Question: From my understanding, we seem to take many births in our aim to become Self-Realized. Will all people eventually come to God?
Babaji:
If we use the term 'soul' to mean the mind creating a sense of individuality, then to my experience every soul will come back to God - like the sun's rays returning to the sun, or the droplet of the ocean again merging with the ocean. We have problems when we have the sense of "I" and "mine"; when that goes, then we are truly happy. Eventually everyone will become inspired to go back. This can be assisted when a soul comes in front of a Yogi. If they are receptive, if there is faith, devotion, then something will click.
Faith is so important; thus Sri Ramakrishna used to tell the story about the pundit who used to preach to the villagers about how they must have faith in the name of God and Guru. There was a lady who used to come from the next village to clean his house. One day there was a flood and because the water was flowing so strongly, she could not come. On the next day when the waters had subsided, the lady came to clean the house. The pundit asked her why she hadn't come on the previous day and so she explained that the river had been flooded and that she couldn't cross. So the pundit casually preached to her, "You should have taken Rama's name and then you could have crossed the river." When the next flood occurred, the lady this time came to the house - the pundit was surprised. "How did you come when the river was flooded?' The lady simply replied, "I take you to be my Guru. You had instructed that I should recite Rama's name and cross the river, so following your instructions I recited Rama's name and walked across the flooded waters." The pundit was amazed. He had only made the comment casually to show off, but hearing that the lady had been able to do this, he himself now went to the river. He recited Rama's name and stepped out into the river, but because he didn't really have the faith that the lady had, he was unable to walk on the water, and simply got washed away and nearly drowned. So Sri Ramakrishna used to tell this story to show the power of faith in the name of God and Guru.
