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?

Not really – says Bhagavad geetha. It says

“You don’t need to offer God any expensive things. God is content with just a simple flower, or even a leaf, or a fruit, or just a palm full of water. What you offer is not very important.

How you offer is important. The offering should be with full devotion. It should not be a barter for something you expect from God. Your mind should be free of any hidden agenda. It should be clean.

If the offering is done with such a state of mind – no matter what is offered – God would surely accept it.

Even if you cannot offer anything, that is fine. Whatever you do, - even the day-today activities such as eating etc. do that as an offering to God. As something to please God and not to yourself.

If you donate something to the needy, don’t expect anything in return, but do that act primarily as a service to God. Let the goal of all your activities be God and nothing but God”



I am amazed that the very same things are told even in the Bible or in the holy Quran. But how many Hindus or Christians or Muslims follow it?



Looking back, it seems that devotion or the Path of Bhakti, is the easiest of all paths. You just need to surrender with no pretension, no conditions, no demands. It is the real kitten’s way! Do you remember the kitten and the baby monkey simile that we talked about a few episodes ago?

But still, one wonders whether devotion can take you to the same ultimate realization that the other spiritual paths promise to take. How can a faith based path be equivalent to intellect based paths or the path of meditation?

We will discuss more on that in the next post.

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Based on verses 9.26, 9.27, of Bhagavad Geetha, one of the most quoted and widely translated of the ancient Indian scriptures, believed to have been composed by Vyasa as part of the great Indian Epic Mahabharata, 5000 years ago. The interpretation of the verses and audio recital are by Dr.King (Copyright © 2018 Dr. King)