Just as one can climb out of a well without a rope using footholds in the wall, can one get liberated without following a valid process?

From Vijay Gopi Keshava P

In the man in well example you mention that even using the foot holds one can rise but it is extremely difficult. But doesn’t this suggest that one can get out of material life (although extremely difficult) even without a rope (an authorized process). But there can be no way out without a valid process. How to understand this?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna question from Vijay Gopike in your class on Ishopichit Mantra 16 you mentioned that a person who has fallen in the well can also climb out of the well by finding some footholds in the wall and without using any rope so that means without following any standard process. Would that mean that a person can get liberated without following any authentic process at all? Answer not exactly I was talking about one can be elevated not liberated if a person has fallen in a well, it’s hypothetically possible that one can find some footholds and start climbing up and come from the lower level of the well to somewhere upper towards some higher level and we see this in terms of people who may be in the mode of ignorance and because of some inspiration because of some determination all material things not necessarily connected with God in any way they suddenly feel that I have to change myself and they do work hard to change themselves so what does it mean? Does it mean that they were that at a material level one can’t change oneself at all without any spiritual influence? No, not necessarily. There are many material self-help books and some of them may give some techniques and practice principles that may work and basically Vishwanath Chakrathakur also explains in his analysis of the modes that by systematically cultivating activity in one particular mode one can increase the influence of that mode in one’s life that means that by say, if a person in goodness and develops a habit of daily sleeping in the afternoon, one day, two day, ten days, one month and then that may become a habit which will go for life and will be difficult to give up on the other hand, if somebody because of work pressure or something like that has to break the habit of sleeping in the afternoon although that habit was there for a long time then because of necessity then the person may give up that habit also.
So habits are no doubt difficult to break but we see that people who are not connected with God, materialistic people can also form habits and give up habits and form new habits also. They can break habits. So in that sense within the three modes some moving up and down is possible without any process that is connected with God directly.
Now beyond that there are also non-theistic religions like Buddhism and Jainism which also have some conception of liberation. Although their conception of liberation is largely centered on negation of material existence and achieving sort of extinction of the self but still even in their conception by practicing those religions people can make some advancement Now they may come to goodness or they may rise higher than goodness also in some aspects of their life. In some aspects of life they are unnecessarily torturing their bodies.
That may not be desirable. So rather than commenting specifically or generically on one particular religion let’s understand the broad principle that within the three modes some relative movement up and down is possible but coming out of the well would mean attaining liberation from material existence and becoming situated in our Swarupa Mukti, Hithu, Anyatha Roopam Swaroopena Vyavasthiti becoming situated in our spiritual position in relationship with Krishna. That is not possible without following a bona fide process.
But we say that Prabhupada also said that Socrates was almost self-realized so he had an understanding that he was not the body, he was the soul and that’s why he was fearless so now what process had he exactly followed now he was very introspective very self-critical, very analytical and basically he was largely living in the mode of goodness in many of his practices. So one can get Atma Gyan to a significant extent without necessarily following any directly Vedic process. Now of course there are some credible theories that many of the ideas of the Greek philosophers came from India through Indian expatriates who left India or who became disconnected from India towards the after Kali Yuga started progressing after the Great Mahabharata War.
But that’s an entirely different subject. The point which I am making is even if there was some connection, was there any direct sadhana in our senses in our sense of the word that Socrates followed we could say that he was doing some sort of Jnana but not exactly the Jnana Yogas which we talk about in Vedic literature so that means by one’s determined endeavors and by one’s sustained practice one can move up and down in the mode and one can get some extent the knowledge of the soul also and one can become to some extent to a large extent sometimes free from material desires but complete liberation in terms of becoming reinstated in one’s Swarupa is impossible without following a bona fide process and even liberation in Brahman is also nearly impossible without following some bona fide process but relative elevation is possible. That was what was emphasized over here.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.