R: Re: R: Re: Bhakti

[elmec]

Ivano Alessandro Elia wrote:

> > Ivano Alessandro Elia wrote:
> >
> > >So my question could be reformulated as this:
> > >What should I do to become a devotee of Lord Siva?
> >

Hari Om,

Let me add my thoughts also to this thread though it may seem like a drop of water in the big ocean of high-thinking replies by
veterens  like Anand Hudli, Vaidya Shankaran and others.

In my opinion, Bhakthi is total surrendering of our antahkarana to the Lord . We should become so humble in front of Him that we should
think we are no greater than the dust on His feet. We know that the whole world is His creation and everything belongs to Him. To think
that something is " mine " is foolishness. The thought of " I " doing this or that is more foolish. We should always remember that we
are only an instrument in His hands and that we should feel blessed whenever a good deed is done by this body or a  good thought occurs
in our minds that He has been kind enough to select our body/mind  to get this good act done. For example, a tailor cuts out a cloth
beautifully to make a dress. If the scissors think that it has done a beautiful job and takes credit for this, isn't it foolishness on
scissors' part ? A kitchen knife should feel blessed when the cook uses it to cut vegetables. But if the same knife is used by a rogue
to slit somebody's throat, how sad it would be.

So, let us be extremely grateful to God that sitting inside our hearts He is prodding us on to look for Him and not for any other thing
of this world. A constant rememberance of Him in the background of our mind with all our love and longing for Him, wherever we are,
whatever we are doing, is Bhakthi. The very breath that I am breathing now is because of His blessings, the very thoughts that are
coming to my mind at the moment are because of His anugraha, the very fact that my fingers are able to type this out is because of His
direction. So everything that I think / do/ say is Him and Him alone. So where is the need to go looking for special rituals to please
Him ?! Our body is the temple, our heart is the shrine, He is already sitting there waiting for us to open the shrine and see Him . Alas
! except this place we are looking for Him everywhere else outside of us. And once we think of Him outside ourselves, we are making Him
anaatma, achetana, asat ! Can there be a greater tragedy than this ?

Regards,
Hari Om,
Latha Vidyaranya
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