Devotion

Wisdom Teachings
Essences of the Teachings

The concept of devotion is more misunderstood than understood; today's understanding is distorted. Devotion is typically equated with emotion, with feelings of religious fervour. Master KPK even says that there is a black magic happening upon the concept of devotion, and when we try to judge things, we reject devotion out of ignorance.

Many people also believe that devotion is no longer needed, because Master Djwhal Khul has written in his books that the sixth ray of devotion is dwindling. When the Master said, “The sixth ray vanishes,” he did not mean the sixth ray as a whole but its emotional aspect. Devotion is different from emotion. Emotions disturb the stability of the mind; they are not suitable for subtle perceptions.

The devotion which we are speaking about here is not a feeling as we normally think. Devotion is a constant effort to orient the personality to the soul; and this means that the personality surrenders to the soul. This is also referred to as the bond with the soul, or the surrender to the One who exists in all. Today, we also use the term discipleship. Discipleship means striving every moment in daily life to connect with the soul. The twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita explains that a devoted person sees nothing but THAT in the manifestations - THAT as humans, THAT as animals, THAT as plants, THAT as mountains.

Devotion is the aspiration to become one with THAT. Master EK used to say: “Devotion means to be absorbed into the Lord and to experience Him.” However, when we cry for the Divine with full of feelings, the emotions block the experience of the Divine. Emotion is not orientation towards the soul or the Divine. We should show devotion not only to the Divine but to every action in life. Dedication is associated with concentrated alignment. Mental concentration is not possible without devotion. Indeed, devotion is pure mental energy, without any colouring by emotions. Emotion is compared with dirty water and devotion with distilled water.

Devotion acts as compassion and love, as the ability to feel other people and what they need. When emotional people become devotional, they do much more work than mentally oriented people because they are inspired by an impulse. Therefore, it is easy for such people to transcend the mental plane as well. Only on the Buddhic plane we experience the Light. If we want to arrive at more subtle dimensions of the mind and reach the Buddhic plane, we need devotion.

The Master of the first ray, Morya, today works with the sixth ray of devotion because that a person who is full of devotion takes the steps of evolution earlier and faster than someone who fights with his own mind all the time. We cannot say that Master Morya does not work with the sixth ray and that this is the ray of Master Jesus. Every Master has all the qualities of every ray; they work according to the Plan and not according to how we think.

The Western psyche is predominantly mentally oriented, while in the East emotional devotion predominates. But that does not mean that in the West such types do not exist. And also in the East there are people who are strongly mentally oriented. In general, however, the fifth ray of scientific thought is more pronounced in the West and the sixth ray of devotion in the East. This is a general distinction from which no rule can be derived. If you stimulate an already mentally oriented person mentally still more, his head becomes as hard as concrete. If a person is already emotional, one should not drive him further into the emotions. If someone reacts too much with the heart, you have to bring him to the head. In addition, it should be noted that a person is subject to cycles in which he is more emotionally or mentally oriented. In spirituality it is said that the head and the heart should be in harmony.

A person with devotion is full of attention to all things in life. In all that we do, we should be fully interested, whether we wash dishes, eat, go shopping, or pray. If we are emotionally attached to something and always remember it, then it is not devotion. When we buy new shoes, we think of them beforehand and are particularly careful with them after the purchase; but after a while the interest decreases and we will become careless about the shoes. Devotion means to have the same attentive attitude even after two years. Our dedication shows how we care about things. Devotion is an act of love that gives us the presence and joy of here and now. Devotion has the quality of penetration. When we work with dedication, it spreads into our daily routine; thus, we enjoy life better.

Many students of occult wisdom do many things but they do not dedicate themselves to any task with full devotion; they go here and there, gather books from everywhere and spend a lot of energy on it, but they have no dedication to commit themselves to a special path of life. On a chosen path of life, you can also do other things; what is important is that you regularly progress on the path so that you really walk the path.

A sense of devotion and the willingness to receive are particularly needed for meditation. Meditation must not be a routine activity. Our mind becomes accustomed to everything very easily and does it mechanically. If we automatically follow rules and lose sight of the Divine, no transformation takes place. Therefore, aspiration and devotion are very important to progress in meditation. Only when we attentively orient to the Master we can receive the impressions that the Master conveys.

A gathered mind is like a chariot with five horses all moving in the same direction. However, if the five horses pull in five different directions, the chariot breaks into five pieces. The purpose of the sixth ray is that the senses are made to converge. When the senses are converged, the mind is also gathered together and we can better engage in meditation. Also, incense sticks, candles and flowers, as well as the intonation of OM or other mantras, can help us gather the senses and the mind by orienting inwards with devotion. The colours pink and silver-grey help to neutralize emotions and transform them into devotion. Pink soothes and silver cleanses.

If we dedicate ourselves completely to a cause, be it noble or not, our mind becomes very stable. A suicide bomber, for example, is so dedicated to his cause that he remains stable and actually ignites the bomb. Although the cause he has consecrated to may not be noble, he has attained a stable mind through his total dedication. Whoever goes through the fifth initiation also experiences a strong consecration and total dedication. Christ has offered himself for a very noble cause. Likewise, there are stories of people who have not minded to offer everything they possessed for a noble cause, not just their possessions, but also their entire lives. Madame Blavatsky has offered herself with total devotion to the work of the Master; she did not care for the rest. Her body was so sick that the Master told her, “It is enough; you do not have to finish the Secret Doctrine.” But she decided to finish the work; she was sure she would not die before this valuable work was done.

The path of devotion, called Bhakti in the East, is not different from the path of Yoga. Yoga recommends surrendering to the One Master in all. Bhakti speaks of the same. It is the effort to remain in constant relation with the Divine. The path of Bhakti is enchanting since the student is at all times in a dialogue with the Master or the Divine. To whomsoever he speaks, he speaks to the Master in the other as well. He slowly replaces himself with the Divine, and he feels, “I am not there, but you, the Divine is there.” That is why in the Indian rituals they always say Namaha - not me, but You. It is an attitude of prayer when we say, I ask for nothing. I offer from my worship, my love, and my devotion to you.

Today, it is often called devotion when someone reveres the personality of another one. But this is not devotion. However, when we see the Divine in another person and meet them with friendliness and love, the devotion uplifts us to the soul consciousness. We can also feel the presence of an initiate when we read his teachings with intense focus. The teacher's presence is hidden in his teachings. During congregations where the wisdom is being discoursed and listened to with great dedication, great beings come in invisible bodies of light and they give their presence. Each of the great beings have their own fragrance. By this we can see that they have visited the place and spread blessings to us.

Sources: K. Parvathi Kumar: Nutrients for Discipleship / Notes from seminars. Dr. E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India