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Transcript of talk on devotion by Shakti Durga,

Devotion seminar,

Cooranbong, Saturday 12 December 2009.

 

As we enter the traditional festive season, we remember that for most Western people, the significance of Christmas has to do with respect for the life and teaching of Jesus. Christianity is at its core a devotional religion. Devotion to the Guru, Jesus,

will bring love, joy, happiness, peace, miracles and protection.

What follows is a discourse about devotion and what it means in modern terms.

 

Before you read this, please stop and go within, connect with Shakti Durga and send love.

 Allow Her blessing to flow to you. Feeling a peacefulness and stillness within. 

This peacefulness and stillness is characteristic of devotion.

When you feel centered, read on. At the end, ask that the blessing

 which was given on Saturday be given to you.

You may feel a surge of energy as your wish is fulfilled.

 

When the devotion becomes great enough we merge with the beloved and in that merging we are able to utilize the grace and strength of the beloved as though it were our own.

 

This is somewhat impossible to do if we are attached to the separateness of the ego consciousness. Naturally our egoic consciousness is very important for carrying out some worldly functions, but it is meant to be the servant and not the master.

 

Through devotion we will find what our destiny is – we will find our path and when the heart is pure, we will unerringly find our path.   

 

When the  egoic consciousness that lives primarily within our solar plexus, our throat            chakra  and our left brain, when that takes over we are so full of ideas that we wouldn't know the truth if it hit us over the head. We have to analyze everything and even then the only way we can decide, is to see if the pluses outweigh the minuses from the perspective that we have right now.

 

And whilst this is better than nothing in terms of analyzing one's life, it is hardly the ultimate of which we are capable.

 

 I activated your heart chakra, your palm chakra  and right brain today and your antakarana and Crown chakra, so that you  can hear me, so that you can feel what it is  that I have to say, what it is that the path of devotion can offer you and why it is that this somewhat unfashionable path  ought return to fashion, (just like 1980s shoulder pads are back in fashion – except devotion is much better,  and hopefully more long lasting).

 

Fashions come and go but devotion as a path in some form or other has stood the test of time. It is ancient and probably the first path that was ever invented by mankind seeking a reunification with the Divine.  

 

The wonders and the lifestyle benefits that have come through the development of left brain consciousness and egoic consciousness are to be applauded and appreciated, but all that needs to be placed within a context and a framework, and I hope that today you will find a little more of that framework for yourself.

 

The path of devotion is a path of love and commitment. That is all it is – it’s just love with a sense of commitment. The advanced path of devotion involves a dissolving of the self, - of the egoic  self which veils the Majesty of the inner self and thus the path of devotion when  pursued with ardor, and when pursued with fortitude, becomes a more advanced path in which as well as devotion, we also find ourselves contemplating the meaning of surrender and striving to surrender.

 

Surrender is one of those concepts that has probably many, many thought forms attached to it but these thought forms are the province of the left brain, which can have no thought about surrender other than self negation but when the consciousness becomes attuned to the clear and pure intuition that only years of spiritual development can bring,   -purification, meditation, taking responsibility, studying, attending to karmic grace by giving forgiving and serving,  loving the unlovable, being calm in your disposition and if ruffled, returning to equanimity within minutes, -  when all of these things are in place - when criticism and judgment is no longer the ruler of the consciousness and instead when clear and pure heart resides within our consciousness, then we can say we have become intuitive.

 

Intuitive is not the same as psychic. Psychic is the capacity to see thought forms within the astral field, and from that, be able to infer the state of a person's life and their probable future. It is also the capacity to see the dead, as though they were alive, or at least some degree of clarity in respect of mediumship. Intuition, in the sense that I am using it, means to be connected to the highest part of oneself, which is the Divine spark within, flowing through our soul  This is a form which gives rise to knowing which has not been learned and arises beyond the Astral field, the Astral field being where psychism takes place.

 

Intuition allows for Divine grace to flow through us with complete clarity. It allows us to be of service to ourselves and others in a completely different way. It allows for us to climb a magnificent stairway, a stairway to Heaven and every step upon the path of intuition is attained through increasing ones capacity for both devotion and surrender. The clearer one becomes, the more surrendered one becomes and the more surrendered one becomes the clearer one becomes.

 

In surrender one loses attachment to that which is within form, which could distort the way we think, because of strongly held beliefs and attachments. It has often been the experience of many who serve, that it is much easier to observe the development of another than oneself, and the reason for this is that there is no attachment, whereas where  one is seeking to use one’s  intuition for self development,  there is so much baggage,  there are so many beliefs that limit us in terms of who we think we are,  that we get caught in a miasma, which in the end ties us up in a knot and perhaps does not take us forward at all.

