Above all, try to win the Grace of the Lord by reforming your habits, reducing your desires, and refining your higher nature. One step makes the next one easier; that is the excellence of the spiritual journey. At each step, your strength and confidence increase and you get bigger and bigger instalments of Grace. (SSS Vol.5)

The spiritual journey lies through compassion, sympathy, mutual help, and service, and these are fostered by society and are to be used for society. (SSS Vol. 10)

You work as a messenger or servant; later, you worship, as a son does his father, and finally, you achieve the wisdom that You and He are One. That is the spiritual journey of which Jesus has shown the way in clear terms. (SSS Vol.14)

There are four stages in the spiritual journey to God. In the first stage, one-half of the time of the mind may be devoted to the pursuit of the three Purusharthas (goals of life) – Dharma, Artha and Kaama – for earning one s livelihood and carrying on one s worldly duties to family and kith and kin. One quarter should be used for the study of scriptures and the remaining fourth for contemplation on God.

Gradually you proceed to the second stage (the intermediate stage) when only one-fourth of the time is devoted to worldly affairs, half the time is used for study of scriptures and the remaining fourth for meditation on God.

At the next higher stage, half the mind s time should be devoted to scriptural studies and the other half to meditation.

In the fourth stage that of the Mumukshu (the seeker of Liberation) the entire time of the mind should be devoted to God realisation. This is the stage described in the Gita as Satatam Yoginah (always immersed in union with God). If you pursue your spiritual discipline, while regulating your daily life in the manner, discharging your daily duties, you are bound to become the recipient of God s grace. (SSS Vol.17)

In the beginning of the spiritual journey the name is the basis for progress, but it should not become life-long support, depending entirely on it alone. (SSS Vol.20)

Pride of wealth is another human failing, which causes the downfall of man. All forms of pride, based on birth, wealth, power or scholarship have to be given up totally. Only when egoistic pride is offered as a sacrifice at the altar of the Divine can man discover his true nature. This is the Dedication that is called for as the first step in the spiritual journey. (SSS Vol.21)

Men think that to reach the spiritual height is an arduous adventure. Swami assures you that this is not so. The spiritual journey is much easier than the worldly struggle in which men are engaged. Men should aim at reaching the Supreme state instead of carrying on their wrangles upto the Supreme Court. Man has all the divine potencies for realising the Divine Self. His consciousness can comprehend the cosmos, even as a mirror can reflect the firmament. The heart is a mirror in which one can see the entire universe. Realise from this moment that man is the embodiment of the Divine. Transcend the feeling of smallness. As you think, so you become. Therefore, divinise yourselves by constant reminder of your inherent divinity. (SSS Vol.26)