The Yoga of devotion......

What I have to say is all about Love and devotion. All that we do in our daily life, in our work, in our spiritual path, it´s all to attain one thing: the purity of Love, to become Self-Realised, but you cannot attain this purity, you cannot Realise the Self without devotion. It’s possible only through bhakti, through devotion. Without bhakti, it’s difficult. Like Sri Krishna said in the Gita “Cast away all dogma. Cast away all that is from the mind and surrender to me.” Only then True Love can be Realised. The Jnanis, they stick only to the mind. I don’t say that it´s not good. It´s good, but it will lead you only to a certain level. It is very good to help, to do karma yoga, but if you are not helping with the right attitude, it will also bring you only to a certain level. Whereas with bhakti, like Sri Krishna said to Uddhava: Above all the yogas, I prefer bhakti yoga. I prefer the yoga of devotion, where the devotee and the Lord become One; where there is no difference left, whereas in all the other yoga, the difference stays.” When I am talking about devotion, I don’t mean the kind of devotion that will fade after one month, but pure devotion that lasts forever. There are lots of people who have devotion in the beginning. When they start their spiritual path they are very excited but, after some time, their devotion fades. But real devotion is like the Lord said: If you surrender to me, open your heart and say “Lord, take complete possession of my heart. It’s only you that I’m looking for.” In reality, all the happiness that you are looking for - whatever you are doing in the outside - is to achieve Satchitananda. Wherever you look, whoever you look at, they are all running towards this. The priest is praying, but why do you think he is praying? He is praying for real happiness. People on their spiritual path are, also, looking for real happiness. Even people who are taking drugs: why do you think they do that? They are looking for real happiness. too. Of course, our mind doesn’t see it in the same way, but in the end, they are looking for real happiness. And this real happiness lies deep inside of you. Through devotion, through singing the glory of God, all the dogma will be removed and you will feel that He is continuously present with you. You will feel His Love continuously with you. The more you feel Him, the more you become part of Him. Like it is said, also, in the Gita: When one chants the name of God, the Lord takes full possession of that person. The more you lose yourself, the more you lose your ego and pride, the more you will Realise the Divine, but the more you hang onto pride, the more you hang onto identity, the less you will find real happiness. So the easiest way that the Lord has given to us is to sing His glory. Just sing any Divine Name and, when you sing, let yourself be drawn into it and don’t try to think with the mind. I know that, especially in the West, we like to use the mind a lot. We like to understand things with our mind, but our mind has a limit. Does the mind understand the heart? It will never understand it. The mind will understand things only when there is a limit to them. If there is a wall where you can bang yourself against, the mind will understand. And then, of course, you will complain about it, because it hurts. Whereas, when you centre yourself in your heart and awaken this Divine Consciousness, Higher Consciousness inside, you will always flow. No matter what, you will enter into Divine Ecstasy and you will feel different energies flowing through you, but the mind cannot understand and then it will cry “I want to understand it, but I can’t!” When the power of the mind decreases, the power of the heart increases. It is so simple: the Lord has sent you here to Realise this, to develop bhakti and to attain Self- Realisation. Whenever we sing Radhe Shyam, of course we have in our mind the image of Radha and Krishna, but who are these Radha and Krishna? Krishna is Pure Love and Radha is Bhakti and one cannot

exist without the other. That’s why we always see them together and we always mention their names together: Radhe Shyam, which means prema bhakti - love and devotion. If this True Love, if this true devotion arises inside of you, it will lead you to Self-Realisation. We have to put in our mind what is our aim. Life is like entering into a boat, which will guide you on the Ocean of Samsara. The boatman is the Satguru, but into which boat do you want to enter? You have to know the destination where the boat will lead

you, don’t just enter any boat, without knowing its destination! Let devotion arise: it will lead you on your spiritual path. Let Pure Love guide you. When you Realise the Purity of Love, there will be

no difference in your mind. The mind will see the Lord everywhere.