Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

Does each individual have a specific path or are all paths relatively similar?

All the paths are not the same, although the ultimate goal is the same. There are different roads, but each road leads to the same goal. Each individual needs the guidance of a Master, and each individual has to discover his own path. Then he must follow only one path and one Master who is the leader or guide of that path.

Each individual must necessarily have a path of his own. That doesn't mean that there will not be other seekers on the path. There will be others who will want to follow the same path, but each seeker will follow it in his own way, according to his own inspiration, aspiration, and spiritual development.

Is it possible to follow more than one path?

If you are practising spiritual discipline under the guidance of a Master, it is always advisable to give up your connection with other paths. If you are satisfied with one Master but are still looking for another Master, then you are making a serious mistake. You will not be able to receive what your Master wants to give you, and your spiritual progress will be very slow. Spirituality is not like a school where you have a teacher in each subject: history, geography and so on. No. God-realisation is one subject, and for that subject only one teacher is needed. So for the fastest progress, it is always advisable to find a Master in whom you have the utmost faith and then remain in his boat only. Otherwise, if you have one foot in his boat and another foot in some other boat, you will eventually fall into the water.

How does one know whether he is ready for a spiritual path or not?

When you are hungry you know that you have to eat. Your hunger compels you to eat something. In the inner life also, when you are hungry for peace, light and bliss, at that time you are ready. When you have an inner cry, then you are ready for a spiritual path. When you feel the need, you are ready. If you don't have the need, then you are not ready.

Sometimes it happens that the seeker is ready and the Master is available, but attachment to the ordinary life prevents the seeker from looking sincerely enough. The other day somebody told me that she has been looking for a Master for nineteen or twenty years. I was so surprised, because I was positive that her Master is alive. If she had really been searching sincerely and crying for her Master, then she would have found him. If the aspirant is really sincerely crying for a path, then his path will present itself before him. If he really cries for a spiritual Master, either the Master will come to him or he will be able to go to the Master. No sincere effort ends in vain. If someone makes a sincere effort, then I wish to say that his inner life and outer life are bound to be crowned with success.