The Pursuits of the Devotee and the Worldly

A devotee is in love with the Divine. In love, separation from the beloved becomes very painful, and the thirst intensifies. With this arises the hope of union – when will the darkness vanish? When will the day of awakening dawn? When will the distance end? When will communion take place? The greater the love, the more the pain of separation is felt; the more the pining for the Divine, the more is the hope of union. When the pangs reach the pinnacle, the one who is thirsting disappears. What remains then is only the thirst, the cry. When the doer, the ego disappears, union takes place.

Conversely, in the worldly one, separation from the Divine finds expression as thirst for worldly objects. He falsely believes that his welfare lies in wealth, status, and in having a beautiful wife. He desires a good job, a healthy body and an easy-going life. Such thinking makes him run around and toil in the world. He tries to heal the pain of separation from the Lord with his love for worldly things. Unable to diagnose the cause of his disease correctly, he takes remedies randomly and worsens his disease of delusion.

The Cause of Suffering

Have you ever pondered over why you have not experienced divine communion in spite of the Divine being present at all times? If saints have realised divinity, why have you not? They all lived in the same world, under the same sun and on the same earth as you; yet, they could have the experience – why have you not met with the Divine yet? Is the direction of your search faulty? Is your method wrong?

The error lies in detecting the cause of the disease. You will keep missing the right conclusion as long as you are searching outside for the root cause of suffering. Once you are able to determine the right cause, you will realise that the hollowness you experience is not in the world but within you. Your idea of separation is because you are asleep to your divine nature. You do not need more wealth; you lack awareness of your real nature. Only upon awakening do you experience oneness with the eternal in you.Therefore, understand the pangs of separation to transcend their pain. Do not fear pining for the Divine.

Yearning is like taking a bath, or burning in fire that removes the dirt of ignorance, cleanses the heart and makes you eligible for the communion.

Be Ready to Pay the Price

Your question whether it is necessary to pass through the furnace of separation, only shows that you want to experience union but want to save yourself from the pain of separation. You want to find a shortcut to self-realisation. Your intentions do not seem noble. You want the Divine without bearing the cost. Remember, you will have to pay the price of pining, for the blissful experience of union.

For the attainment of the Divine, you will have to let go of your individual ego identity. The Divine does not manifest by offering just wealth etc. but you must completely offer yourself. He alone who can offer this can attain union with the Divine. The day you experience the Divine, you will realise that you had to give up nothing as compared to what you have received. By giving away the valueless ego, what you get is the invaluable infinity. Like obtaining the Kohinoor for peanuts.

Give up the idea of saving yourself from the pain of separation. Pass through this stage, dancing, singing, and celebrating. This stage brings you nearer to the Divine for you remain constantly in His remembrance. Here you get the direction of His whereabouts. The tears of pining serve as an offering at His Lotus Feet. If you try to skip this stage, you will remain without the attainment of the Divine. You may have plenty of wealth, name, fame, and political influence and yet without a yearning for the Divine, you are far away from the divine destination.

Put at Stake

One who desires money puts his life, his reputation, and even God at stake for more money. He does not question whether or not he needs to put his life at stake or work harder to earn more wealth. Then why do you, the desirer of the Divine, ask whether passing through the phase of crying for God is avoidable? Without shedding tears for the Divine, you will not realise Him.

Only those who have not loved God consider crying for the Divine as grief. The lovers on the contrary see it as their good fortune. Tears that flow for God become nectar. Even if you get thorns on this path, consider them as flowers. Even if you get showers of stones on your way, consider them to be pearls and jewels. The divine union is such a momentous event for which any amount of pain is worthwhile.

Devotion: The Art of Dissolving

A devotee longs for dissolving in the Divine. He seeks his own death. Therefore, to be a devotee is not within everyone’s easy reach. Often devotion is misunderstood to be the path of the cowards, helpless and those tired of life. This is not true. Only those who can venture into the unknown, who are brave enough to end their limited identity and seek union alone, because they are passionately in love with the Divine, can walk this path.

Devotion is an art of dissolving. When the ego dissolves, the Divine manifests. If even a bit of you remains, the event of realisation cannot occur. Your individual existence is the greatest hindrance. When your cry increases in pain because of the separation from the Divine, you will begin to listen to the Divine. When you are about to break down while yearning, you will begin to hear His sweet voice, which will encourage you to continue.

Drop the known ten directions and take to the eleventh one of going within, you will undoubtedly, meet Him there. The more you go deeper within, greater is the stream of joy you experience. With increase in happiness, the toils and choices fall away, the surrender unto the Divine heightens, He appears nearer and in one fine blessed moment, you will experience oneness.

Yearning for the Divine involves your heart. Only through high-sounding intellectual discussions or just by reading the scriptures, you cannot attain the Divine. When the heart pines continuously there arises a possibility of the divine experience. A devotee is never satisfied with anything worldly. Seek God alone. Be ready to cry out and wait, but do not compromise. Let not the worldly love satisfy you. The end of these pangs, tears, cries, pinning is that the ego dissolves in the Divine. The Divine then manifests with grandeur, thus marking the grand finale of the journey of devotion.