Page 166 - Wisdom Unfurled

superlative devotion and if one can light up such a fire within himself his progress shall be in leaps and bounds.
Real Devotion
The Master characterizes real devotion as one in which there is no affectation meaning that it is sincere and totally transparent and it goes hand in hand with enlightenment. Going to the temple, bowing before the idol or reciting some hymns in praise of the gods is not real devotion but an imitation or affectation of it. But real bhakti comes from an awareness of the inseparable unity we have with the divine and a commitment to our own self which is also divine in essence. We have noted earlier that viveka and vairagya-the knowledge and experiential awareness of the transitory nature of all things and the permanent nature of Reality or God at the back of all things, His greatness and all pervasiveness, realization that He is the eternal companion and the supreme goal of life and development of loving attachment to Him with a consequent development of detachment or due attachment to worldly things and svasrupa jnana-knowledge and realization of the real nature of self are the prerequisites for the development of devotion. The knowledge of one’s real nature is viveka grown to its finest level whereby one knows that he is part and parcel of the Divine and has no separate existence apart from the Divine. It (soul or atman) is existence, knowledge and bliss; bliss in remembering its Divine connection, knowing that its existence is because of the Divine and its consciousness is because of the Divine. Its happiness is in the consciousness that it is linked all the time with the Divine leading to greater and greater absorption in the Divine. One starts feeling his inseparable oneness with the Divine and he begins to think how best to express the Divine as its body. This becomes the basis of real devotion. This is what the Master means as real devotion going hand in hand with enlightenment. Not only this but the craving arises in the heart to reach Him and have company with Him. We seek Him with an intense impatience and the craving referred to above replaces all other cravings and becomes the only thing in view. We start realizing that the only reason for which we live and work here is because of the Divine and the urge to express Him more and more and serve Him more and more becomes predominant rather than seeking Him. Our smaller self loses its value.
We are keenly interested in and endeavour towards enabling our fellow beings to feel the presence of the Divine and express the great ness of the Divine without seeking any rewards for ourselves. Humility and its by product tolerance are virtues granted by real devotion. The devotee realizes soon that despite his devotion and sadhana he is still a victim to the base animal passions and that he continues to be a slave of wishes as evidenced in the cry of agony from even the ripened souls struggling to move upwards on the path