Actually, when you have dissolved the habits of ego, then the practices also dissolve. That is why we stress upon practices. Not that practices directly awaken you but they loosen the previous habits of ego’s impositions and creations so that your consciousness, which has been overlapped or covered or suppressed or trapped, is released.

HE NORMAL PHILOSOPHY ON THIS EARTH has been that you have to go through pain, suffering, misery and struggling in order to experience, in order to make life worthwhile. But this is not necessary. With serene devotion, love, practices, regularity and the right way of Dharma³, you could very joyfully and peacefully achieve the same goal. We have fed our brain cells the belief that unless we have miseries or suffering, we’re not going to learn the lesson. This is self-martyrdom. We think that is religion—it has to be that way. Unless we suffer or have pain or somebody knocks us down, we think it is not worthwhile yet. This assumes that we do not deserve the smooth, easy way, loving and good.
      Turiya, that ecstasy, that height of joyfulness is such that you will not only forget yourself but you will achieve the purpose of life. You will feel the so-called back-to-the-present personality no doubt has its own existence, but it is insignificant. I do not mean it is low or anything like that, simply that it is insignificant in comparison to Transcendence. That is the experience we have to achieve, to realize. That is the purpose of life: to Know, to be Conscious. Ordinarily we say the purpose of life is to be educated. We send children for education. 
³ Righteousness or living by spiritual laws

We know we should be educated but we don’t know why. Some may say it’s just for earning or for a job, but the real reason for education, for knowledge, is to Know, to be Enlightened. It is a degradation of education that they are not using it for Enlightenment. From the Sanskrit: “That is true education or knowledge which Awakens you, which Liberates you.” We have diverted ourselves from this purpose and used education for insignificant pursuits. There we get tied up. The original idea was and is that although we are born on this Earth as human beings, we have the capacity and potential to be Conscious and Awakened. That is our true Goal, the only Goal.
      Your families, children, jobs, decorating the house, traveling and whatnot are by the way, since you are here on Earth, but they are not the purpose of life. When you hit upon this understanding you will also know this is the Purpose, not only because I tell you or someone teaches you or it is written in books. It will click in your brain. Billions of people are not able to put their finger on it. That is why we say most are unconscious. Some, not many, seek it consciously, but it is the Goal for everyone without exception. They blindly say, “Yes, we want happiness, we want joy, we want fulfillment of life, we want success, we want to acquire, to be happy…” and so on. It doesn’t occur to them to ask—the very joy they are seeking, the very knowledge—where does it come from in the first place? It would be a very common factor in everyone to know, to awake—Uttishtha Jagrata Veerabhava, in Sanskrit: “Arise, awake and be bold!”