The literature of the great mystical traditions is full of statements that speak of Devotion as the pillar of a spiritual quest, but the tragedy is that the intrepretors of the work of these great saints of reduce the definition to a very basic academic level. In the world of everyday living devotion gets defined as dedication, which is of course entirely different to devotion
Religion speaks of devotion to God and encourages the performance of rituals to demonstrate its devotion to God, which of course is all based on an idea of God since religion has no clue about God it believes in or worships. The waving of candles, the blowing of conch or the ringing of bells are all symbolic of the Divine Light and Sound, which of course has been taken from the teachings of Enlightened Masters or saints. Since there is nothing that religion can offer, it thrives on all the rules and the rituals in place.
So, what then is devotion in spiritual terms? Since no seeker has any knowledge of God prior to coming to an Enlightened Master, the use of words in spiritual traditions becomes a great support along with what a Master teaches face to face. The five senses can only comprehend the physical world and cannot grasp what is beyond them, vast levels of consciousness which are radiant and vibrant, the Light and Sound which supports all those levels and are revealed by a competent spiritual Master who is Enlightened and able to Enlighten other people.
The seeker who at one time had no knowledge of these inner worlds and is revealed the nature of the source of creation at initiation, gradually begins to appreciate the value of this rare gift from a Master and develops intense love and longing for this person as a toke of gratitude. Devotion then is realized as an aspiration for the highest in life, whereas dedication is merely an ambitious act. It is this demonstration by the Master to reveal the source of the formed worlds which takes the disciple ultimately to the same state as that of the Master, Buddhahood or Enlightenment or God Realisation. Is it a wonder then that the great sufi saint, Bulleh Shah says, “meditating on the Name of the Beloved, I have become the Beloved; whom shall I call my Beloved now?”
Devotion then gets manifested at a personal level, love and gratitude to the Master who is seen as the embodiment of the Light and Sound, some cultures call this principle as that the “Guru is the same as God,” which of course is not meaning the physical form. Since, it is the key that a Guru has to be present in the physical form to impart this grace, and the disciple sees all the qualities of unconditional love, kindness, charity, compassion and giving without any expectation, the love of the devotee intensifies into personal, until finally, one realizes God as Absolute Love and Absolut bliss through the compassionate act of the Master. This explains why Sultan Bahu, a great sufi saint, expresses his Love for his Master in the following verse:
“Were my whole body festooned with eyes,
I would gaze at my Master with untiring zeal.
O, how I wish that every pore of my body
Would turn into a million eyes –
Then, as some closed to blink,
Others would open to see!
But even then my thirst to see him
Might remain unquenched.
What else am I to do?
To me, O Bahu, a glimpse of my Master
Is worth a millions of pilgrimages to the holy Ka’ba.
– Sultan Bahu, BAIT 11.
This is true devotion, aspiring to the highest in life as opposed to dedication, which is worldly and based on ambition. One final message, I am often accused of teaching what was taught by other saints and living in the past. I must say that is absurd as all the teachings are just often used as testimonials left by others who have been here before in different parts of the World. My message is loud and clear, all this is happening now, at this very moment in history. The Master I talk about is not only Enlightened, but has Enlightened well over two hundred people in the last forty years, a number unheard of in history before this time. Any genuine seeker would want to know, so why just slander and not take the challenge. I have been given this miraculous state, anyone can have it too if they could just lay down their prejudice and accept what I have been saying repeatedly in my blogs and my website. This is a rare opportunity, so, please do not let it pass. There is no tomorrow, there is no other lifetime but only now.