Devotion, the Means

Devo­tion “can­not, strictly speak­ing, be defined because it is tran­scen­den­tal.” Sages and scrip­tures var­i­ously described it as: “exclu­sive and intense lov­ing attach­ment to” God-dess; “the high­est and the most sat­is­fy­ing func­tion of the soul;” “the high­est end;” “inde­scrib­able love…and the grand­est and sub­limest of all human expe­ri­ences”; and “the only means for the attain­ment of” God-dess. (176)

Real­iza­tion of the supreme end as the per­sonal God-dess is present where devo­tion is present and absent where devo­tion is absent. Devo­tion “is pos­si­ble for everyone…and can be prac­ticed at all times and under all cir­cum­stances.” (178) Devo­tion may be prac­ticed in the con­di­tioned and lib­er­ated states. Devo­tion “is the eter­nal and the supreme func­tion of the soul…It is both the means and the end.” (178) Devo­tion is a potency of God-dess which brings the grace of God-dess.

Knowl­edge and detach­ment are nat­ural con­comi­tants of devo­tion. The more intense the love for God-dess, the less the attach­ment for worldly things. One learns to see worldly things in the light of God-dess and engage them in God-dess’ ser­vice. Thus, every­thing may be spir­i­tu­al­ized and used with­out attach­ment of the false ego. It is much bet­ter to sub­li­mate desires than repress them, which can lead to unhealthy com­plexes. Asceti­cism is detri­men­tal to devo­tion because it hard­ens the heart.

As a result of devo­tion, the soul real­izes its true nature as an “infin­i­tes­i­mal part of divine con­scious­ness.” (180) Pure devo­tion is with­out self­ish desire or cause. The devo­tee serves God-dess solely for God-dess’ plea­sure. This is the nat­ural func­tion of the soul and there­fore pleas­ant and sat­is­fy­ing. Though the devo­tee serves God-dess for God-dess’ plea­sure, plea­sure comes to the devo­tee auto­mat­i­cally. This is the nature of devotion.

In the spir­i­tual world, where love reigns supreme, to serve is to love. Love is rec­i­p­ro­cal. “Each mem­ber of the lov­ing rela­tion depends on the other; each feels defi­cient with­out the other; each wants to draw close to the other and to win the other by love and ser­vice.” (181) God-dess is the other mem­ber of this lov­ing rela­tion­ship. God-dess real­izes him-herself through lov­ing ser­vice to the devo­tees. God-dess derives greater plea­sure in being con­trolled by the devo­tees than in con­trol­ling them.

Devo­tion implies renun­ci­a­tion, “not in the sense of renun­ci­a­tion of the objects of the world, but in the sense of their ded­i­ca­tion to the ser­vice of” God-dess. “It does not imply com­plete erad­i­ca­tion of crav­ings and impulses, but com­plete trans­for­ma­tion or purifi­ca­tion of them under the sub­or­di­na­tion of the cen­tral impulse of ser­vice to” God-dess. In devo­tion, “the nat­ural con­flict between life and spirit is sought to be resolved not by deny­ing life but by mak­ing it con­form to spirit. The infu­sion of spirit into life changes the very char­ac­ter of our instincts. The instincts are nature’s urges. The infu­sion of spirit turns them into spir­i­tual urges.” (181) Uni­ver­sal­ist Radha Krish­naism “promises a new joy by reju­ve­nat­ing and reform­ing life on a spir­i­tual pat­tern.” (182)

True renun­ci­a­tion “is that in which the worldly objects are enjoyed with­out any attachment…and with the ulti­mate aim of real­iz­ing” God-dess. (182) One should prac­tice devo­tion with faith in God-dess and not be too attached nor too indif­fer­ent to the world. The spir­i­tual liv­ing being should gain con­scious con­trol of his or her life and enjoy the gifts of life in mod­er­a­tion and detach­ment while serv­ing God-dess with full devotion.

