Bhakti or devotion is indispensable for attainingjnana. Jnana is the condition necessary for bhakti to reach its fullestdevelopment in love. Knowledge without devotion is as futile as devotion withoutknowledge.
Love follows from the basic oneness of all beings. God isbeing. World is becoming. The creation of the world does not in any way affectthe integrity of God. The world does not stand apart from God, but is pervadedby him.
Bhakti is not mere emotionalism but is the turning of the will aswell as the intellect towards the divine. The ideal devotee is a karma yogi aswell as a jnana yogi. Bhakti originates in knowledge, is essentially of thenature of love, and bursts forth in selfless action.
True love gives thehighest wisdom, Diffused love is wisdom. Concentrated wisdom is love. Truewisdom vibrates in the hearer. Bhakti begins with emotional dualism andculminates in monism. Lover and the loved, the devotee and the object ofdevotion, are fused into one spiritual ecstasy.
All creation is thefamily of God. This world is sustained by the power of God. The deepest urge oflife is to know God and to live in God. God's will is the very law which governsthe universe. All beings are guided and controlled by the divinewill.
Life on this physical plane is a mere preparation for the eternallife in God. Though the Lord resides in all creatures and things, there is adifference in the degree of His manifestation in them. In human beings the Lordis more manifest than in others. And, among human beings, He is more or lessmanifest according to the degree of knowledge or consciousness that isrealised.
He who follows the path of meditation knows his Self as divineand one with God. Any man or woman has equal right to follow the path ofdevotion. The greatest sinner can practise devotion and attain God-realisation.Though unborn, God takes birth as an avatara (incarnation) to destroy thewicked, to protect virtue and to establish dharma (righteousness).
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