Dear Ms. Flamini,

    Until a seeker attains a spiritual level of 70%, there is frequent waxing and waning of both spiritual level and spiritual practice. After that, you are more stable. However, until attaining a level of 100%, or Final Liberation (moksha), you can never be sure. Until then, we have to continue to do spiritual practice, although its nature changes as our spiritual level increases.

    In any other subject, once you graduate and get a degree, it is yours for your entire life. However, this does not hold true for Spirituality. Even when you attain sainthood, you have to keep doing spiritual practice, as it is a slippery slope.

    There are three different types of Gurus, the first is a Guru at 70 % spiritual level, the second is a Sadguru at 85% spiritual level and the third is a Paratpar Guru at 90% spiritual level and above. Until you reach the level of a Paratpar Guru, you are on a slippery slope. At the level of Paratpar Guru, you have almost attained the state of Final Liberation. Therefore, until then, you have to do continuous spiritual practice in order to progress. It is like climbing a steep mountain slope. When you attempt to climb the mountain and have reached halfway, there is still the chance of slipping and falling. The only time you know you won’t fall is when you have reached the plateau at the top of the mountain. Therefore, until you reach Final Liberation, or the level of a Paratpar Guru, there is a chance of your level decreasing.

    If a person feels that since they have the ability to perceive a little of the subtle dimension, or if they have had the spiritual experience of bliss a couple of times, or that people look up to them now and so they don't need to do spiritual practice anymore, then they gradually start to slip spiritually. We must do spiritual practice throughout our lives; only then can we sustain ourselves in Spirituality.