Both effort and no effort are needed on the spiritual path for God’s realization. Our mind has been trained that we cannot get anything without effort. Also, some part of the practice of meditation requires effort. I idea of no effort is not do anything and that is not the meaning of no effort… If you love somebody, you don’t make an effort…love comes naturally…we make an effort to meet the beloved. We don’t make an effort to get love. Similarly, when we get the pull of love we make no effort. Later we find we won’t even make an effort without grace…as we make progress on the path, all the time it was grace even when we thought it was effort. Only when God’s grace comes in that we think of making an effort. The seeking in the heart is also due to grace. Without God’s grace, we will not take even one step. That is why it is God’s grace that makes us sit for meditation and we find a PLM that we want to go within…so in the beginning it looks like we make an effort to get these things. Later we find it was all grace. Take the example of a closed room where there are many blind people. The amazing inspirational story, of the value of effort (and grace) ❤

10min- Effort is necessary in the beginning on the spiritual path but what actually brings us to the path is the seeking…I have gone all around the world and seen seekers find masters by seeking and not by running around. I find seeking is there in every country of the world and is not the part of religion, society, or group that makes you a seeker. Spiritual path is not a religion…every person if practise their religion properly becomes a spiritual path so its good to know beginning of spiritua lpath is effort but it was grace of God that gives us motivation to make an effort. There are many levels of consciouness that we pass for God realisation. We are living in a physical body in a physical world because our body is made of matter and world around us is also made of matter. When our body after dying won’t be made of matter…then whole world will also be not made of matter…physical world have physical objects…the higher world without body is called the astral body and astral world. Sky in the inner world is different from the physical world sky. Astral body means in astral sky…physical sky is made up of light and dark. Here we have day and night…we sleep at night and when sun comes it becomes day. In astral sky there is no day or night…there is always a light and everything we see there is made up of light. Our astral bodies can be seen even in total darkness. Astral buildings, flowers, and plants exist from which we have drawn a physical copy. In astral body, we have astral eyes, ears, hands, and feet and operate without any material body. These sense perceptions are the astral body. The whole experience of the astral world is made up of sense perception. The sky is not very sharp light or dark but like a grey evening (today’s weather outside) but it is always like that. If you meditate with me, you can see the astral sky. So, therefore, these are two different levels of awareness. We are right now sitting on the physical level…there is one lower level also…it is called the dream level, and we have dreams…dreams are different from wakeful life. The rules there are different from the wakeful state. These rules are different for each level and correspond to the needs of that level. Dream level is one level lower than physical level. Astral level is one above the physical level. If we meditate with astral body we can go even further. Meditating in the physical body cannot take us more than the astral level, and meditating in astral can take us to the causal plane. The causal plane is where all things happen and are created there.

20min- The dream world, physical, and sense perception are created there. Our destinies are also created there. It is decided there whether we will be poor or rich, what kind of body we will have, via cause and effect what will happen after we act. The physical world has a unique property of free will. Free will is merely an experience of making a choice, it does not mean we have actual free will. It appears we have choice-making. I will tell you an interesting experience in India on free will. Fun story about free will when Master went to a job interview in India with a Sikh gentleman (batras) who said to Master ‘good luck’ :-).

30min- The way we think and make choices is also predetermined. He said…our feeling we make our own choice because we don’t know what decision we are going to make. Therefore, our free will is out of ignorance. The only real free will is the free will of God who has created all including our free will. God knows everything at all times. If he did not know what choice we will make we won’t have an all knowing God. There was more coming…later one I found that each person can find out what is going to happen before it happens. We can all see what’s going by going within to the causal plane…our entire past, present and future can be seen at one time via meditation. When we say we are going to make effort…it is already predetermined. There was a friend of mine when I was studying in Harvard University he called me. Another fun story about free will over cup of tea or coffee or nothing 🙂 When we say we are making a choice…it is predetermined. The most significant illusion is we think this world is real.

