All Paths Lead to the Holy Gate

So let's not get into any hierarchy of paths or competition between paths. Is Jnana the fastest and Bhakti the slowest? I don't feel like that is the right way to look at spiritual paths. So, and how do we know which is most direct for us? And maybe God wants us to take a convoluted route anyway. All of us do, whether we like it or not. All of us do anyway.

So they're very rare ones like Shankara or Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi who seem to have taken such a direct... 'I feel like I'm dying, if I'm going to die I'm going to observe it,' and then I saw that the body could die but I am not the body, so at the age of 14 we become enlightened. But that is not any of our journey, isn't it? So, I'm not really so much into saying this path is better or this path is better. I see that the paths lead to the same holy gate and I see that in the revelation from behind the gate comes self-knowledge, comes beauty, comes love, comes everything that we are looking for. So I'm not so inclined to say inquiry is the best or prayer is the best or chanting is the best or just remaining empty is the best.

Very good. Every pathway to God is the best. What I would say is that as long as we don't forget to do the eating—that is the point I've been making also—as long as we don't forget to come to that place. We cooked a lot using whatever method, but if we don't become empty, receptive, inward-facing, silent in stillness, then that I would say—then that I would call a waste of time and indirect. But as long as a pathway provides us a way to get to the holy place where intuitive insight is possible, then I won't make a judgment about how effective or not effective it is. We have to see that for ourselves. Thank you for asking this. I hope it clarifies for everyone and I'm happy to... if I'm making a mistake somewhere, I'm making an error, I'm happy to learn and change my expression.