What are the defects in the spiritual knowledge of Triputi (soul, goal and path)?

[Ms. Thrylokya asked:- Padanamaskaram, Swami.]

Swami replied:- The soul, goal and path are called as spiritual triad (Triputi). The defects in these three items are:-

1.  Soul:– If the human soul thinks that it is God, the spiritual effort becomes useless. It is like thinking yourself as Mumbai city in which case there is no need of any effort to do the journey to Mumbai. Thinking oneself as God is the defect in the soul.

2.  Goal:– The goal is certainly unmediated-unimaginable God called Parabrahman. This ultimate God gets mediated by energetic body or human body to become energetic incarnations or human incarnations respectively. Energetic incarnations are relevant to the upper energetic beings present in the upper worlds. Human incarnations are relevant to human beings present on earth. The soul is trying to worship or meditate upon either formless unimaginable God or energetic incarnations irrelevant to earth or past human incarnations by worshipping their photos and statues. You are not getting any spiritual knowledge from these types of God even after doing a lot of penance. You are wasting your entire human life to see any one of these three types of God to get guidance in your spiritual path. God has made an excellent arrangement of contemporary human incarnation (Sadguru) so that you can get the spiritual guidance without wasting a minute of your lifetime. Not recognizing the contemporary human incarnation as goal is the defect in the goal.

3.  Path:– You are always approaching God for fulfilment of your selfish desires and this is not true love or true devotion. The true love is to serve and sacrifice to God without aspiring for anything in return from God. Such selfless love is possible when you are attracted towards the divine personality of God due to which only you serve and sacrifice to God. Parents are serving and sacrificing to their children without any aspiration in return from them. A fan of a cinema hero or a political leader is also spending from his pocket for the functions of his hero and sometimes, sacrificing his life also when the hero dies. Hence, such true love is possible in this world. Selfishness is the defect in the path.

If these three defects are removed, the devotee will be successful in pleasing God to the climax level.