Within a religion when there are many paths how do we know our path?

Answer Podcast

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Yes.
Thank you. Any other questions? So within a particular religion also how do we know our path? See there is there is a horizontal aspect to the religious quest and there is a vertical aspect to the religious quest the horizontal aspect is ok I join this organization, I follow this teacher, I can work in this religion I will talk about all this more tomorrow but as I write this there is a horizontal aspect to it and there is a vertical aspect vertical aspect is that we are raising our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level so if we get too caught in the technicalities this path is like this, this path is like that we understand that God is our ultimate guide Krishna is the Krishna is the Guru of the whole universe. He is not just the Guru of those who are studying the Gita He is not just the Guru of those who are following a particular path.
He is Jagadguru He is the heart of all living beings so when we follow a particular path it is we who are choosing that as a way to come closest to God whatever our conception is so the horizontal choice may be there but the focus is vertical now if we just focus on the horizontal aspects of this path this organization has this focus this book has this focus this teacher has this focus, this sect has this focus, we can just get caught in that but we take a step forward in the vertical now for that we may choose a particular path that is fine but the purpose is to move upwards and God can attract different people in different ways so we have to test it in our own hearts we experience it directly in our own hearts Sanatana Goswami says that Anubhav is the ultimate Pramana there are various ways of acquiring knowledge Anubhav is experience when we experience the enrichment of our heart when we experience the transformation of our heart when we experience the perception of some higher realities then that is the that is the highest evidence that is the strongest testimony in the court of our own heart so if we are attracted to a particular teacher of the Lord and that is taught about in a particular group, particular organization then if we feel inspired to follow then we can follow the important thing here is that we shouldn’t be just we can’t neglect our sentiments but we should be sentimental sentimental means think that my sentiments alone are everything some of us may have been say born and brought up in a culture where maybe the Ram Bhakti was a lot so then we come to a temple now and start thinking that when I hear about Ram I feel more attracted so maybe I belong to Yodhya in the spiritual world not to Goloka there is there is a cultural attraction and there is a spiritual attraction the spiritual attraction manifests at the purified stage like there is a cultural attraction it’s not to deny, it’s not to reject they are attracted to Ram attraction to any form of the Lord is auspicious and we can we can use that attraction to increase our connection with the Lord but we don’t have to assume that whatever is our present sentiment necessarily is a reflection of our eternal spiritual destiny so at this stage we just follow the process of purifying ourselves and as we become purified then the spiritual attraction will awaken so if there is a particular attraction to a particular feature of the Lord, that’s perfectly fine we are grateful that somehow we are attracted to the Lord because Swami says but we don’t have to necessarily associate our present attraction with our ultimate position we focus on purification and whichever path inspires us to become purified, inspires us to become transformed, inspires us to elevate our consciousness that is the path we follow and by that as we follow it as we elevate our consciousness then our natural spiritual attraction will inch so does this answer your question?