How the Magic of Devotion can transform your life
Connecting the dots back, I found that a trivial incident in childhood led me to discover the most sacred secrets of life, the magic of devotion.
It was summer and a drama company had camped at our village. I was about eight years old and I used to find a chance somehow to sneak into the theatre and watch most of the shows.
As the days passed, I became acquainted with a few people associated with the drama company and their children. One day, one of the drama artists visited our house and asked if I could play the role of a boy who was a devotee of Lord Narayana. The boy who usually played the role was not available that day.
It was a minor role, where the boy, an ardent devotee, always recited a mantra. The lady of the drama company taught the mantra to me. It went like this:
Tvameva Mata cha Pita Tvameva,
Tvameva Bandhu cha Sakha Tvameva,
Tvameva Vidya Dravinam Tvameva,
Tvameva Sarvam Mama Deva Deva.
Meaning: You are my mother and my father. You are my true relative and friend. You are my knowledge and you are my wealth. You are my everything, oh my lord.
This one mantra transformed my life.
Two years later, I joined a residential school hundred kilometres from our home. There, I was away from parents, alone and sad. That is when this Mantra came to my rescue. There, I used to sit alone in a secluded place, look at the sky and recite this mantra.
In our village, we have the temple of a Goddess on top of a hill. This has been our family deity for generations. When I got selected to the residential school, my mother told me that she was only my biological mother, but my true mother was the Goddess in the temple. While my parents might not always be with me, this goddess will always be with me and protect me, my mother had said.
I believed her words completely. Whenever I felt lonely in the school, I used to sit somewhere alone and recite this mantra — Oh my Goddess, you are my father and my mother, my friend and teacher, you are my knowledge and wealth, and you are everything to me.
Every time I recited this mantra, everything began to change for me. I started to feel the sky pouring into me and fill me with an immense joy. Then I started to feel that everything around me — the trees, the people around, the birds and animals, the rocks and clouds — was part of my being.
A few months passed and this experience continued to go deeper. Soon, I started to recognise many miracles happening around me. Things that I just imagined or thought about began to manifest. Things were happening as if I myself had created them.
But, I did not much worry about all those thought manifestations. I was so joyful that nothing else mattered to me.
The experiment
Filled with an uncontrollable joy, I wanted to know the source of this experience. Then I began to experiment with the other deities. I wanted to know the secret behind this process of worship, the deities and the experiences. I wanted to understand the science behind devotion.
I had two reasons to conduct such experiments:
- There is immense fear and suffering around the God-concept in the world. People have strange ideas about God and a lot of them suffering unnecessarily. I wanted to burst it to find the right path.
- I wanted to know the concept of divinity and share its benefits with the world.
From then onwards, I started to conduct experiments. For months and years, I used to choose a deity, devote myself to that deity and experience the joy of it.
For example, I take Lord Krishna as my deity and I start living with him. I consider him as my best friend, guide and support, and always feel that he was living with me. He comes with me to my school, to the dining hall and also sleeps next to me. Then I find time to sit at a secluded place and talk to him.
This is how the experiment goes. You start living with your deity as if you both are in a relationship. Soon, you begin to live as if you have everything in life. When you have someone like Krishna as your friend, you don’t need anyone else.
It may look imaginary or fantasy for many. But, as you go through this book, you will know the psychological secrets of the devotion and how your this imagination can make a real impact on your life.
With the assumption that you are living with a higher being, your vibrations are naturally high and pure. The thought that you are always protected by somebody will keep you relaxed and confident. Fearful or doubtful thoughts never bother you. You don’t even suffer from thoughts of resentment or jealousy.
As I continued to experiment with more deities, one day it happened: I went beyond the deities and started to connect with the nameless and formless entity of the Almighty. That’s when you really flower.
Flowering is when you and your God has become one. It is the moment when you as a drop become one with the ocean. And you have become the ocean. Then you are so abundant that all desires are dropped, the entire existence has entered you.
The revelation
The tree of life
The biggest revelation in life is that you are the almighty yourself. There is one almighty and that is you. And everything around you, including all the people and all living beings, is just a response to you. The whole existence is one, and for you, it operates from within you.
In this world, we always divide things as something that is me and the rest that is not me. But in reality, there is nothing called THAT IS NOT ME. That very consideration is a fallacy because your soul is so pervaded that it embodies everything from within. So, everything in the existence is already part of you.
But, you don’t need to carry the cosmos in your mind. Your mind is very small and trying to carry the cosmos is a burden. Just understand that within you, you are already in union with every other being and everything in existence.
To make it more understandable, let me give you an analogy of a tree. This explains how you are one with the almighty and the world. This understanding will benefit you in many ways psychologically.
Consider an apple tree. This tree has a hundred apples.
Now, each apple is directly attached to the tree. These apples are connected with each other also, but not directly. They are connected to each other through the tree.
Now, consider this tree as the almighty, and we the living beings are the apples. Remember, we are directly connected to the almighty and not to other people.
When one of the apples wants more nutrients to grow, it does not look at its bigger neighbours and crib. It just asks the tree for what it wants. And the tree has abundant resources to provide for all of its fruits.
Similarly, as you are always in oneness with the God, you need not look at other people and feel jealous. You are in union with the almighty and it knows what exactly you want. You don’t even need to ask for things. Fruits do not ask. They just rest in peace, and they are continuously provided with everything they need. Similarly, there are many things you yourself may not know you might need it, but the God knows and provides you with it.
That is why you first need to turn yourself to your almighty. Because we live in a society and are heavily influenced by it — all our dreams, aspirations and even powers are being hindered by the society. But, when you unite with your almighty, you will know miracles start happening in your life.
So, my revelation is how and how deeply I am in union with the Almighty. In this book, I am sharing with you the way to bond with the God and transform your life.
Here, you will learn about the path of devotion or Bhakti, the simplest and most effective path of Yoga. It is one step mukti-yoga, the salvation science. It is not a long process; the moment you jump into it, you are already transformed.
The sharing
My exploration did not stop there. I continued to read hundreds of stories of ancient and modern devotees, sacred scriptures, methods of meditation and modern psychology to understand the secret behind devotion.
Now, I am presenting here The Magic of Devotion to you. Here, you will read about the meaning and science behind devotion, how to select your deity, practice devotion, and live an abundant life. You will also get to read many miraculous stories of devotees who created unbelievable things in their life.
As you go through, you will learn many secrets about the complete process. If you understand them well, you will not need any other yoga or spiritual practice. Devotion is enough for your life. It will surely take you to great heights.
This part is taken from the online course The Magic of Devotion.
Originally published at raghavendra.online on March 19, 2018.
