Ramana Maharshi Path of Devotion Worshipping God

Ramana Maharshi Path of Devotion Worshipping God

Question : That is why I am asking you whether God could be worshipped through the path of love.
Ramana Maharshi : That is exactly what I have been saying. Love itself is the actual form of God. If by saying, `I do not love this, I do not love that', you reject all things, that which remains is swarupa, that is the real form of the Self. That is pure bliss. Call it pure bliss, God, atma, or what you will. That is devotion, that is realization and that is everything.

If you thus reject everything, what remains is the Self alone. That is real love. One who knows the secret of that love finds the world itself full of universal love. The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion [bhakti] which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love.

Only if one knows the truth of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled knot of life be untied. Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained. Such is the heart of all religions. The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss.

Question : I long for bhakti. I want more of this longing. Even realization does not matter for me. Let me be strong in my longing.
Ramana Maharshi : If the longing is there, realization will be forced on you even if you do not want it. Long for it intensely so that the mind melts in devotion. After camphor burns away no residue is left. The mind is the camphor. When it has resolved itself into the Self without leaving even the slightest trace behind, it is realization of the Self.

Source : from book "Be As You Are" David Godman