As we find in the world and practiced by most people, devotion essentially involves ritualistic practices for self-appeasement. Something like visiting temples, shrines or mosques, worshipping Gods and Goddesses, offering prayers/namaz, formal worship with lit wicks soaked in clarified butter, chanting hymns, donating money, and going on pilgrimage. The question is, why do we do these and what for? By and large, it is for gaining material benefits or getting good husbands or wives for our daughters or sons or health and wealth. We also do these acts with the aspiration to attain peace, health and wealth.
People, often in the name of worship or devotion, indulge in acts of bartering like getting desires fulfilled in return for acts of worship or chanting of hymns. Sometimes it is like an act of bribery offering sweets and other offerings in exchange for meeting one’s needs. Some bribery acts are offering money, gold etc., to the deity expecting worldly favours from the deity in return. Some indulge in a sort of blackmailing like fasting and torturing oneself to get material and worldly benefits or to fulfil desires.
In the present iron era (Kaliyuga), devotion has become limited to flattering Gods, decorating places of worship, offering beautiful clothes and ornaments to the deity etc. If we look at it dispassionately, we will realize that it is a bargain. When we offer money, metals and other items, it is a kind of bribery. Some even observe fasting of kinds. All of these are with expectations or changing bad tidings with good ones. Fasting, in my view, is a kind of blackmailing. In this iron age (Kaliyuga), most forms of worship reek of some form of flattery of the deities or gods and goddesses. Isn’t it a joke that we donate money and make other offerings to one from whom we are seeking the same? You are offering food to one who can feed you.
True devotion or worship should not be by flattery, bribery or blackmail or even out of fear but by absolute divine love. We should love God and not fear Him. Instead of offering our true love, we are wasting our time expecting or demanding things without realizing that no god, goddess, or deity can give you anything outside of your karmic entitlement. Human life is essentially for burning away past karmic misdeeds. So, avoid committing new misdeeds by love-filled devotion and meditation of the one and only one Supreme Lord, the Almighty and experiencing a sense of love towards all His creation. Love for the Supreme Lord and service to fellow beings are the sure path to devotion and progress towards salvation.
We perform all these as acts of true devotion. However, we forget that we have missed the forest for the trees somewhere along the way. What gets overlooked is the bigger picture of Pure Love as the act of True Devotion. Instead of wasting time on infructuous ritualistic devotion, we should indulge in Pure Love for the Supreme, the fountainhead of Absolute Sublime Love. Meditate on that Supreme Lord with pure love. In that process, one merges with the Lord, merging the microcosmic consciousness with the macrocosmic consciousness. Indulge in pure love with the Lord and exhibit love for all His creation. When indulging in pure love for the Lord, one can feel the vibrations, and one may sway with ecstasy and bliss.
Many souls got lost in the sublime love of the Lord; may it be any of their avowed forms. Who doesn’t know the Devotion of Meera bai and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Both indulged in the love-filled Devotion towards Shri Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the Creator God’s volitional divine creations. Both Guru Nanak and Saint Ramdassji had a devotion to the one supreme, known as ‘wahe guru’ in Sikhism. Think of Kabir, an ardent love-filled devotee of the Supreme Lord, who shunned all ritualistic or Shariat worship and often chided Hindus and Muslims for their misplaced acts of worship. All his ‘dohas’ were pregnant with deep meaning, usually indicative of a higher realm beyond this mundane world. They all believed in selfless service to humanity and all the creations of the Lord. Regarding reverence to the Supreme and service to humankind, who can overlook Shri Aurobindo, who gave knowledge and wisdom through his writing and Mahatama Gandhi working for the welfare of the backward community?
It is time for all of us to come awake and follow the path of Unique Love-Filled Devotion, leaving aside all ritualistic modes of worship and devotion. And that is the true path to attain that Supreme Lord.
May the Lord throw the beacon of light, and may we all tread on that path of love.