Devo­tion involves our whole per­son­al­ity in a life enhanc­ing way. It takes dif­fer­ent forms in knowl­edge, ado­ra­tion and ser­vice. “In knowl­edge it is the divine curios­ity; in” ado­ra­tion “it is the inte­grat­ing force; in ser­vice it is the will tak­ing the shape of a cos­mic force and ful­fill­ing the divine ends in creation…Devotion pre­sup­poses a cer­tain knowl­edge of the object of devotion…as an inte­grat­ing force it brings us closer to the object of devo­tion and leads to greater inti­macy with it. Greater inti­macy results in higher knowl­edge, which again is fol­lowed by active expres­sion in love and ser­vice.” (182)

Devo­tion is con­nected to life. Devo­tees are actively engaged in life, not pas­sive onlook­ers. “To know is to act. Every fresh acqui­si­tion of knowl­edge makes the move­ment of life more grace­ful, for it reveals the love that is at the heart of exis­tence; and the two axes of love are knowl­edge and ser­vice.” (182)

Real­iza­tion of God-dess is depen­dent on grace. Devo­tion is the means by which we open our­selves to grace. Devo­tion “is a spir­i­tu­ally grav­i­tat­ing force that takes us to the cen­tre. It is a force that works at two ends. In our own hearts it roots out all ego­is­tic impulses that carry us away from the cen­tre and releases the inte­grat­ing forces lead­ing to com­plete sur­ren­der of all our fac­ul­ties, so that knowl­edge love and will may act in com­plete har­mony with the divine rhythm.” In God-dess, it ener­gizes grace “and releases the forces of redemp­tion, which lead to the final inte­gra­tion of our being with Divine Will.” (183)

Devo­tion is a func­tion of the bliss­ful energy of God-dess (Radha), which ener­gizes both God-dess and devo­tee. God-dess, the supreme enjoyer of bliss, enjoys the bliss flow­ing from the devotee’s heart more than the bliss of God-dess’ inher­ent nature. The grav­i­ta­tional force of bliss draws the devo­tee to God-dess and God-dess to the devotee.

“Spir­i­tual life is gov­erned by the Law of Har­mony. Love is the Law of Har­mony in its high­est form. Self-surrender on our part and” grace on God-dess’ part “are the man­i­fes­ta­tions of the Law of Har­mony.” In the union “of self-surrender the soul strikes a divine chord and real­izes an inner har­mony, which is of the high­est order, and a poise and equi­lib­rium, which is much more than intel­lec­tual.” (184)

The devo­tee feels the pro­tec­tion of God-dess and can fear­lessly push for­ward, over­com­ing all obsta­cles. Devo­tion to God-dess “coun­ter­acts sin­ful acts…, whether they have begun to pro­duce effects or not.” Devo­tion “is not depen­dent even on the rules and regulations…of devo­tional prac­tices like” hear­ing and chant­ing. “If there be lapses in observ­ing these rules, they do not pre­vent” devo­tion “from yield­ing results quickly.” (185)

Devo­tion to God-dess sev­ers “the knot of igno­rance, which arises from the ‘I’ and ‘My’ consciousness…Just as by water­ing the roots of a tree we feed its branches and leaves, by prac­tic­ing devo­tion to” God-dess, “we sat­isfy the whole of cre­ation.” (186) Devo­tion devel­ops all good qual­i­ties. Actions per­formed in the ser­vice of God-dess, like hear­ing or singing the praises of God-dess are tran­scen­den­tal. Devo­tion is self-manifest and not sub­ject to mate­r­ial con­di­tions. “It is iden­ti­cal with supreme bliss.” (186) It is most enjoy­able as an end and a means. There­fore, devo­tees are often indif­fer­ent toward lib­er­a­tion since devo­tion sub­ju­gates God-dess.

Devo­tion is either devel­op­ing or per­fect. Devel­op­ing devo­tion is the means; per­fect devo­tion is the end. Per­fect devo­tion “is the eter­nally real­ized but non-manifest func­tion of the soul.” Devel­op­ing devo­tion “is the attempt to make this func­tion man­i­fest. Any method or means by which a per­son can suc­cess­fully divert” (187) the mind toward God-dess is con­sid­ered devel­op­ing devotion.

Some of the main ele­ments of devel­op­ing devo­tion are as follows:

Accept­ing what is con­ge­nial and reject­ing what is not con­ge­nial to devotion.

Choos­ing God-dess as protector.

The con­vic­tion that the devo­tee is not the actual doer but is moved by God-dess’ will.

To be hum­ble and free of self-conceit. Devel­op­ing the qual­i­ties of humil­ity and for­bear­ance opens one to grace and the full effect of devo­tional practices.

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To rev­er­en­tially learn from a spir­i­tual teacher and hold him or her in high regard as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of God-dess.

Hear­ing about the name, form, qual­i­ties and sports of Radha Krishna. There are no rules or par­tic­u­lar order for hear­ing these top­ics, but it is gen­er­ally con­sid­ered good to hear the name first since it puri­fies the heart before hear­ing the rest.

