We all love God. We claim to trust Him and surrender unto Him. We present to Him daily, our list of wants and demand that He answers them in the order given and with exactly the brand names we specify in our list. When our prayers are not answered, we rave and rant at God and call Him unfeeling, made of stone, unloving and definitely not a God! Surely, this is not bhakti!
Bhakti is not just love of God. It is an earthly emotion which is transcendental. It is an open sign of the hidden nature and divinity in man. Bhakti is faith, love, loyalty, surrender, trust, attachment and reverence for the Supreme Power. It is a deep and abiding trust which has the innocence of a child trusting his mother to take care of him at all times. Bhakti towards God and Guru is a means of rising higher than the human nature and revealing the divinity within us.
There is great importance of bhakti in life. We think of God and approach Him because we are in distress or we are inquisitive about the Supreme Power, we need wealth or we Love God for Himself. The man of wisdom who loves God for sake of Love is the one who is dearest to God.
God always answers our prayers in a manner which benefits us the most. We are not aware of what we need but He knows what we need and when we must receive. And He always grants us the right opportunities, relationships and possessions that we need for our welfare and progress in life. There is no man on earth who can say that none of his prayers were not answered. In fact, when we look back, we find that most of our prayers were answered and what was not answered was for our benefit only. But we spring in anger against God when in pain or when things are not up to our expectations and blame Him. We do not trust that He loves us and does things for our benefit. We rarely see all the blessings bestowed on us by God or the various times He has fished us out of hot waters, or the times he has granted us our prayers. As our wants and desires are endless, we demand endlessly but do not love or trust God in what and how He answers our prayers.
This is a little story of a man who prayed for help and how God answered his cries:
A man survived a shipwreck and was washed upon an island. When he woke up, he checked around and found that the island was small and uninhabited. He called upon God and sought for help. As he walked around, he found that the island had water and fruit trees and so he could survive. He searched and collected driftwood and built a little hut and started living there. He was now reasonably protected from the elements.
Every day he used to scan the horizon to sight a ship or boat and pray to God for help. He asked for being rescued and leaving the island behind him forever, a comfortable bed to sleep on, cooked food to eat and fresh clothes to wear. He used to pray several times daily with great sincerity and fervour. One day he returned to his hut in the evening after collecting food. To his shock, he found the little hut was in flames. The driftwood was burning merrily and the smoke was rolling up in the skies. He broke down in grief. The worst had happened. He wept inconsolably. ‘God, how could you do this to me? I have prayed to You sincerely every day.’ In his pain and sorrow, he fell asleep. Early next morning, he was woken by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. The ship was passing by at a distance and had spotted the smoke of the burning hut. And the man got all that he had prayed for.
When our prayers or wish list to God is not granted exactly in the order we ask, or the time when we ask or the way we ask, we are discouraged and angry. We feel things are going bad and we blame God. But we should not lose heart. The man in the story was saved, put on an island where he had food and water and wood to build a hut. When the opportune time came and a ship passed by, God set fire to his hut and the ship arrived to rescue him. God is present in our lives and taking care of us at all times, especially in our bad times. If the man in the story had total trust in God – he would have not blamed God. He would have understood that things happen because God wants it for us. God can never want anything bad for us. He is the Ocean of Compassion and Mercy.
So next time when our boat rocks or our house is on fire, we must remember that it is for summoning the Grace of God. For all the blame we heap on God’s head, He has a positive answer.
Bhakti is not just love of God. It is an earthly emotion which is transcendental. It is an open sign of the hidden nature and divinity in man. Bhakti is faith, love, loyalty, surrender, trust, attachment and reverence for the Supreme Power. It is a deep and abiding trust which has the innocence of a child trusting his mother to take care of him at all times. Bhakti towards God and Guru is a means of rising higher than the human nature and revealing the divinity within us.
There is great importance of bhakti in life. We think of God and approach Him because we are in distress or we are inquisitive about the Supreme Power, we need wealth or we Love God for Himself. The man of wisdom who loves God for sake of Love is the one who is dearest to God.
God always answers our prayers in a manner which benefits us the most. We are not aware of what we need but He knows what we need and when we must receive. And He always grants us the right opportunities, relationships and possessions that we need for our welfare and progress in life. There is no man on earth who can say that none of his prayers were not answered. In fact, when we look back, we find that most of our prayers were answered and what was not answered was for our benefit only. But we spring in anger against God when in pain or when things are not up to our expectations and blame Him. We do not trust that He loves us and does things for our benefit. We rarely see all the blessings bestowed on us by God or the various times He has fished us out of hot waters, or the times he has granted us our prayers. As our wants and desires are endless, we demand endlessly but do not love or trust God in what and how He answers our prayers.
This is a little story of a man who prayed for help and how God answered his cries:
A man survived a shipwreck and was washed upon an island. When he woke up, he checked around and found that the island was small and uninhabited. He called upon God and sought for help. As he walked around, he found that the island had water and fruit trees and so he could survive. He searched and collected driftwood and built a little hut and started living there. He was now reasonably protected from the elements.
Every day he used to scan the horizon to sight a ship or boat and pray to God for help. He asked for being rescued and leaving the island behind him forever, a comfortable bed to sleep on, cooked food to eat and fresh clothes to wear. He used to pray several times daily with great sincerity and fervour. One day he returned to his hut in the evening after collecting food. To his shock, he found the little hut was in flames. The driftwood was burning merrily and the smoke was rolling up in the skies. He broke down in grief. The worst had happened. He wept inconsolably. ‘God, how could you do this to me? I have prayed to You sincerely every day.’ In his pain and sorrow, he fell asleep. Early next morning, he was woken by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. The ship was passing by at a distance and had spotted the smoke of the burning hut. And the man got all that he had prayed for.
When our prayers or wish list to God is not granted exactly in the order we ask, or the time when we ask or the way we ask, we are discouraged and angry. We feel things are going bad and we blame God. But we should not lose heart. The man in the story was saved, put on an island where he had food and water and wood to build a hut. When the opportune time came and a ship passed by, God set fire to his hut and the ship arrived to rescue him. God is present in our lives and taking care of us at all times, especially in our bad times. If the man in the story had total trust in God – he would have not blamed God. He would have understood that things happen because God wants it for us. God can never want anything bad for us. He is the Ocean of Compassion and Mercy.
So next time when our boat rocks or our house is on fire, we must remember that it is for summoning the Grace of God. For all the blame we heap on God’s head, He has a positive answer.
