Devotion – In Gita Verse 5.2 The Personality of Godhead replied: The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work.
Krishna says to Arjuna that from both the paths you will be liberated from your knowledge. But for Krishna work in devotional service is better. In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 3.28, blog I wrote – Devotion means that you are beginning to experience the divine in matter, that you are beginning to perceive the unmanifest in the manifest, that the formless has begun to be glimpsed shimmering in form.
Let’s understand this verse of Kirishna by the verse of Daya: The glory of your name is infinite, as even a tiny spark of fire burns the greatest forest. “If even a small spark falls onto me, O Lord, I will burn like the forest and turn to ash.” The moment the devotee is burned to ash, to nothingness, the moment he has been erased, he becomes the divine. The death of the devotee is the birth of the divine within him. The death of the devotee is the coming of godliness. Devotion is a lesson in death, because love is a lesson in death. Only those who are able to die ever know love, and only those who are determined to die the great death ever know devotion.
Be determined: it can happen. And until it does, you will remain the same orphan that you are now. It can happen, it is very close to you. If you open your doors and windows even a little the divine will come inside; just as the rays of the sun and the fresh air enter as soon as you open the doors of your house. Don’t sit with your doors shut. Sway, dance, sing, give thanks to life. If you can thank life, you will know that whatever you have already received, even that is enough. What you have is enough. If you can give thanks for that, you will receive more and more. Your gratefulness; will bring more and more. The greater your gratitude, the more will come onto your side of the scales. The more your gratitude, the more you will be worthy and the more you will be filled with the blessings of the divine.
The path of devotion is the path of the heart. Only the mad succeed there, only those who can laugh and cry with their whole heart, those who are not afraid to drink the wine of the divine – because when you drink that wine you will lose all your senses, you will lose all control over your life. Then you will walk when he makes you walk, you will stand when he makes you stand. Even though it is he who is making you walk, he who is making you stand up, your life goes on very beautifully, very blissfully. Right now, your life is nothing but sorrow: then your life will be nothing but bliss. But this happens only when your life is not under your control. And that is the fear.
The only thing that stops you from moving toward devotion is this fear that you will lose control and no longer remain your own master. If you want the divine to be your master, you cannot remain the master yourself. Lord…this is forever my request. If the divine is to be your lord, you must give up your lordship over yourself. If you want the divine to be your master, you must get off the throne. Get off the throne! As soon as you do, you will find that he has always been sitting there. You couldn’t see him because you were sitting there. Get down and bow in front of the throne and you will find that his boundless radiance, his infinite light, his grace has filled you from all sides.
Ramakrishna used to say: “You are unnecessarily rowing. Unfurl your sails, put down your oars. His winds are blowing. He will take your boat to the other shore.”
Devotion is sailing with the wind, the path of knowledge is working the oars. In rowing, naturally it is you who will work. But when the sails fill with the winds of God and the boat takes off, you don’t have to do anything. Surrender, unfurl your sails! Nothing done on your own has succeeded so far. Stop relying on yourself. Walk with his feet, see with his eyes, live according to him. Let your heart beat with his heart.
These verses; of Daya are unique. They can bring a revolution into your life.
For Krishna devotion is better as devotion is not a path. You don’t have to travel a path. Devotion is a way of merging and melting into existence. It is not a pilgrimage; it is simply losing all the boundaries that divide you from existence – it is a love affair.
Love is not a path. Love is a merger with an individual, a deep intimacy of two hearts – so deep that the two hearts start dancing in the same harmony. Although the hearts are two, the harmony is one, the music is one, the dance is one.
What love is between individuals, devotion is between one rebel and the whole existence. He dances in the waves of the ocean, he dances in the dancing trees in the sun, he dances with the stars. His heart responds to the fragrance of the flowers, to the songs of the birds, to the silence of the night.
Devotion is not a path. Devotion is the death of the personality. That which is mortal in you, you drop of your own accord; only the immortal remains, the eternal remains, the deathless remains. And naturally the deathless cannot be separate from existence – which is deathless, which is always ongoing, knows no beginning, no end.
Devotion is the highest form of love.
It is possible you may love one person, and love becomes so deep that slowly, slowly the very quality of love changes into devotion. Then that person becomes only a window for you to take a jump into existence. That is the situation of the master, as far as the rebel is concerned.
Devotion is not a path. Devotion is only a love affair, purified to its ultimate state. Then whomsoever you love becomes a door, a bridge to the universal organic unity, the experience of your small identity dissolving in the ocean just like a dewdrop slipping from a lotus leaf.
Tags: Devotion
