11 January 2014 - QA 1

Gurudev, I am not a devoted person, I have never been one. Although I feel that I am missing a huge part of the experiences because of this. How should I handle it? Will it happen sometime?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

What do you think is devotion? Just crying and singing, is that what you think devotion is? Or running after me? No! It is a simplest state of your awareness. Whenever you are in the simplest state of awareness, that is what devotion is.

Just remember, when you were a child, what did you do? You looked at your own fingers, at your own hands, or at the light, at the colors. You looked at flowers in the plant, you tried to go and touch them and they were all shaking. Remember the state of innocence that you had as a child. When you feel at home, when you feel secure, safe, that is devotion.
Whenever you feel secure, safe, total comfort and ease and a sense of belongingness; a feeling that mother is at home, that is devotion.
A child feels very comfortable moving around when the mother is sitting in the car. But the moment she disappears, the child becomes very jittery. So that sense of security, or to simply say, ease.
Do you feel at ease? Do you feel trustful, non-judgmental and loved? That is devotion.

Lord Krishna first tells Arjuna, 'You are very dear to me', then Arjuna says, 'Yes, you are dear to me too'.
So God is telling you, that you are very dear to him, just listen. When you also start recognizing that God is dear to you, that is devotion.

We are definitely dear to God. When he is also dear to us, that is called devotion. We should never doubt that he loves us. First thing is, if we doubt whether God loves us or not, whether the Guru (teacher) loves us or not, whether this world loves us or not, then devotion or love does not arise in us.

First believe that the whole world loves me and I also love this world, then you can call yourself a devotee.