Unsent Letter #14: The Importance of Devotion

December, 2006

Dear Friend

The real driving force in spiritual life is devotion. Devotion is the power of your emotional attachment. Unfortunately, devotion and worship have become unfashionable among seekers in the West. This is unfortunate for those seekers who reject devotion. Nothing runs without power. On the other hand, that power will always channel itself somewhere. Consequently, everyone gets devoted to something. If you are not devoted to your guru or to the Self within you, you will certainly be devoted to something in the world, either some form of pleasure or entertainment, or some kind of work that you consider to be fulfilling. Emotional force and power has to be detached from these objects in the external world and directed to the Self within you.

It is a mistake to consider devotion to be unimportant or even unnecessary. If you have a right attitude of devotion to the Self, the only doer, naturally you will understand that you are not doing anything. However, you understand it in the right way. Devotion can be to the Master who appears in human form, or it can be to the Master within you, but devotion is not optional. You have to seek grace and you have to try to earn grace, open yourself to it, because you can do nothing without it. Advaita is not atheism.

Recognition that grace is essential is the foundation of devotion. Everything happens through the one divine power that animates all. If you are aware of that grace, that power that is your very life, then naturally you bow down in worship to it. Devotion is the most natural thing. This ability to recognize the divine and to relate ourselves to it is one of the qualities that makes us truly human. Figuratively, we take the guru's feet and place them on our head. This guru, the Master, is everywhere and is our own Self. The body prostrates itself and the mind surrenders its own thoughts at the feet of the Master. If you meet the guru in human form and are able to accept what he or she says, then the form of the guru can become the image of the divine for you. You then literally bow down to him or her in the understanding that he or she represents the eternal Self. This is called saguna worship, or worship of the Self with form. At the same time, one is actually performing nirguna worship, or worship of the formless Self. However, the form of the guru provides the focus for one's devotion. Even after realization, one does not give up saguna worship.

In this sampradaya, there is a balance between knowledge and devotion, which is also a balance between knowledge and being. In this way, understanding can come.

A.