The spiritual principles we have been taught are simple to comprehend, but not always easy to practice. Mother simplified the whole spiritual path down to this, Keep your mind on God. You do not need to believe in reincarnation, you do not even need to know who God is—you do not need worry about so many of the things taught, but you do need to learn to focus your mind.
If you do not need to know God to start this journey, then what does it mean to put your mind on God? It means you focus your mind in a singular fashion in the highest way you know. You may repeat the name of God without any great knowledge of what God is in the beginning, practice the mantra Hong Sau without knowing the great I AM—in fact, truthfully, you will not fully know God or your real Self is until you have become realized.
This lack of knowledge was my situation when I met Mother. I did not have a cultivated belief in a God, and I definitely did not know who I was in Spirit. But, what I did have were some experiences that made me know there was a God, and whatever that was, it helped me in a time of great need. That was my starting point. I had read about reincarnation and my first thought was, “Of course.” But I did not have any real knowledge of it beyond that intuitive affirmation. Much of what Mother taught was new to me, and I was determined that I was not going to be “sold a bill of goods,” meaning I wasn’t going to go along with something just because someone said it. I was a tough sell. What I did have was a driving need to resolve the spiritual pain I found myself in, and I needed to know the truth.
So, in short, to be good spiritual-scientist you do not need, nor is it beneficial, to pose as knowing more than you know, pretend to have experienced more than you have experienced, or project to others that you are realized when you are yet walking in darkness. The goal of knowing God does not go to the clever minded, persons with gifted speech, or the ones who present themselves as leaders of the pack. Those who know God are above all else sincere, pure minded and of soft heart—they continually focus on attaining the supreme state of realization—they are simple, unpretentious and dedicated to truth.
As an aspirant, you are humble enough to know what your strengths are, what deficiencies you have, and how well you are focused on attaining the Goal of goals. This humble assessment gives you, what in the field of psychology is called, a baseline. If you do not have an accurate idea of where you are starting, you will have no means of knowing your progress. Humility makes you not be overly hard on yourself, for this lack of self-worth is not the truth, nor does it over-inflate your opinion of your own progress, for this is then based on a lie.
Sri Yukteswarji gave us a metric for knowing God, Do you experience ever-new joy? Swami Satchidananda gave us another, Is your circle of love growing larger every day? For Mother, Do you continuously keep your mind dwelling on God? Master asks, Do you dive deeper in your daily meditations until you get God contact? Lahiri Mahasaya, Do you perceive your true Self at the ajna? Babaji inquires into your humble service to mankind that the Lord finds pleasing above all, and Papa’s ideal, continuously chant Ram Nam. Here are measurements, metrics for your spiritual path. Read each of these again; make them a challenge for your practice to dive deeper and soar higher—to answer the call of your Soul to know God and be a blessing to this world.