Some define the end-result of spiritual development as achievement of unity with God.
Some define it as recognition of unity with God that was here all along, only obscured by a veil of illusion.
Some define it as cessation of all psychic momenta; citta-vrtti-niroddha, or nirvana.
Some define it as sunyata, emptiness.
Some define it as freedom from cycle of rebirth.
Some define it as extinction of the four constituent elements in the fifth.
Some define it as a state of pardon, granted by God, for all your sins, inherited or personal, or, alternatively, as a condition of having paid for all your debts in fullness.
I have a different take on this.
If you didn’t figure out that Sanat Kumara (call him Satan or Mara or whatever you please) owns this place and controls all the entrances and exits, you attained exactly jack shit.
If you do get it, and you do understand what he is, what he’s doing and what the problem is, that doesn’t mean that you are free, or even that you will become free with sufficient effort. It just means that you know what the name of the game is, and you’re not trying to play chess at a poker table.
If you don’t get it, I don’t care about your “unity with God”, your “good deeds” or your spiritual powers. You are deluded, and used by Sanat Kumara in order to trick other fools to follow you on a wrong path, where they will be bound and ruined. Whatever you think you achieved, you achieved through his will alone, and according to his plan. If it actually had any value for your liberation or the liberation of others, you would see him blocking your path. If he’s not seeing your actions as enough of a threat to mess with you, whatever you think you’re doing is worthless.
If he’s actually helping you, it means that what you’re doing is actively harmful to yourself and others and will increase bondage. Essentially, if the enemy isn’t shooting at you, you’re not doing anything he finds threatening.
How do I know if he is helping me? Would an indication of that be everything in my material life are in the ” right” places?
How do you handle attrition, the repeatedly reinforced trauma of thwarted efforts?
It all depends on what your goal is. Mine is to do my part. What others do is their problem.
Also, effort may be thwarted, but it’s never wasted. It is spent the way it is and represents a karmic vector. Other karmic vectors, deployed by others, are added to it and this influences the results, but each party is responsible only for the vector of force it invested, and the end-result is not something I worry about much because it’s beyond my control. I control what I do.
On a personal note, I would add that people mistakenly assume that my goal is to help them understand things, and that’s the reason why I write.
What if my goal is to take away their excuses of not knowing, the ones they would use in order to buy themselves an undeserved second chance? What if I want to take away the excuse of not knowing, in order for the unworthy to be doomed? I’m not a fan of stupidity and indolence.
I think there is no second chance, what one did is done. I someone makes an excuse its because they realized they messed up and will continue to do so and try to avoid punishment by playing innocent.
Maybe I’m wrong.