On the way to the highest spiritual goal a person passes through four stages: the beginning, finding balance, overcoming the key restraining factors, and approaching the goal.
On the way to the highest spiritual goal, a person needs to pass through 4 stages.
1. The beginning
The person has decided to live by moral laws, but at this stage they have not yet come to know the subtler sphere, and a million outward desires overwhelm them. This stage is often felt to be the most painful.
On the one hand, the person has already given something up; on the other, they have not yet clearly gained anything. That is why at the first stage of practice the mind resists with all its might.
For this reason most people give up the practice. Yet you simply need to keep going forward and not stop; sooner or later this stage will end.
2. Finding balance
Periods of calm and happiness alternate with suffering. The person feels as if on a swing, flying now up, now down. This stage lasts quite a long time, decades, but everything depends on one's personal effort in practice.
This is a fairly stable phase; people rarely give up the practice at this stage, because they feel changes in their inner world.
3. Overcoming the key restraining factors
Here there is, to a certain degree, control over the organs and senses, but if there is some weak spot, all the psychic energy concentrates on that problem.
This stage is as unstable as the first, and many people give up the practice at this time. To get through this stage it is important to be committed to your path and to the highest goal.
If worldly desires have remained strong, the likelihood of a spiritual fall is quite high. That is why, from the very first steps, it is important to develop a feeling of trust and commitment to the path toward the highest goal, toward the supreme Consciousness.
The danger of this stage shows itself in the extraordinary abilities the mind acquires. Intuition begins to work, charisma appears. And there is a great temptation to be special, to be admired.
If a person gives in to this feeling, they acquire new A reaction of a past action waiting in the mind to be lived through; what people often call fate., that is, their actions give rise to unfortunate consequences.
4. Approaching the spiritual goal
At this stage are those spiritual seekers who, no matter what, go devotedly toward the highest goal. From this level a fall is impossible.
Having passed this stage, a person is ready to move into the next phase of spiritual development: the state of perfect divine love.