The Leela of Devotion
My life started with pūjā
It is Ganesha pūjā with which My whole life started. Actually, had I not taken up public life, I would have been a pūjāri – temple priest! The number of hours I spent in yoga, the number of hours I spent in speaking, the number of hours I spent in My public life, the number of hours I spent in meditation – all these put together cannot cross the number of hours I spent in pūjā.
I would just sit and soak Myself in Bhāva Samādhi, the sacred sentiments! And before every pūjā, I would prepare elaborate manuals to instruct Myself and study.
The first truth you need to know: God exists, and He accepts your love, your devotion, and the actions you perform as a demonstration of your sacred sentiments, your feelings of ‘I love you. I am surrendering to you. I recognize your existence in my existence, whether you are happening to me in the form of joy, or health, or wealth, or bliss, or contentment; or whatever I feel as the good things happening in my life; or even some things, which I am not yet able to recognize as good things…’ Sharing this truth authentically is what I call devotion – bhakti. Manifesting powerful cognitions about the universe is bhakti and manifesting cognitions about everything that exists is pūjā.
Those sacred truths and sentiments, rising in your system and settling in your muscle memory and bio-memory, will tune you to be in Śaktipāta (feeling connection with the Divine) continuously.