Spiritual Journey

Many embark on spiritual journeys as curiosity-seekers or investigators. Over time, some turn into students. A few become disciples. Just a handful become devotees. However, if you are in a hurry, and if mukti or liberation is your primary goal, becoming a devotee is the best possible way. Unlike the intellectual path on which many lose their way and go around in circles, devotion can liberate effortlessly, because once it is on, it is relentless.

Devotion is not about joining a fan club. Love is like a flower: fragrant, but capable of wilting. Devotion is like the root: whether the weather is good or inclement, it never deviates from its fundamental purpose to nourish the plant. To put it differently, the devotee is not the passenger who gets off the train at every railway station. He stays unswervingly on track. He may know nothing about God or religion. He is not a religious zealot; his devotion has simply organised his intelligence and energy in the direction of his choice.

The rub is that devotion cannot be taught. No amount of worship or yogic penance will get you there. “Practicing” devotion only produces fanatics: those whose minds are divided by hierarchy, those who revere only one thing as the ultimate and dismiss everything else as inferior. This is absolutely at odds with devotion. Devotees regard nothing as inferior. They simply see everything as higher than themselves. And yet, a devotee is not a walkover. Devotees recognise that emotional receptivity does not mean weakness; that that which bends shall not break.

Traditionally, in this subcontinent, entire cities were crafted to nurture devotion. In southern India, a town was always built around a temple. This may seem incomprehensible to a utilitarian mind. But these town-planners understood that the power of emotional energy is such that if you organise and focus it in a certain way, it can rapidly propel you towards your ultimate spiritual destination.

Devotion is the art of keeping yourself aside; it is the art not of mindfulness, but of abandon. Once your own personality – your petty creation -- joyfully dissolves into the glorious dance of the Creator’s creation, you become a devotee. And once devotion happens, the universe simply opens up for you.

The ancient city of Bhaktapur in Nepal is a case in point. Every step you took in here was intended to inculcate the spirit of bhakti. From the home to the palace to a simple water spout, every site is a temple, every step a reminder of the presence of the divine. Bhaktapur’s uniqueness is that it is a city by the devotee for the devotee. Initially, people bow down only to their gods. But when every step is a shrine, they have to bow down to everything! Gradually, an exclusive concept turns into an all-encompassing, inclusive journey. When you become this sensitive to the life process, you see the source of creation everywhere. A consecrated land is designed to empower you to leap at any moment from the mundane to the magical. Every step becomes your pilgrimage. Many find it very hard to believe I am a devotee. They keep asking me about the object of my devotion. “Are you devoted to Shiva?” they ask. I tell them: “Shiva is not my god; he is my partner.” What they miss is the fact that the ‘object’ is just an initial external device to inspire people. The real alchemy of devotion happens within the human heart. People believe that where is the divine, there will be devotion. It is the reverse. Where there is devotion, there resides the divine.

(Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary and a New York Times bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. He is also the founder of the world’s largest people’s movement, Conscious Planet– Save Soil, which has touched over 4 billion people.)

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The Hans India