 

Devotion is a method of circumventing all of that. When one focuses upon devotion, and trusts that the guru will lead one, then Shakti takes over and the truth of what is emerges in our lives, as it always does. Then, even when we think that we are doing something for a particular purpose, we may find out later that it was very important that we did it but that the real purpose is entirely something  different.

 

When one surrenders and one is devoted, then in some entirely mystical manner, one is unerringly guided to the right place at the right time, with the right people, in the right circumstance, for that which is right to occur. That which is right, is again something subjectively held in the left brain.  The left brain will tell you that  it is right to never suffer an inconvenience, to never have a set back, to never bang into a wall, to never get sick, to never lose money, to never make a mistake. That is the limitation of the left brain.  If one approaches such things with intelligence, one can learn more from these apparent setbacks than if one went in the correct direction to start with.  If one uses this intelligence and surrenders in the process, then even if one does end up going in what seems to be a wrong direction the learning will be so rich and complete that when the right conduct direction is found there is not a doubt in one's entire being, that one has once foot on the path of one's own progress. This certainty is worth gold.

 

Our attachment to any kind of pleasure, as opposed to steering away from any kind of pain, can be an issue on the path. Whilst we practice here the path of ease and grace, and thus ask that the Divine provides us with lessons in a way which minimalises any suffering and optimizes joy, one would be foolish to believe that there is no room at all for processes.  Whenever one accelerates on a spiritual path, whenever one imbibes a vast feeding of spiritual energy then one has to process that energy through one's life.  If our life is in order, this will be very easy and bliss filled, productive of the manifestation of our hopes and dreams. If our life is out of balance in some respect or an old wound has been incompletely dealt with, then it will arise for healing.  This is a wonderful process, and one that brings us to completion of our earthly lives in a beautiful, balanced and perfect way.

 

 Rather than resist these periods, rather than talk to everyone who would listen to us about a process it is much wiser to just go within and feel the process. Often in the feeling of the process itself, one is able to release old wounds in a vastly quicker way than if one seeks to wallow in them (although wallowing is another option!).

 

With processing, you can't go around it, you can't jump over it you can't dig under it, you can't go  back, you just have to go through it, and as soon as we do, it becomes part of our inheritance done and dusted, and forms part of the next step that is taking us onwards and upwards into Divine union.

 

The path of devotion is about union. It is about us being able to sit at the right hand of the father as is said in biblical terms. It is about the capacity for us to develop the personality of the soul, rather than the personality of jiv-atma , Nefesh, or the incarnated, subject to eventual death part of the soul; the ego.

 

When one succeeds, one develops a diamond body, a light body that is indestructible and permanent. Myths of many different traditions attest to the truth of this assertion, that when we reach a certain level of spiritual, mental and emotional proficiency we become like diamond and then there are many choices for our future. So it is this that we are working towards when we work upon devotion. We are asking for the courage and the grace to surrender that which is holding us back, and to open to that which is still within the realm of the unknown.

 

There are a few who like the unknown. We may like going on holidays to places we haven’t been before, which is  a prime version of stepping into the unknown, and each of us may have areas in our life  where we are comfortable with the unknown, but the unknown of our spirit is one of the most fear inducing places one can go, because we don't know what we will find, how we will be, what we may fear, or what no longer serves us when we go into this place. We don't know what the Divine will ask of us and our fears (and the thoughts that fear creates) can create of this process a hellish nightmare

 

So when we focus upon purification, we do so as a tool upon the path of devotion to clear a way the stuff of thought forms that could create havoc  of this process. We all know people on devotional paths whose lives are havoc and we wonder why, -  and the reason is because  the other pillars are not being observed. Purification is not being taken seriously, mental mastery is not sufficiently in place, there is not enough service and giving, love is conditional, so whilst we are here today to look specifically at the pillar of devotion and the path of devotion, by no  circumstance could it be said that we can afford to ignore the other pillars of  Shanti  Mission or the other Hallmarks of mastery, if we truly wish our path to be one of ease and grace.

 

I ask that you be open now to the concept of living with more devotion. I ask that you allow and intend that your heart be filled with grace. May that which I say to you go straight into your chakras, bypassing the mind if there are blockages to what I intend for you to understand about devotion. I ask that you intuit to the full measure possible, the devotion that is within me for my Guru, for my mission, and for my students. I invite you into my heart, so that you can feel the truth of devotion, as a form of learning that your mind cannot judge and corrupt.

 

Now, close your eyes, invoke, call on Shakti Durga, and ask for the blessing. Think thank you and it will get stronger. Blessings to each of you, may you have a safe and joy filled festive season. Through it may you experience more self love, familial love and love of God/Guru than ever before. Namaste

 

SHAKTI DURGA 

 

12 December 2009

Did You Know??  Sunday Satsangs and Wednesday Meditation is on through the Christmas and New Year Break except for the 27th of December 2009 in Cooranbong and except for the 3rd of January 2010.