1.The soul goes through three phases in its evolution back to God. The first, which is the longest and most painful, is the one in which God teaches through the law of karma. In this phase of development, man gradually learns through his mistakes, by reaping the painful results of his wrong actions and wrong thoughts. After a long time—many, many incarnations —he begins to ask and seek answers to the final, basic question: “What is life all about?” That is the second stage, in which God teaches through books and teachers. Finally, when the devotee becomes convinced that the purpose of life is to find God, and his yearning for God becomes strong, he enters the third stage in his evolution, and then God comes to him in the most direct form—as a true guru. From the teachings of Yogananda.
