Hello!
I have a few questions. Do all souls require an internal practice of meditation, Kriya or something similar to it to escape Maya? Or is that only one way? Can Karma Yoga alone suffice to be enough to become free in Nirbikapla Samadhi. Also is Karma Yoga only effective when all aspirations and work and the fruits of that work are mentally and in the heart given to God? Can you reach God by merely acting and serving your immediate family without meditation? Thank you!
—Brendan Anderson, USA
The soul does not require Kriya or any other technique to achieve freedom, but it is certainly a great help. Ultimately what frees us is God’s grace and our ability to offer our energy and devotion completely to God through the flow of that grace. Kriya helps us cooperate with and attract God’s grace. It helps us to work directly with the life energy that either keeps us bound to the world or guides us to freedom. Karma yoga (service) is also a great help on the path as it expands our sense of identity beyond our small selves and into a greater reality.
If you combine meditation and service to others, you have a very dynamic combination for achieving greater and greater spiritual freedom. But this isn’t strictly a mechanical thing – each soul has the divine right and duty to choose freedom as and when ready. Start where you are and grow from there – that’s how yoga works. Service and devotional meditation will keep you on the right path.
