For rapid spiritual progress, the seeker should undertake the spiritual practice of the next level of spiritual maturity that follows the one he is at presently. This principle is elaborated in the following table:

Sacrifice

    As one progresses on the spiritual path, when one finally realizes that Spirituality is the Science of ‘giving’ and not of ‘taking’, one starts the spiritual practice of sacrifice. Sacrifice is akin to the trapeze artist in a circus. So long as the girl does not let go of the handlebar of the swing she is clutching on to, the man hanging upside down on the opposite swing cannot catch her. Similarly, so long as a seeker does not sacrifice his everything, God cannot take care of him completely.

Sacrifice

    In Spirituality, sacrifice does not mean giving up one’s possessions. Rather, it means giving up one’s attachment to them. One must offer one’s body, mind and wealth to God in order to be completely taken care of by God. Because of this, true sacrifice does not begin until one has reached a high spiritual level (that of a spiritual disciple). Similarly, true detachment from wealth does not come until one has reached an even higher spiritual level (that of a Saint).

    Until then, one makes small steps of sacrifice to reach this level. Once the attachment to worldly objects is gone, the Guru showers the disciple with plenty. The basic principle of sacrifice is to offer whatever one has to The Lord. When making a sacrifice, it is important to remember that it is not how much one gives, but how much one keeps for oneself, that counts.

Sacrifice of the body

    One offers their physical body to God by offering to help spread the teachings of Spirituality. Passing out flyers to advertise for spiritual lectures, setting up chairs and other equipment for a spiritual meeting, cleaning, cooking, and attending to other seekers who are actively spreading Spirituality, are some of the various ways one can offer one’s body to Spirituality.

Sacrifice of the mind

    One can offer one’s mind to God by chanting* The Lord’s Name. This way, one sacrifices thoughts about worldly matters by substituting them with chanting. Chanting The Lord’s Name develops a Divine Name center in the subconscious mind. Repeated chanting reinforces this center, which grows steadily. Hence, at all times that one is not thinking consciously, the mind receives impulses of maximum intensity and frequency from the subconscious Name center. As these impulses always outnumber the impulses from other subconscious centers, the thoughts stemming from other centers are rejected. When this continues for a long time, the other involuntary centers diminish in size and are finally, erased. Thus, all such impressions that keep us in the illusion of being different from God are reduced. Only the pure thoughts associated with God’s Name enter into one’s conscious mind. Chanting The Lord’s Name also results in contemplating on the Lord’s Divine virtues. The seeker slowly imbibes these, thus growing to have a divine personality.

Sacrifice of the intellect

    Intellect can prove to be a major obstacle in spiritual progress. The best way to sacrifice intellect is to use it for one’s spiritual practice, for the spread of Spirituality and by being obedient to a spiritually evolved person. That is, to follow the directive of the spiritually evolved, without rationalizing on the whys and then using one’s intellect to execute the directive in the best possible way. Studies, too, make one’s intellect more spiritually pure (sattvik) to follow directives more easily.

Sacrifice of the ego

    Sacrifice of ego means not thinking of self, that is, giving priority to anything else instead of self. The different ways of doing it is chanting, satseva, practicing sacrifice of body, mind, intellect and wealth, expressing spiritual love unto others, going from fulfilling one’s own wishes to fulfilling others’ wishes, etc.

Sacrifice of the wealth

    One should offer their wealth to the one who is worthy. The only one who is really worthy of such donations are Saints, as they have merged with God (and are indeed the manifest form of the unmanifest God), and the mission of the truth. Out of worldly emotion, it is tempting to offer wealth to causes such as environmental organizations and organizations that help children and people in need. This type of offering is only useful in obtaining merits. Merits only get one to heaven and bring a lot of happiness, but do not help in one’s spiritual quest. As instead, Spirituality helps one achieve a state beyond heaven, where the highest level of Bliss is experienced and one is merged completely with the Lord. When an offering is made to a Saint, instead of creating a give and take account, it actually helps in facilitating in settling one’s accounts. This aids in decreasing your sanchit (accumulated destiny) and increasing your ability to endure your destiny. When donating money, one needs to be aware that, if it is in your destiny to be wealthy then you will be. The Guru may even decide not to take your money. Since God/Guru is omnipotent and omnipresent, God/Guru has no need for money. If one does have a large amount of money, one should spend it with the spiritual emotion that ‘this is my Guru’s money’. In this way, one will make better use of the wealth and will help the seeker progress.