Checklist for your spiritual success

spiritual success is the result of scientifically controlled precise
and repeated action on your path to God. It needs to be done step by step
in a very precise and controlled manner. As with all scientific methods, there is a
possibility to measure your spiritual progress.

Only you can measure it, as the scale to do so is within yourself.
Here you get some questions that allow you to measure your progress year after year.

Did you ever wonder why some others achieve spiritual goals faster or why others achieve spiritual goals at all while at the same time you sometimes appear to move "on the spot" - waiting since years for your first spiritual perception, your first "spiritual happening" of any kind ?

Some people from all around the world often encounter so called "spontaneous spiritual awakening" - a sudden start of spiritual awareness and spiritual perception. This only can be the result of true spiritual work done in previous incarnation and suddenly released as a result of any drastic change in present life. It might be but a small change but apparently it must bean important change.

Often it is but the sum of a few of several minor changes that make the difference between experiencing true spiritual success that can be measured or experiencing the feeling of "no success at all" even after many years or decades of practicing any serious and successful spiritual tradition, such as Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga or Kriya Yoga.

How can spiritual success be measured ? There are many different changes within you as a result for control of spiritual success. Such measurable controls might often be helpful as a positive feedback to keep your motivation up to the maximum. Any goal to be achieved in life needs a positive motivation. there must be a positive state of mind, awareness, consciousness, perception and general wellbeing of yourself that will be the root of your motivation.

Here some detailed questions that you might want to truly and honestly answer to yourself:

did you follow ALL the instruction previously received from your guru by the point and immediately or are you looking for a different guru each time a teaching appears to be too strict or too hard on your ego ?

if your spiritual practice is based on reading rather than on the personal teaching of a guru, did you follow ALL the instructions received through a book or are you searching for a new book each time you fail to accept any and all teachings contained in a particular book ?

Yama and Niyama should be started and continuously practiced to learn from the very beginning of your spiritual activity and this learning should be very intense and sincere on a daily basis - even if for a while you appear to fail again and again in certain parts of it. To follow the spiritual rules of life, is a very initial and basic commitment before you should even start to expect any basic steps of success on your spiritual path. Work on these points for the rest of your present incarnation and beyond. Are you truly starting with the basis of spiritual construction or are you trying to skip them and start with more pleasant topics ?

Yama and Niyama - the spiritual laws as a basis of any true spiritual oriented life must be complied in highly advanced state of perfection. You need to improve on these points and you need to have a control on how much still needs to be done and how much you have achieved already. Lets just take the example of ahimsa for your reference and ask yourself a few questions every once in a while to see how you improve. Here your questions: Did you truly reduce the amount of violence in your behavior and life ? State all the points of achievement. ever since you started to learn to practice ahimsa, did you considerably reduce the use of police, lawyers, courts, any punishments of any kind in any and all situations, at home, at school , in recreation, in business ?? Did you change your vocabulary to adapt to ahimsa in your words ? If yes how ? Have you become a true vegetarian in the meantime or are you still killing animals or pay others to do so to please your senses ? Are you aware that even fish have emotions and do suffer when being killed or are you considering seafood as vegetarians and find a workaround just to avoid any changes that might be necessary? Have you reduced the amount of verbal and mental violence in all parts of your life ? Have you truly started to apply ahimsa in your mind, words, emotions or fantasy ? Being a vegetarian never has created a saint on its own - there is much more to ahimsa than just stop killing! Violence of any kind never can be truly legal in regard to spiritual laws and YOUR karma. To have a detailed overview of your present performance you may want to state details that you repeatedly and successfully changed in your life by writing them down in your spiritual workbook. State how you behaved before and after starting your spiritual path.

did you truly apply ALL parts of Yama and Niyama to ALL parts of your life - business, family, recreation - in action, words, mind, emotions, fantasy - just absolutely all, or do you still make exceptions in certain situations ? If you still attempt to make exceptions to apply Yama and Niyama, does the number of exceptions decrease continuously ?

do you truly want to understand and apply all teachings received or are you rejecting a part of it because you consider them too hard on your ego ?

are you searching for alternate gurus and/or teachings every once in a while to find a solution that might tell you you are OK the way your ego is NOW, instead of making necessary changes ? This is a normal reaction often encountered among mankind. However it never has been directly leading to true spiritual success and God union. While there are many ways leading toward the path of Love - you should select ONE way and follow it exactly until you reached your goal. Often people take and apply only the easy parts of any spiritual tradition and leave all the remainder. However those parts of any teaching that might appear too hard on your ego might be just the few points at all that separate you from God at present ! Keep in mind that any true spiritual teaching you may search on your path to God always leads you across your ego - hence your ego will be dissolved in Love - one way or another - sooner or later. the most direct way may confront you more intensely with all aspects of your ego, but also dissolve it more directly - faster and more straight forward than those paths trying lots of workarounds first. The more powerful your ego at present is the harder ANY true and directly God related teaching may appear - for years to come - until you have truly dissolved a substantial part of your ego and burnt it in the Divine fire of Love.

