By:  BK Usha
Source: The Daily Guardian https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/view/1838/the-daily-guardian/15
Dated: December 28th, 2024

It is said that God rewards those who remember Him with love. Devotional feelings play an important role in our spiritual progress, acting as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual realms. These feelings, often expressed as love, reverence, gratitude, and surrender to a higher power, contribute significantly to our spiritual journey.

Devotion fosters a deep, personal connection with the Divine. Feelings of love and reverence take us beyond intellectual understanding to a heart-centred relationship with God, allowing us to experience His presence more intimately, making the spiritual path not just an intellectual pursuit but an experiential journey.

Intellectual effort alone is insufficient for complete spiritual progress. Such effort primarily engages the mind, but spiritual growth requires transformation at the level of the heart and soul. While the intellect can help us understand spiritual concepts and teachings, it does not inherently change our character or emotional state. Spiritual progress involves cultivating virtues like compassion, humility, love, and forgiveness, which transcend intellectual knowledge and require inner experiences and emotional growth.

The intellect is limited by human biases, conditioning, and the constraints of logical reasoning. Indeed, on the spiritual path, the intellect can become an obstacle if it leads to over-analysis, attachment to ideas, or attachment to the ego. Intellectual understanding of spiritual principles can even lead to spiritual pride, where one may feel superior to others based on one’s knowledge, creating a sense of separation rather than unity. This is the opposite of the spiritual ideals of humility, service, and recognizing all souls as children of God and thereby part of one spiritual family.

When we try to test spiritual principles with intellectual tools meant for the worldly realm, the results might fall short of our expectations because those truths cannot be proved with formulaic thinking. They are meant to be experienced – thereby you can prove them to yourself, but you cannot prove them to others through argument or reasoning. It is said that seeing is believing, and we are warned not to believe anything with blind faith. Spiritual truths are ‘seen’, or experienced, by the mind and the heart, not the physical eyes. What is called for is not blind faith, but a little humility and an open mind. When we approach spiritual truths cynically, with doubt and scepticism, we create a mental barrier that stops us from experiencing their purity and power. A little faith is required initially for us to experience, accept, and benefit from spiritual knowledge. Some doubt that spiritual experiences are real, and that they are only tricks played by the mind. If that is the case, why not set aside the doubt for some time and see what I get from my spiritual experience? If it helps me, over time, to become a better person – more peaceful, stable, resilient, and happier, is that a gain or a loss?

While the intellect can guide and clarify, it is the heart’s devotion and the willingness to surrender to a higher power that catalyses deep spiritual growth and direct experience of the Divine. True spiritual progress is reflected in the transformation of our character, actions, and perceptions, which the intellect alone cannot bring about.

Moreover, devotion purifies the heart by directing our emotions towards love and service. Negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, and pride are gradually replaced by compassion, empathy, and patience. The cultivation of positive emotional qualities helps remove inner obstacles, making space for spiritual virtues like kindness, forgiveness, and inner peace. A heart thus purified is more attuned to spiritual truths.

Devotion can even transform the experience of suffering. In the face of hardships and challenges, devotional feelings allow us to see suffering as part of a divine plan, and our faith provides us solace and strength. This spiritual resilience enables us to rise above temporary pain and focus on the greater purpose of life.

A practical benefit of devotion is greater focus. In prayer and meditation, devotional feelings provide the emotional intensity needed for deep concentration. The heart’s devotion fuels the mind's focus, allowing us to transcend distractions and enter deeper states of meditation or communion with the Divine.

In essence, while intellectual effort is important for understanding spiritual teachings and concepts, devotional feelings are integral to spiritual progress, as they nurture a genuine relationship with God, foster emotional purity, and inspire selfless action. Through devotion, we can transcend the ego and cultivate virtues, transforming our inner and outer lives, and ultimately realize our highest potential.

BK Usha is a Rajyoga teacher 
at the Brahma Kumaris headquarters in 
Abu Road, Rajasthan.