Chant­ing the names, singing God-dess’ praises and relat­ing what one has learned about God-dess to oth­ers. Chant­ing the names is con­sid­ered most effi­ca­cious, and they may be chanted aloud or men­tally. Chant­ing a cer­tain num­ber of names, or mantras, on prayer beads is a com­mon prac­tice. “No restric­tions of time, place, per­son, or states of body and mind apply to it. It can be chanted by any one, in any con­di­tion, and at any time or place.” (189) The holy name is incon­ceiv­ably iden­ti­cal and dif­fer­ent from God-dess, “who gra­ciously appears on the tongue of the devo­tee in the form of the Name…constant rep­e­ti­tion of the Name puri­fies” the heart. Then the pure name man­i­fests fully, and one is able to enter the divine love sports of Radha Krishna because mer­ci­ful God-dess is com­mit­ted to respond to us in the man­ner we approach. All names of God-dess are pow­er­ful, but the names of Radha Krishna are most pow­er­ful. Con­gre­ga­tional chant­ing of the name or singing the praises of Radha Krishna is espe­cially potent.

Remem­brance “is fix­ing the mind on the name, form, or sports” (192) of God-dess. One should pro­gres­sively learn to focus the mind until one becomes totally absorbed in remem­brance of Radha Krishna and their pas­times. One also assumes an iden­tity as a par­tic­i­pant in those pas­times and enters into them. Remem­brance of Radha Krishna is the pur­pose of all devo­tional practices.

“Cer­e­mo­nial wor­ship of the deity…is not idol­a­try or the wor­ship of the image, but the wor­ship of” (192) God-dess who out of grace assumes that form. This pro­vides an objec­tive basis for the spir­i­tual ori­en­ta­tion of the devotee’s life. Such wor­ship enables one to detach the mind and senses from mate­r­ial objects and engage them in ser­vice of Radha Krishna. Sen­sates may enjoy hav­ing stat­ues which can be bathed, dressed and offered for­mal wor­ship. Intu­itives may pre­fer a sim­pler altar with pic­tures, flow­ers, can­dles and incense to serve as a focus for med­i­ta­tion. One may even focus on a men­tal image. The point is to fix the mind on God-dess. Even if these forms are con­sid­ered mate­r­ial rep­re­sen­ta­tions, or sym­bols of God-dess, they are incon­ceiv­ably iden­ti­cal and dif­fer­ent from God-dess. What bet­ter way to por­tray God-dess than to employ the high­est aes­thetic ideas of beauty, truth and love. As above, so below.

Self sur­ren­der is com­plete ded­i­ca­tion of the self, includ­ing body, mind, senses and soul to the ser­vice of God-dess. God-dess can­not help but be attracted to a sur­ren­dered soul.

All these devo­tional ele­ments are inter­re­lated. “One may prac­tice one or more of these exclu­sively, or one may prac­tice all…because per­sons dif­fer in their apti­tudes and capac­i­ties and the par­tic­u­lar ele­ment that suits a par­tic­u­lar indi­vid­ual is best” for them. There is no one way that is right for everyone.

There are two stages of devel­op­ing devotion–regulative and spon­ta­neous. Reg­u­la­tive devo­tion is injunc­tory and rit­u­al­is­tic, con­sist­ing of observ­ing scrip­tural rules, reg­u­la­tions and rit­u­als. Con­di­tioned by fear of break­ing the rules, it is for­mal and mechan­i­cal, thus not very effec­tive or highly recommended.

Spon­ta­neous devo­tion is not con­di­tioned by fear of break­ing rules or scrip­tural injunc­tions. There is a con­tin­u­ous flow of attach­ment to God-dess, which makes it impos­si­ble to fol­low rules and reg­u­la­tions. It is the life of love, and love is blind. “It seeks the object of love regard­less of the norms that usu­ally guide the con­duct of an indi­vid­ual in soci­ety.” (194) Devo­tees prac­tic­ing spon­ta­neous devo­tion have a deep, nat­ural feel­ing of attach­ment to God-dess, and the cur­rent of devo­tion flows from their heart spon­ta­neously and cease­lessly over­flow­ing all limitations.

Devo­tion is intrin­si­cally dif­fer­ent from ordi­nary reli­gion. It is spon­ta­neous and free of scrip­tural injunc­tions. “It springs directly from the intrin­sic potency of the name and attrib­utes of the divine being. The devo­tee is drawn towards” (194) God-dess auto­mat­i­cally like the senses are drawn toward their objects.

