Devotion is a name for the feeling, the psychological climate and the heart of a devotee. God is not essential to it. Devotion can exist even without a God. For those whose hearts are filled with devotion, the whole world is God. The world is not even a stone, but a stony heart person sees only stone even in God. Devotion is like Love, we can never train a person to love and it has to spring out of the heart by itself. That is the reason in Gita; Krishna says the Bhakti yoga (path of devotion) is blessed in few. What we find in the world is just the projection of what we are. Devotion finds godliness in everything and everywhere. Devotion is just like the mirror, it reflects what is shown to it.
Krishna is both God and devotee and whoever is going to start as real devotee is going to reach his destination as God. When devotee starts finding God everywhere there is no reason he cannot find God in himself. Ramakrishna was appointed as priest in the temple of Dhakshineshwar in Calcutta for the Goddess Durga. But just in few days of appointment he was in trouble with the temple trustees. Trustees came to know that the new priest’s way of ceremony was all wrong. First he tasted the food himself and then offered it to God. He even smelt the flowers before he offered it to the deity. They thought that it spoils the purity of the offering. When Ramakrishna was asked about the improper methods, he answered that there is no accepted method and discipline for devotion. He also said that his mother tasted the food before offering it to him the child. Ramakrishna was reluctant to serve the God the food without knowing if it was delicious enough for the God.
Now a devotee as Ramakrishna cannot be content with an external God. He soon found the God within himself. So the journey began as devotee completes in itself as God. That is the reason he is worshiped as Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Krishna is both God and devotee as we all are. Krishna can very well be accepted as God, because he is much devoted even to his horse as he is to God himself. If he was arrogant about being God he would not have agreed to be Arjuna’s charioteer. Instead he would have asked Arjuna to be his charioteer, because he was God and Arjuna is mere devotee. The journey should begin as devotee, and it will complete itself with God, within.
Dr Dwarakanath
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