Devotion does not mean rituals

For many of us devotion means erecting some grand place of worship, wearing some religious attire, and making all pomp and show. Are these really needed?

What does one achieve by devotion?

The obvious outcome of selfless devotion to God is getting closer to God. Getting closer to God is fine. But is that all?

The path of devotion

Most of us are emotionally oriented. Emotions come naturally to us. The path of devotion is a natural option for emotional people who can’t follow other paths such as path of inquiry (Jnyaana Maarg), or path of selfless action (Karma Maarg), or path of Yoga or Meditation. How does one go about on this path of devotion?

Is any form of God as good as any other?

In the previous post we saw how all forms of God are expressions of the same single God. Naturally, one may ask – in that case, can I worship any form of God and attain the same results?

BookTalk: A Mantra to enhance your mental capabilities

In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my book “A Mantra to enhance your mental capabilities”.

Which God is the best?

For a Christian, God means Jesus Christ. A devout Muslim swears that there is no God other than Allah. A Hindu is more flexible – he has a wide choice of Gods ;-)

Isn’t devotion irrational?

In the previous discussion, I said that devotion or Bhakti can be a good alternative to a person – a person who cannot follow intellectual pursuit, a person who cannot do selfless service, a person who cannot meditate – an optiion to make spiritual progress.

Devotion to some God is definitely a faith based concept. These days we come across many self claimed intellectuals who frown upon religious beliefs and faiths. They say that faith is the bane of all our present day ills. If that is the case, should we not discourage devotion that is faith based ?

Baby monkey or baby cat – which is easier?

You probably have noticed a baby monkey clinging on to its mother while the mother jumps from tree to tree. The mother is not at all concerned with the infant. It is the responsibility of the infant to take care of itself.

Compare this to what a kitten does. It just cries aloud for its mother and the mother comes running to protect it from any danger. The kitten does nothing to protect itself other than calling its mother.

Ultimate realization – how easy it is to attain?

In the previous post, we talked about what is meant by the ultimate realization which is worth attaining. But the million dollar question is “can anyone ever attain it?”

BookTalk: Ancient wisdom - Modern viewpoints

In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my book “Ancient wisdom modern viewpoints”.

Higher level view of the Universe

In a previous post, we started with two approaches to understand the universe and the concept of universal identity. One is through concepts that can be comprehended by our senses and the mind. The other one is purely abstract and more or less beyond comprehension.

We discussed the former in the previous post. Now let us try to understand the other , namely the abstract view of the Universe.