Watch video at: https://www.radhakrishnaprem.com/p/the-key-to-god-realization-devotionSpiritually inclined souls!On our journey to the Divine, often we come across a dilemma: Is God attained by the efforts of our devotional practice? Or is it only through God's grace that we can realize Him?The Ramayan details the sequence for attaining God, “Only through God's grace can we know Him and obtain His knowledge. Only after attaining His knowledge or knowing Him can one develop faith. And complete faith leads to the development of prem or true love,” Goswami Tulsiday tells us:जानें बिनु न होइ परतीती - बिनु परतीति होइ नहिं प्रीती Jane binu na hoi partiti, binu partiti hoi nahi priti- Ramcharitmanas(Without knowledge of God, one cannot develop faith in Him and without faith, one cannot develop love for God)Goswami Tulsidas further tells us in the Ramayan, “It may be possible to extract butter by churning water or oil from sand, but it is virtually impossible to cross the ocean of cosmic existence without devotion to God.”Goswami Tulsidas Ji tells in the Ramayan:जप तप नियम जोग निज धर्मा। श्रुति संभव नाना सुभ कर्मा॥ ग्यान दया दम तीरथ मज्जन। जहँ लगि धर्म कहत श्रुति सज्जन॥jap tap niyam jog nij dharma. shruti sambhav naana subh karma. gyaan daya dam teerath majjan. jahan lagi dharm kahat shruti sajjan.आगम निगम पुरान अनेका। पढ़े सुने कर फल प्रभु एका॥ तव पद पंकज प्रीति निरंतर। सब साधन कर यह फल सुंदर॥aagam nigam puraan aneka. padhe sune kar phal prabhu eka. tav pad pankaj preeti nirantar. sab saadhan kar yah phal sundar.रघुपति भगति सजीवन मूरी। अनूपान श्रद्धा मति पूरी॥raghupati bhagati sajivan muri. anupan shraddha mati puri.“The Lord of the Raghus, Shri Ram, cannot be found except by love, even if one may be practicing yoga, austerity, or even cultivate spiritual wisdom or dispassion.” So, quite naturally a question arises as to if God has attained on the strength of our own devotional practice, then He is not granting us any favors. Right?So why should we feel obliged when God-realization is due to the efforts of our own practice of devotion and bhakti? Why then is God called ‘causelessly merciful’? We just recited the beginning prayer, and in that we uttered, “He akāraņ karuņ…” Why is it then that God is called causelessly merciful? If He is indeed causelessly merciful, then why doesn't He manifest Himself before us instead of us having to do devotion or without us having to do devotion rather? So, let us unravel this mystery.First of all, we need to understand that devotion is not ‘a price’ to pay for God-realization. Let's first comprehend the true meaning or the right meaning of devotion, identify who ought to perform or practice devotion and the consequences of devotional practice. So devotion means oneness of the mind with God. Oneness of the mind with God or loving God with all your heart and mind. Tulsidasi Ji, Surdasi Ji, Mira, these Saints had unwavering and resolute love for God. They performed single-minded devotion to God. We, inversely, perform devotion by external acts of prayer while our mind remains entangled in worldly desires. We ‘goose step’ to the dictates of our mind only to gratify our material senses. In other words, we attempt to fool God who resides within us in our heart, forgetting that He is omnipresent and omniscient, and is witness to each and every thought of our mind. So, it is our mind that has to practice devotion. It's the mind. Now our mind is a product of the cosmic energy maya, and therefore, it is inert.The cosmic energy maya. Our mind is a product of maya which is inert. So anything, whatever our mind envisages or fathoms is within the realm of maya, whereas God is Divine. And so to receive or perceive Divine power, we need to have a Divine receptacle - a Divine pātra. That's what we need. So, how can anything material be the price for something Divine? How is it possible? So here, God's causelessly merciful nature comes into play. And so, He graciously accepts our material, mayic devotion and assists us in our spiritual journey in growing our bhakti, our devotion, our spiritual efforts. That's what He does.So, with constant practice, devotion purifies our mind. And we are able to get rid of or overcome worldly cravings, attachments, and all of those impurities; they begin to dissipate from our mind. So, the mind will not be Divinized by devotion. Then what will happen to the mind? The mind will only become purified through devotional practice. And once ...
