Devotion as a Way of Life
Swami says that devotion is a constant continuous bend of mind and a way of life. He explains how we should adhere to it:
Man starts with actions, recognizing that the human body is meant for achieving dharma (righteousness) through karma (action). When he goes on performing good dharmas, he will in due course become fit for understanding upasana (devotional practices). When he worships God over a period of time, with love and in a spirit of dedication, he attains the final stage of jnana (wisdom).
Indian Culture and Spirituality, p. 164
Through activity man attains purity of consciousness. In fact man has to welcome activity with this end in view. And why strive for a pure consciousness? Imagine a well with polluted and muddy water so that the bottom of the well cannot be seen. Similarly within man’s heart, deep down in his consciousness, we have the atma. But it can be cognized only when the consciousness is clarified. Your imaginings, your inferences, your judgments and prejudices, your passions, emotions, and egoistic desires make the consciousness muddy and opaque. How then can you become aware of the atma that is at the very base? Through seva (service) rendered without any desire to placate one’s ego and with only the well being of others in view is it possible to cleanse the consciousness and have the atma revealed.
Sanathana Sarathi, Nov. 1997 (back cover)
Devotion cannot come upon you during stated hours and fall off when you relapse into normalcy. It is a continuous, constant condition of the mind, a confirmed attitude, and a way chosen and adhered to with avid attention…. Bhakti (devotion) is a constant, continuous bent of mind, a habit of thought, and a way of life. It must be loyally adhered to whatever may happen—dishonor, distress, despair, deprivation, pleasure, prosperity, power, and pomp.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 6, p. 236
Bhakti leads man on to the wisdom arising from the realization of the unity called God. Just as childhood grows unto old age and gets fruition thereby, devotion grows into wisdom, that is, bhakti grows into jnana. There are some who deny the need for bhakti and assert that jnana can be won without the preliminary stage of bhakti. But bhakti is as necessary and as inevitable a process as childhood.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 12, p. 195
Karma leads to the consciousness of the ever-present immanent, all powerful God. Upasana or adoration of that God, leads to the knowledge that He is in all. When you experience that there is no second, that is Jnana.
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 4, p. 318