Are you attempting to escape this world or is your spiritual drive the true result of your ever expanding Love toward all ? Many God seekers simply try to escape their karma, their present world and feel little or no Love for God and all mankind. When retiring from this world for good you surely will have learned to love all and get along with all mankind on earth.

are you working time and energy efficient ? Or are you trying to keep yourself busy with little activities that keep you from being confronted with the true spiritual lessons that are waiting on you ? Make a clear list f all those appointments and activities that are just consuming time and energy and failed to give you any substantial spiritual reward in form of spiritual lessons, spiritual feedback or spiritual uplift.

Are you aware of the fact how much needs to be done for yourself and are you steadily working toward improvement on all parts at any time ?

Can you say truly YES to development of Divine Love toward ALL beings ?

Can you truly say YES to God and to end the cycle of reincarnation as soon as possible ?

Do you truly realize that life is a continuous state of awareness and all conscious and perception is continuing beyond any physical state of being ? Or have you ever said "I want to enjoy life more first before leaving this planet or before starting to be spiritual" or something similar ? This often is encountered but can only be the result of missing perception and awareness of the true spiritual nature of mankind and the fact that life with all its divine aspects including perception, awareness and consciousness truly starts beyond the physical plane. The physical body is but a prison for your soul and the perception of God's entire creation is like the perception of this planet from the point of view of any lifetime prisoner being born in prison ?

do you often try to change the recommended sequence of action and changes on your spiritual path and first choose all the ones YOU prefer ??? Learn to do all step by step. Exactly in the sequence recommended. there is a sense to everything and one day you surely will realize that in all the different spiritual paths and teachings there is a Divine system and most of these spiritual paths have been actually "invented" and given to mankind by God. True Gurus are but ambassadors to God, fulfilling all the services on earth on behalf of God. All they do is to help you the most direct and easiest way toward freedom in God - in Love - with Love. The more you actively reject a particular teaching or single spiritual lesson, the more your soul may get attracted by that lesson. It might be this single lesson to be fulfilled that is the only part separating you presently from God union - from total and eternal Oneness with God.

How big was your "family" some time ago before you consciously started all spiritual efforts and how big is your "family" NOW - TODAY ? Is your family growing daily ? It should - because when you are ONE with God your family will consist of all mankind on earth and beyond as well as all non-human life of the entire creation. To have such a huge family may take a short while to get used to. True spiritual progress can be measured by the number of persons, animals, plants, cultures, countries, planets, universes that you include in your prayers, in your heart, in your Divine Love. You may count them all for a while and once the number exceeds the numbers you learned at school - true Love starts to develop - true Divine Love starts to flow and heal - heal you as well as all surrounding you.

How often did you worry about different aspects of life before and how often do you still worry NOW ? the number of worries is decreasing directly proportional to the amount and quality of true faith in God. How many insurance do you still have by now ? If none - your faith in God may be close to perfect unless lack of financial insurance is caused solely by lack of money to pay for insurance.

How many people did you get in peace with since you started your spiritual "career" that you have been in struggle of fight or just avoiding before. The number should decrease and one day soon should be zero. Your love should expand to the point of perfection when you actively Love all those that you have avoided or fought ever before. They all have been part of your spiritual growth and gave you the lessons you needed to spiritually awake and finally to spiritually grow to God union. Remember the saying - "your enemies teach you to truly and divinely Love" if you have learned to love them all - then you have learned to Love at all.

These are but a few selected questions you may ask yourself - and you - only you - my give the answer and only you will know the truth of your answers - besides God and all others being one with God. If you cheat when answering these previous and similar questions you are but cheating on you and on God. it is your path, your life, your freedom that you may achieve NOW or delay to sometimes later. YOU are the one benefiting most from your spiritual progress. Your beloved ones and many others may benefit as well and progress faster and easier but their spiritual progress may become absolutely free of your own progress once they have started intensely to develop a desire for ONENESS with God and true Divine Love.

Spiritual progress may be supported and enhanced by the spiritual progress of others in your vicinity - but no one ever could delay even a single second your own progress if your first and only priority in life - in this incarnation and beyond - is clearly defined as ONENESS with God - the source of all Love and Life, the creator of all universes, physical and beyond.

Like any business may make up its account each year and see how the business is growing and prospering, you as a spiritual person may take a few days or weeks time each year for a truly spiritual retreat and get an overview about your present spiritual state. You need to know whether you are progressing or remaining on the spot - you may need to may adjustments or even major changes. You may reconsider your entire spiritual path if you failed to substantially progress within about three years from start.