IS IT EASY TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED WITH THE PRACTICE OF SELF-INQUIRY? IS IT AS SIMPLE AS THINKING: "I AM THAT"?

This is the truth about realizing the formless as described by Paramhamsa Ramakrishna: M: Sir, is there no spiritual discipline leading to the realization of the Impersonal God?

Master(Sri Ramakrishna): Yes, there is. But the path is extremely difficult. After intense austerities, the Rishis of olden times realized God as their innermost Consciousness and experienced the real nature of Brahman. But how hard they had to work! They went out of their dwellings in the early morning and all day practiced austerities and meditation. Returning home at nightfall, they took a light supper of fruits and roots.

But an aspirant cannot succeed in this form of spiritual discipline if his mind is stained with worldliness even in the slightest degree. The mind must withdraw totally from all objects of form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. Only thus does it become pure. The Pure Mind is the same as the Pure Atman. But such a mind must be altogether free from 'woman'(lust) and 'gold'. When it becomes pure, one has another experience. One realizes: 'God alone is the Doer, and I am His instrument.' One does not feel oneself to be absolutely necessary to others either in their misery or in their happiness.

Once a wicked man beat into unconsciousness a monk who lived in a monastery. On regaining consciousness he was asked by his friends, 'Who is feeding you milk ?' The monk said, 'He who beat me is now feeding me.'

1) Becoming stable in a meditation asana for at least 3 to 4 hours should be the first step by most spiritual seekers.

2) Then Prana control.

3) Then the ability to enter into samadhi at will.

4) Now you are fit for the realization of the Self "I AM THAT"

~ Image of the Temple and Murti of Babaji near our Ashram home in the Himalayas... <3