40min- When we sleep have a dream we forget we are sleeping as we are using a different body to move around in a dream but this body is lying on the bed sleeping…we are totally unaware of this body. If we were aware of this body, the dream will not real. So we have to block the experience of reality to make unreal thing into real. So long as the dream last, we keep on thinking it is real. Only when we wake up we realise it was real. The same thing happen when we go to the next astral plane. If we do that we find this physical life is also like a dream. If we go to our true home we find all levels of creations are illusion. But we use illusion to create reality. That is why we have shut ourselves from our own true home to experience something else. When we wake up in our true home…we will find there is only one…we are so many here so we can have a different experience. Our reality is only one..one God…one totality of creation and only one that is real ❤ It is not our individual experience looks like now but God’s experience through us. God realisation is to discover that truth and meditation is merely a technique to wake up but not an end in itself. Its just a method to take us two steps nearer to God’s realisation but does not take us all way to God’s realisation. True level to discover of many souls and one soul cannot be done by meditation. The experience of love and devotion who is beyond the mind is what leads us to God’s realisation. Therefore, it is only in two stages when we make effort and stage when love of PLM pulls us that complete awakening comes. I have given such a long answer like a separate lecture but is necessary to know the role of effort. Its an effort built into our destiny. I will take up another question (Q&A) I will give a shorter answer this time. This one is in English…the need of a physical body to play this role is because in this body we have enough ignorance of the future and choices to become a seeker. The physical body is not the only form of life…the plants and trees are also living…birds and insects are also living, and angels we cannot see are also living, these are all different life forms. Life only comes from the soul. They all have a soul…out of 8.4million lives recorded in books…only one form that deliberates in our head…in which we say shall I do it or not do it. The only form we say is it good or bad…where we can be moral or immoral…all other forms of life are living by instinct. That is the best thing given to us to be able to think so we can become seekers…without this kind of free will, we cannot become seekers. The fact we can seek by deliberating in the mind leads us to God’s realization. No other form of life can do it not even the highest angels. The astral plane is full of knowledge with no ignorance, they know the future clearly and have to act upon it. We also in physical form are going ahead with predetermined lives…but we cannot see the future which is why we have the special privilege…ignorance is really bliss…it makes us feel we can seek ourselves…that is becoming a seeker only opens up in human life. Our mind is following the pre-written script and yet the drama looks like we make choices. Its a good place to be in if you want to have God’s realisation as other forms of life do not give us this advantage. That is why we perform this particular role of our life and finding role of God in human life.

56min- We are not one…God is one…we are so many we can see each other and won’t be so many bodies. We are separate…from each other and God…at least so it looks. So sitting here we cannot say we are one. We have been separated for a reason to have experience that we could not have. The most important experience was the experience of Love…God is Love. As one we were love…the separation was created for experiencing love. One soul created many to experience Love. I tell you this was a big problem on my head. Master Ji gave the analogy of drop and the ocean. The truth was drop was still in the ocean as it never left the ocean…all the time! The souls have never left their creator. Souls are part of the creator. We souls are in the creator. A spiritual journey does not mean travelling…it means recovering our awareness that we were always the ocean. What is a drop of water? It can be within the ocean also drop and oceans consist of millions and trillions of drop. Its within God that all souls live…we are not separated. The thinking mind attached to the soul creates all separation. Mind is designed to create separation and then experience love in that separation.

Spiritual journey is enlarging our awareness.

Ishwar Puri Ji

1hr5min- The reason is the creation by mind took place with two things- time and space. Time was created in one instant and the mind creates events at that time. Events don’t move…our conscious attention was placed in the centre of the timeline, which created a past and future…all events before that became past and the same for the future. This is a big illusion that we are living in time…some people say live in the now. I read a book called “The Power of Now” I have asked the counter question is there anybody living in anything other than now. We have no choice but to live in the now. We are always living in the now. What is it now? Now has no time… it’s a timeless place between the future and the past. How come we feel we are living in time. We are calling immediate past as now. Now is a really immediate past. What about future? Is there a real future? Supposing we stop doing 3 things- hoping, fearing and anticipating. Supposing a person does not hope, not afraid, and does not expect anything…there will be no future.We are creating the future because of these things happening in the present. Examine carefully what we call past, present and future is all past. We are living through memories…without it we have no life. We are remembering things and playing them out and we can see this at the causal plane inside and we can see all things inside. You can’t remember something that never happens…where did it happen? It happened in the causal plane not here but the illusion is it’s all happening here.

1hr11min- There is no time in the now it is all replaying something that has already happened. This was created by the mind so that there are many objects, many people, this experience of expanded experience was generated by the mind so we can have an experience in this world. Therefore, to control the mind, we need so many tools because our mind is scattered everywhere. The attending flowing from the mind is scattered all over the world. That is why we need many tools to bring our attention back. The soul is not scattered…love is the answer of the soul. Love wants no more than love. That’s the secret of God’s realisation that our soul only wants love…experience of loving and being loved. That is what comes from our spiritual inner self and the soul only needs one tool but the mind needs many. Yes, you can follow your religion and still have a PLM. We don’t follow religion…we hear it, read it…that’s not following religion. Practising is what is needed which is what PLM encourages. During my study at Harvard university in the United States, I also studied comparative religion and examined 11 major religions of the world. Our truth and kindgom lies within us…true home is inside…go in and find out.This is fundamental teaching of religion…every religion but what we have done is after founders left we began to spend time on rituals and ceremonies. We externalised religion instead of going to the real temple and church. You can follow your religion and still have a PLM who teaches you to go within. Many of the outside practises are not spiritual…but you can still follow them for the sake of your family and friends so they don’t ridicule you and they don’t say you have left your religion. It is not necessary at all to leave your religion to find a PLM. A PLM will recognise you have a religion and what is required to practise the religion. Inside there is only one denomination. The functioning of the mind is to divide and soul is to unite. It is no harm to practise your religion and still have a journey within yourself and a PLM will find you…he will never tell you to change your religion as its not necessary. I will end today’s session today here and some have asked for a personal meeting with me and if you have given the name, you can have interview. Thank you very much for your patience and listening to me.