Paramahansa Yogananda
Quotes on Devotion
DEVOTION
To discover the hidden presence of God, you must love Him; but it came to my mind, how can you love God without knowing Him? You cannot love anything that is unknown to you. Can you love a flower you have never seen?
Intellectual knowledge of God does not mean that you know God. A great mistake in the modern world is reading about God or listening to sermons about Him without trying to commune with Him, thinking that actual communion with God is impossible.
Throughout the ages, the strong motivating force of human love has been expressed in diverse ways—filial, conjugal, friendly, family, serviceful, humanitarian. All human love is borrowed from Divine Love, but by comparison is a meager expression. Dissatisfied with the imperfections of human love, man finally turns toward the perfect love of God. As the love of His children is the one thing the Lord is seeking, it is that devotion, freely given—in whatever form of expression, endeavor, or worship—that brings His divine response. He makes Himself known to a seeker in a measure commensurate with that person's mentality and capacity to receive. (bg)
Chanting is another way of awakening devotion.
One way to achieve unbroken devotion is to do everything for the Lord. Every day I am active for Him. This path is wonderful!
Devotion is a deeply reverential admiration for God. It is characterized by an element of separation between the soul and Spirit. In love, there is a merging of the two into One. ... When love and devotion are combined, that is the supreme form of expression toward God.
When you think of God as your Friend, that relationship expresses the grandest form of love and devotion. Friendship is the touchstone by which we may know the purity of any relationship, human or divine. It has the sweetness of all forms of love without their contamination.
Devotion is the secret key, for God cannot resist the outpourings of great love from a true devotee's heart.
Real devotion is internal. Day and night devotee thinks of nothing but God, and secretly tells him how dearly he loves Him.
In seeking God, remember, there is one thing He lacks, one thing He is seeking from you: your love and devotion freely given to Him from your heart. When you are engaged in outer rituals and vocal prayer your mind cannot go deeper within, and your feelings will be restless. To reach God, your prayers must be interiorized with concentration and permeated with devotion.
He who is a true lover of God stands by Him equally during sunny days of joy and dark days of trials. Why not? Those who are in love are day and night thinking only of their beloved one. So is this romance with God. It is the most wonderful existence you can ever imagine.
You waste precious time each day. Every little moment you spent with God will be spent to your best advantage; and whatever you achieve with the desire to please God in your heart will stand unto eternity.
The greatest mistake in life is to fail in devotional aspirations. Do not let it become weak and worthless, like a pale candle burning low and flickering out. Let all the heart’s love be the plenitude you shower on the Lord. The intensity of love within each human heart can be like indestructible spiritual radium. Let it glow deathlessly, with healing rays!