The Heart's Unconditional Love for God
The deepest devotion is an unconditional love for God, prioritizing the Spirit over any conceptual attainment of self-realization or enlightenment, recognizing that true freedom is known in the heart.
If somebody says to me that, 'Ananta, you will never be—you will never attain self-realization because you still worship God as if He is greater than you, that you are nothing but a foolish beggar and He is the King of this universe,' then I don't want that self-realization. Because I know the one I meet in my heart is much bigger than I will ever be, and at the same time, I know fully well that I'm completely the same, one with Him. You cannot understand this thing, but I'm happy to love God even if that means that I never reach enlightenment or freedom or any of the promises of spirituality. I don't want the promise of spirituality; I want only Spirit. I don't want the benefits of it. And what happens with the idea of Nirvana, Mukti, enlightenment, self-realization? The ideas, if taken conceptually, are terrible ideas. These ideas can cause much more trouble than not having them if they're just in the mind. But in the heart, you know that this freedom has a completely different meaning from what we can fathom intellectually.
Key Teachings
- The heart's love for God transcends intellectual understanding and conceptual ideas of self-realization or enlightenment.
- A genuine devotee is willing to love God unconditionally, even if it means foregoing traditional spiritual goals like enlightenment.
- The true desire is for Spirit itself, not for the 'benefits' or 'promises' of spirituality.
- Conceptual ideas of freedom and enlightenment can be detrimental if not rooted in the heart's direct knowing.
From: Who Does Your Heart Belong to In This Moment? - 18 September 2024