Also see: Recommended Reading: Books for Enlightenment, Liberation and Self-Realisation

Here, in the Sri Ramana Gita, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi speaks of Bhakti (devotion towards God or Guru or Self) as a complete path to the Divine and a complete path to Spiritual Liberation.

May we praise Sri Ramana for his words!

May we have gratitude to Sri Ramana for his teachings!

May we love Sri Ramana for His Presence in Our Hearts!

All praise to Ramana!

All praise to Him who is God!

All praise to Him in our Hearts!

SRI RAMANA GITA

CHAPTER 16: ON BHAKTI

1. Then, questioned regarding Bhakti, the best of men, the highly auspicious Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, spoke thus:

2. The Self is dear to all. Nothing else is as dear. Love, unbroken like a stream of oil, is termed Bhakti.

3. Through Love the Sage knows that God is none other than his own Self. Though the devotee, on the other hand, regards Him as different from himself, yet he too merges and abides in the Self alone.

4. The Love which flows (unbroken) like a stream of oil, towards the Supreme Lord, leads the mind infallibly into pure Being, even without one’s desiring it.

5 & 6. When the devotee, regarding himself as a separate, limited individual of poor understanding, and desirous of deliverance from suffering, takes the omnipresent Supreme Reality to be some deity and worships it, even then he attains in the end That (alone).

7. Oh best of men, one who attributes names and forms to the deity, through those very names and forms, transcends all name and form.

8. When Bhakti has grown perfect, then hearing once (about Reality) is enough, for it confers perfect Knowledge.

9. Bhakti not continuous like a stream is called intermittent Bhakti. Even this is bound to result in supreme Bhakti.

10. One who practises Bhakti for a desired end finds no fulfillment on attaining it and then again worships God for the sake of eternal happiness.

11. Bhakti, even when accompanied by desire, does not cease with the achievement of the desire. Faith in the Supreme Person develops and goes on increasing.

12. Growing thus, Bhakti in course of time becomes perfect.

By means of this perfect and supreme Bhakti, even as by jnana, one crosses (the ocean of) Becoming.

This is the sixteenth chapter entitled ‘ON BHAKTI’ in Sri Ramana Gita, the Science of Brahman, and the Scripture of Yoga composed by Ramana’s disciple Vasishta Ganapati.

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Tom:

May we praise Sri Ramana for his words!

May we have gratitude to Sri Ramana for his teachings!

May we love Sri Ramana for His Presence in Our Hearts!

All praise to Ramana!

All praise to Him who is God!

All praise to Him in our Hearts!