“Once this spark is lighted the neces­sity of exter­nal obser­vances ceases. For devo­tion is the func­tion of the soul, not of the body to which the exter­nal obser­vances relate. When the func­tion of the soul is roused, the activ­i­ties of the body and its senses are reg­u­lated by the spon­ta­neous activ­ity of the soul.” (195)

In spon­ta­neous devo­tion, “the haz­ards and con­flicts of moral life and the strain and stress caused by the imper­a­tives of moral sense are com­pletely over­come. It is a life com­plete in spirit. It enjoys com­plete free­dom from the sense of ‘ought,’ which has nec­es­sary ref­er­ence to an unac­com­plished process and calls for striv­ing and accom­plish­ing. It is life ful­filled in love–love, that is released from all fet­ters and sanc­tions. Sanc­tioned love is not true love. It is only train­ing in love. It is love that is con­di­tioned by will and intel­lect. It is love with­out the zest of love.” (195)

Spon­ta­neous devo­tion “is emo­tional sub­li­ma­tion of inti­mate human sen­ti­ments.” (195) A parent’s love for their chil­dren or a person’s love for their spouse or lover is nat­ural and intense. In spon­ta­neous devo­tion, the same love in all its inten­sity and spon­tane­ity, is directed toward God-dess. It is supremely effec­tive, but it is still a means of devel­op­ing devo­tion and not the end.

Spon­ta­neous devo­tion fol­lows the line of devo­tion and attach­ment of Radha Krishna’s eter­nal asso­ciates described in the devo­tional writ­ings as par­a­dig­matic indi­vid­u­als. While there are asso­ciates in sev­eral dif­fer­ent broad cat­e­gories of devo­tional rela­tion­ship, we, and most of Chaitanya’s fol­low­ers, focus on the sweet sen­ti­ment of pure love as between lover and beloved. We fol­low the ideal of Radha’s con­fi­den­tial female asso­ciates. We real­ize these are dated Indian role mod­els, so, we freely impro­vise a more con­tem­po­rary adap­ta­tion. Radha Krishna are ever fresh and new, expand­ing their pas­times unlim­it­edly and respond­ing accord­ing to the devotee’s approach.

Spon­ta­neous devo­tion is only an imi­ta­tion of per­fect devo­tion. It is not pos­si­ble for an ordi­nary per­son in a phys­i­cal body to attain the per­fect devo­tion of the eter­nal asso­ciates, whose bod­ies are made of divine bliss. Spon­ta­neous devo­tion pre­pares one for attain­ing it ulti­mately in a tran­scen­den­tal body. As long as one is still in the phys­i­cal body, one goes on hear­ing, chant­ing and per­form­ing other devo­tional prac­tices out­wardly, while inwardly imag­in­ing one­self to be in the tran­scen­den­tal body serv­ing Radha Krishna con­stantly. By con­stant med­i­ta­tion or remem­brance, one makes the tran­scen­den­tal love sports come alive. One enters those sports in the imag­i­na­tion, and by serv­ing Radha Krishna in that devo­tional mode, expe­ri­ences the ecstasy of vic­ar­i­ous enjoyment.

“The imag­i­nary tran­scen­den­tal body…, how­ever, is not wholly imag­i­nary. It is a men­tal reflec­tion of the tran­scen­den­tal body,” (196–7) God-dess imparts to the devo­tee out of infi­nite grace. God-dess imparts to the devo­tee a tran­scen­den­tal body exactly like the one which is imag­ined and is essen­tial for the par­tic­u­lar mode of devo­tion prac­ticed. God-dess is bound to do so as a result of always being sub­servient to the devo­tees. The imag­i­nary spir­i­tual body which the devo­tee con­tem­plates, is an imper­fect replica of the spir­i­tual body one attains on the fruition of devo­tion. “The imag­i­nary or con­tem­plated tran­scen­den­tal body, there­fore, is just the tran­scen­den­tal body proper in the mak­ing.” (197)

One can­not become Radha, Krishna or one of their eter­nal asso­ciates like Lalita or Bishaka, but one can attain a unique, eter
nal rela­tion­ship with them sim­i­lar to that of the eter­nal asso­ciate one emu­lates. We are eter­nally our own indi­vid­ual spir­i­tual self and do not become some­one else, except in the sense of chang­ing from a mate­r­ial to a spir­i­tual body. Remem­brance, or con­tem­pla­tion, and ser­vice of Radha Krishna through the medium of the imag­i­nary tran­scen­den­tal body is the very essence of spon­ta­neous devotion.

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