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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Vaişnava Saints of ....
749
One cannot realize God until one becomes free from the attraction for woman and gold. Ramakņşņa urges the necessity of cultivating selfless devotion to God by progressively detaching oneself from the worldly objects. He says that bhakti alone will wipe off all sins provided that it is sincere and exclusive. When one has such a bhakti in his heart other things like visiting shrines and going on pilgrimage are unnecessary. He values the path of bhakti as supremely important and useful for the realization of God. He says," Bhakti-Yoga is communion with God, by means of devotion or Bhakti and Self-surrender. It is specially adapted to this age, Kali Yuga. It is the Yuga Dharma, - the way for the present age. It reduces Karma or work to a minimum. It teaches the necessity of prayer without ceasing.''S It is a rare thing. Such bhakti can arise only when there is a wholehearted devotion to God such as that of a chaste wife for her husband. In bhakti the mind and soul must be absorbed in God. What is necessary is to offer everything to God, the work as well as its fruit, and work has to be performed with utmost earnestness, sincerity and longing for God. The worldly actions gradually come to be dropped off when the love of God swells up in the heart.5 One gradually becomes indifferent to the worldly actions when one derives unusual satisfaction
1 Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, 354. 2 Ibid. 355. 3 Ibid. 359. • Ibid. 363. 5 Ibid. 356.
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