1. In your opinion, what is a good spiritual goal to have?
To love God with all your heart and all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
2. We say that we should surrender everything to God. We also say that we should establish goals. Are not the two contrary? If I am trying to establish a goal (say for example early retirement) I am not surrendering to God's will (maybe He wants me to work till the end) and vice versa. I think there is something I am missing, can you please help me understand?
Man proposes and God disposes. Make your goals, strive for your goals, and accept all that God wishes to give.
3. Is this true of spiritual goals also? For example, if I decide on a goal of chanting the Chandi and perfecting it, how would I know that something that comes in the way of this goal is an obstacle that I have to overcome versus realizing that it is the will of God for me not to chant.
It is true of all goals. Still we will make our best efforts. But there are times when even our best efforts fall short. Then we seek forgiveness for our short-comings and forgive ourselves as well.
4. If your goal is devotion, what would be the path and sankalpa?
The continuous prayer for increase in devotion is the way to increase devotion. Love is such an entity that the more we give it away, the more it grows.
5. How to make a goal (resolve) and yet be detached from the goal itself.
Defining a pure goal which includes renunciation and making our motives pure will yield the proper results. Some attachments are pure and will lead us to freedom. Some attachments are a bondage. The function of discrimination is to determine what is appropriate according to each of our circumstances.
6. How to know where to draw the line between being motivated and letting go of the result?
When the result is to be enjoyed by others, we can be motivated and unattached at the same time.
7. How does one set goals and works at it while weakening the sense of doership rather than enahancing it?
It is not a bad concept to become a servant of God. But remember, the servant does his or her best, but remembers the Master will enjoy the fruits. The servant rejoices in doing his or her best with a pure heart.
8. Are we always able to judge what would be best for us? I mean, isn't there a tendency to choose goals which are either too comfortable/easy, or too difficult/ambitious (when learning how to perform puja, I could choose to add one mantra a month or I could have the ambition to master the advanced Shiva Puja in that time.) So in the first case you could be tempted to think you are doing fine, while actually you are not moving at all, and in the second case you would think you had chosen the wrong goal, while all you did was bite off more than you could chew.
Too Much and Too Little are constantly plaguing us, so that determination is a matter of constant rebalancing. We require to adjust our schedule at least daily, if not many times during the day. There is no One Final Determination until we remain in Samadhi.
However, I find it helpful to establish minimum performance goals, as well as an ultimate objective. I started with the minimum discipline of learning two mantras a week. Sometimes I could learn more, but that was my minimum. That become a minimum of 100 new mantras a year, and that was almost 40 years ago.
Little by little we grow organically.
9. I also find it is not always easy to evaluate if some situation I have maneuvered myself into is taking me towards or away from the goal. For instance, some years ago I decided to take a simple part time job in order to have more time for spiritual practice. Now I have more time, but really dislike the job. Does this dislike take me away from my goal because I spend too much time fretting about it and I feel I waste talents I could have put to better use, or does it actually take me closer because it gives me a chance to practice humility and selfless service?
Regarding employment, sometimes an easy repetitive task gives us the capacity to keep our mind in the mantra. We can recite texts inwardly while we are performing, so that the routine work becomes an expression of our love for God. Then we find more time and capacity to serve God in other ways without thinking about remuneration.
We can also utilize our skills and talents in serving humanity with our knowledge. Both ways have their place.
