?

No one

Very few are interested

Rest oppose, prefer ignorance and materialism

Very few will understand you

Only those who are worthy

How to find the worthy ones?

Permission of Guru

They are ready

They have qualities of a seeker

They will show love and respect for you

They will ask for the service

What to expect in return?

Absolutely nothing

Sometimes all you get is insults and ridicule

Rarely someone will appreciate what you do

Practical issues

Selfless & Unconditional

Effects of service

Expect nothing

You progress faster

You come to know your own errors

You become a part of the Gurufield

Gurufield

What is it?

A memory where all knowledge is stored

A part of the universal memory

A theory

Totally an illusion

A group mind

Nonphysical, Nonmental

Can take any form

Usually does not take a form

Appears as subtle guidances

What it is not?

Not a person

Not souls etc.

Nonhuman, superhuman

Not channeling etc.

Not deities

What do they do?

Guide all creatures

Their energy is to serve all

Intention is progress of everyone

Removal of obstacles

How do they do it?

Directly descending to any world

Can take any form

Using the existing instruments

Adjusting situations

Direct guidance

Through living guides and masters

Immensely powerful

Efficient & deniable

How to contact Gurufield?

Serve all those who seek

Align yourself to their intention

Will the will of Gurufield

Bodhisattva Tendency

Pray or ask for help

Devise a ritual etc.

Assist your living guide

Become a useful instrument

Guru Mantra :

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णु गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरा

गुरुर्साक्षात परब्रह्म तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः

Gururbrahma Gururvishnu Gururdevo Maheshwara

Guru Sakshat Parabrahma Tasmai Shri Gurve Namah

Don’ts

Don’t ask for favors

Don’t ask for worldly things

Don’t try to manipulate them

Don’t think they depend on you

Don’t take it too seriously

Don’t contact them if not necessary

Don’t believe everything blindly

Not everything is done by them

Don’t delude yourself

Don’t have any superiority complex

Play

End of seeking

The existence is conscious of its own illusory forms. You are that existence itself.

End of spirituality

End of seeking

Nothing changes, nothing is gained

Ignorance, delusion, suffering is lost

These were already illusory, happening to an illusory shadow

Purpose of it all

No purpose, no meaning

Purpose, meaning, goals are arbitrarily decided by the seeker

All are false, illusory, projections

To find what you are

It is a play

It is …

Play of Silence

Silence is the final answer

Service is also a play

Fully knowing nothing is being achieved, we do it

Fully knowing, no one needs it

Everything is perfect as it is

Service as a goal is also arbitrary

Matter of like or dislike

Not to be taken very seriously

Be happy, enjoy the unknowing