Acharya Shree, can a person be enlightened in one life?
Enlightenment needs lot of effort and lot of lives. It doesn't happen in one life actually.
Yeah, people who get enlightenment, that is their last life, but it doesn't mean they achieved that state of consciousness in the same life.
No, they were practicing because people think that is their last life and they will get enlightenment in this life. The majority of spiritual people, they begin to think. And many crazy fake masters, they are even trying to give them certificate.
"You are enlightened one. You are enlightened". There is no certification of enlightenment. It is a realization. It is the highest state of consciousness.
Nobody knows if he who is giving certificate is not even enlightened. So whoever achieved certificate, they are not enlightened and whoever give to them, he or she was not enlightened.
So don't be mistaken, enlightenment is not easy thing. Somebody asked Krishna that, "You become like a god. How many lives it took you to achieve this state?" You know what he said?
He said, "9.9 million lives I was wandering in this world. Somewhere I was insect, somewhere I was I am a bug, animal, this". 9.9 million lives, after he became Krishna.
Mahavira. Somebody asked, "You are Tirthankara, you are enlightened. How many lives it took you?" Mahavira simply said, "I started my spirituality 27 lives ago."
It means tirthankara even, the last body, he said that it took him 27 lives to reach that enlightenment. And if people have 5 or 7 lives left, they are very lucky. And a few people, they can achieve in this life, too.
But it is not only life they are practicing spirituality. They are practicing it was continuation. When it is continuation, it doesn't, it is not considered one life.
Nobody can achieve enlightenment in one life efforts. No. It has to be continuation. It has to start somewhere. So the enlightenment is very kind of difficult to achieve.
But it is not impossible, though. It is possible if you put right efforts and if you are on the right path and if you have taken the steps fully, 100%.
Then it is not impossible. I say it is possible if you taken the step. Take the steps, don't think about the lives.
Because the more you think about the lives the more you will get tense. And enlightenment doesn't need tension, doesn't need stress, doesn't need any kind of whatever people have in their life.
Tension, stress, depression. No. It is beyond that. You just try to flow like a bird, like flowers are flowering, the wind is blowing, the trees they are dancing with the wind, the clouds are floating in the sky.
No effort. When there is effort, then enlightenment goes away from there.
Effort means that you are getting stuck. "I want to get enlightenment. I want to achieve enlightenment". Then you will not achieve it.
Because you get stuck with it. As soon as you release it, as soon as you release it, you become free.
And as soon as you become free, enlightenment begins to circle around you. Then it is up to you. You are in that state. You can just catch it. You can just achieve that state.
So enlightenment is very kind of difficult to achieve and also, in a way, it is very easy to achieve if you know the secret only.