Namaste


Devotion





Quotations from The Vijńāna Bhairava

There are four steps in this dharana.
One's value of life has to be totally changed. He should be completely detached from sensuous pleasures and trinkets of life.
He should be devoted to God.
Through the above two, the mind of the aspirant will become purified, and then will emerge mati which is spiritual intution full of the power to transform life. She can remove all obstacles in the path of the aspirant. The aspirant should perpetually contemplate on this mati... She will completely transform his life, and then his mind will be dissolved Shiva. It should be borne in mind that bhakti or devotion does not mean simply offering of flowers and burning incense. It means viewing God in all life and dedication of oneself to the Divine in word, thought and deed.

Contemplation which is practiced on the highest Reality over and over again is... japa.
Unswerving buddhi without any image or support constitutes meditation.
Worship ... consists in setting one's heart on that highest ether of consciousnes which is above all thought-constructs. It really means dissolution of self with perfect ardour (in the Supreme Consciousness known as Bhairava).
When in the fire of Supreme Reality..., the five elements, the senses, the objects of the senses along with the mind (whose characteristic is dichotomizing thought-construct) are poured, with ācetan as the ladle, then that is real oblation.
... sacrifice in this system simply means spiritual satisfaction characterized by bliss... the absorption into the shakti of Rudras is alone real ksetra (place of pilgrimage) inasmuch as this absorption destroys all sins...



Quotations from Sri Ramakrishna

It will be very good if you can practise unselfish love for God. A man who has such love says: "O Lord, I do not seek salvation, fame, wealth, or cure of disease. None of these do I seek. I want only Thee." Many are the people who come to a rich man with various desires. But if someone comes to him simply out of love, not wanting any favour, then the rich man feels attracted to him.
Can you weep for Him with intense longing of heart? Men shed a jugful of tears for the sake of their children, for their wives, or for money. But who weeps for God? So long as the child remains engrossed with its toys, the mother looks after her cooking and other household duties. But when the child no longer relishes the toys, it throws them aside and yells for its mother. Then the mother puts the rice pot down from the hearth, runs in haste, and takes the child in her arms.

Those who cannot give up attachment to worldly things and who find no means to shake off the feeling of I, should rather cherish the idea, "I am God's servant; I am His devotee." One can also realize God by following the path of devotion.
The way of love is as good as the way of knowledge... But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.
Through love one acquires renunciation and discrimination naturally.

I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven't the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal Shakti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. "There is only one Rama and He has a thousand names." Truth is one; It is only called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the disagreement is due to differences in climate, temperament, and names. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.



Quotations from The Upanishads

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart.
Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes
Lives in the Self. He is the source of love
And may be known through love but not through thought.
He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!



Quotations from Vasishtha

This Lord is not to be worshipped by material substances but by one's own consciousness. Not by waving of lamps nor lighting incense, nor by offering flowers nor even by offering food or sandal-paste. He is attained without the least effort; he is worshipped by self-realisation alone. This is the supreme meditation, this is the supreme worship: the continuous and unbroken awareness of the indwelling presence, inner light or consciousness. While doing whatever one is doing -- seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing or talking -- one should realise one's essential nature as pure consciousness. Thus does one attain liberation...
This worship is performed day and night perpetually, with the objects that are effortlessly obtained, and are offered to the Lord with a mind firmly established in equanimity and in the right spirit -for the Lord is consciousness and cares only for the right spirit...
... One should look with equal vision upon that which is pleasant and beautiful through and through and that which in unendurably unpleasant. Thus should one worship the Self.
... Established in this state of equanimity, the wise man should experience infinite expansion within himself while carrying out his natural actions externally without craving or rejection. Such is the nature of the worshipper of this intelligence. In his case, delusion, ignorance and egosense do not arise even in dream. Remain in this sate, O sage, experiencing everything as a child does. Worship the Lord of the body (the intelligence that pervades it) with all that is brought to you by time, circumstance and environment, and rest in supreme peace devoid of desire.



Quotations from Patanjali

Liberation...can be reached without devotion to God. But this is a subtle and dangerous path, threading its way through the pitfalls of ambition and pride. Devotion to a personal ideal of God brings with it a natural inclination to humility and service...It calls forth the highest kind of love of which man is capable. We cannot even imagine Brahman until the moment of our liberation, but we can all imagine Ishwara. Ishwara is what Brahman looks like from the phenomenal world; He is conceptualized in a manner that more or less corresponds to God the Father in the Christian tradition...
This kind of devotion requires, perhaps, a special temperament. It is not for everybody. But to be able to feel it is a very great blessing, for it is the safest and happiest way to liberation.



Mysticism in World Religions

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