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  • Recorded on: 16 Aug 2009
  • Language: English
  • Length: 0h 04m

The Role of Devotion in Spiritual Progress

Devotion is the essential force that accelerates spiritual development toward realization after initial discipline. The meeting with the divine presence awakens an indescribable joy, where every part of one's being vibrates with happiness. This is the experience of the devotee, where all internal sorrow is transformed. The body's latent potentials, like unopened buds, blossom. This is not a logical event but a profound inner awakening. The arrival of truth at one's door ignites this complete fulfillment. It is a direct communion beyond ordinary description.

"O my friends, listen, my Gurudev arrived, came to my house."

"All the blessings—each tissue of my body is vibrating with happiness."

Very soon we come to the point where Patañjali speaks about śraddhā, bhāva—that is, devotion. After a certain period of practicing various yogic disciplines (yogī kriyās) and striving for control over the senses, the further development of spirituality toward samādhi or brahmajñāna is devotion. If one wishes to accelerate the development of this spirituality, then one must turn to devotion, to bhāva. Lala Nanjī, in his bhajan, expresses the feelings of a bhakta, a disciple, when Gurudev comes to their house, to the door of the devotees. That Satguru has come: Kali Kali Harṣa Vaṭahe. Kali means the bud. Before a lotus flower, a rose, or any flower opens, there is a bud, and this bud is kali. Similarly, our body is filled with all these blood glands, these "buds." Every tissue of this body is like a bud. And when Satguru Dev, Mahāprabhujī, arrived at his door, he is saying: "Suno Sajjane Satguru Gharaya—O my friends, listen, my Gurudev arrived, came to my house. What happens?" Kalī, kalī, harṣāva. Harṣ and shock—these are two. Shock is unhappiness. When some tragedy occurs, some quarreling is there. Sadness is shock: aśok. Aśok is sadness. Harṣa is happiness. So, all the blessings—each tissue of my body is vibrating with happiness. This is the indescribable feeling of a bhakta when one meets the Satguru Dev, holy saints, or, let us say, when God suddenly manifests here.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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