Devotion

We can increase our devotion as we develop our muscles, day by day. As we take physical exercise daily, so also we must take spiritual exercise daily. Spiritual exercise is prayer and meditation. In order to increase our devotion we have to meditate daily on the heart centre and we have to feel that God is all Concern and Compassion for us. If we look at God the Omniscient or Omnipotent, we may show Him a little bit of our devotion. But if we look at God the Love, Concern and Compassion, then automatically our devotion increases. When we think that God the Almighty Father is all Love for us, all Compassion for us, then our devotion increases.

If you have a spiritual Master and if you can see not the human but the divine in him, then immediately your devotion increases. True, there are many false spiritual Masters. But if you have a real spiritual Master and he, out of his infinite bounty, shows his divinity and if you yourself see his divinity, then your devotion is bound to increase in infinite measure. And when you see his Highest, rest assured that in the near future you will also grow into that Height.

If you do not have a spiritual Master, then there is another way to increase your bhakti, or devotion, and that is through a constant feeling of gratitude. You must feel that inside your heart a flower is blossoming, petal by petal, and that flower is called gratitude. Every day if you can offer your gratitude to God, then from the fragrance of the gratitude-flower within you, devotion is bound to grow.