ON DEVOTION --ITS TRUE NATURE

ON DEVOTION--ITS TRUE NATURE

Many of us call ourselves devotees of God. Do we really understand what devotion is? We visit temples and think we are devotees. We go on pilgrimages and call ourselves devotees. We follow religious rituals and pat ourselves  as devotees!! why do we go to these temples, pilgrimages, and observe religious rituals? It is for the fulfilment of some desire or other. There is none in the world who enters the temple without a particular want or desire. Couples go to temples and pilgrimages praying for children.Patients ardently pray to God for relief from their diseases. Businessman wants improvement in his business and good profit. The Unmarried visit temples praying for a suitable match.Homas and other rituals are performed for the sake of  certain other desires. God's and goddesses are propitiated to appease them and to ward off the evil effects of some malefic planets. In short we are all selfish and to satisfy our  personal desires approach God, visit temples, and go on pilgrimages!

Can all these be called real devotion? “ Devotion has been defined as desireless love for the Lord.” says Bhagawan Sri Satya SaiBaba.It is doubtful if ever man visits temples if he is asked to worship the Lord without any desire! Temples may remain empty and all religious and pilgrim centers deserted! Man is a bundle of desires. In fact nothing moves on in this world without desire. Our life itself may come to a standstill if we have no desire. That is why KAMA or desire is given the first place among the inner enemies (arishadvargas). It is desire the root cause of all suffering, disappointment, defeat, and destruction. When a desire is unfulfilled anger takes over and wreaks havoc in the life of man. Entertaining a desire is not a fault or defect. The fault lies in what you desire. Our wants are silly, transitory, fading and momentary! Caught in the web of Maya and the cycle of samsara, we have forgotten our real nature and aspire for transient pleasures. If only man desires God  really and sincerely all his troubles and impediments will vanish. But this is precisely what man does not do! He knows that God grants everything, but in accepting what all God has given, forgets God conveniently.

Man has forgotten his relationship with God and hence his  fear, anxiety and suffering in society!  You will never fail in life if you have Love for God! A real and true devotee is one who loves God but does not ask for any favour. Pure and unadulterated passion or love is the quality of a true devotee. He does not yearn anything from God. He yearns for God himself. That is enough for him. When God is with you, you have everything that you desire. Hence by desiring God you satisfy all your wants material as well as spiritual! There is a heart to heart and love to love relationship  between a true devotee and God! Nothing else! Pure, unalloyed selfless love for God is the hallmark of true devotion. It is here the ordinary mortal fails whereas the true devotee wins! True devotion consists in obeying the command of the Lord and spreading his message.”There is none greater than a true devotee in this world” declares Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

True devotion is complete surrender to God. It cannot be a part time affair or taken on credit! Love is the seed from which sprouts of devotion spring! Is it possible to exhibit pure love for God? Yes. Many a devotee has immersed himself in true love for God without any selfish expectation. A classical example is the child devotee, Prahlada, in the Bhagavata Purana who doted on Srihari even from his birth. He converted his young friends to bhakthi by singing songs on Sri Hari and defied his mighty father who was the inveterate enemy of Lord Vishnu. God killed his father and showered his Grace on the child. The love of the Gopis for Lord Krishna is another example of pure unselfish love for God! They were ready to desert everything for the sake of the Lord and languished for his presence. In modern days we have Sri Ramakrishna paramahamsa  who pined for the vision of Goddess Kali, his chosen deity, and tried to kill himself since She  did not present herself before him. All the Azhwars and Nayanmars were true devotees who lived, loved and died for God! They are all deified today and are worshipped by humanity!

Thinna was a hunter devoted to the Vayu linga at Sri Kalahasti temple in Andhra Pradesh.Seeing the linga neglected,he brought water from the river Swarnamukhi nearby in his mouth and performed abhishekam. He offered swine's flesh to the Lord as naivedya. When the Lord, to test his devotion, made the temple tower crumble, Thinna covered the linga to protect it while others ran away in fright! Lord Siva was not satisfied. The Linga began bleeding from one of the eyes. A shocked Thinna immediately plucked one of his eyes with an arrow and placed it in the place of the bleeding eye! But soon the second eye too started bleeding. Thinna put his leg at the spot of the eye and was about to pluck out his second eye when the Lord appeared and blessed him by restoring his eyes! Thinna 's love was pure and spontaneous. The Lord always accepts whatever is done out of pure love. Thus Thinna became one of the sixty three Nayanmars and is called Kannappa Nayanar.This is true devotion and such devotees are dearer to the Lord more than anybody else