Bhakti - Devotion
Now, the fourth truth. Actually when you understand the whole thing is a dream, suddenly you will feel strongly connected to something which does not change. When you understand this whole thing that you think as reality is changing, you will feel connected to something which is not changing – the Master or God. Suddenly you will feel such a strong connection, it will be a pure romance!
Please understand the word 'pure romance'. It is not ordinary romance. In ordinary romance, always you will feel bored. It is like you have an idea and you try to project that idea on the other person and he or she tries to project his ideas on you.
In some points, you meet and match. In some points, you don't meet and match. When you have lived and exhausted the points where you meet and match, and when the points where you don't meet and match come up, then you know what happens! That is where your honeymoon ends.
When the points where you don't meet and match start coming up, life starts! That is why the word 'honeymoon'. What is the life of the moon? Fourteen days! You don't use the word 'honeysun'! Because in fourteen days the dream disappears!
Pure romance means a strong feeling connection. Just by remembrance, your eyes pour. Just by remembrance, you are in ecstasy. Just by remembrance, you are in a different zone. That is what I call bhakti, the pure feeling connection.
Shankara sings beautifully in the Guru Ashtakam:
शरीरी सुरुपं तथा वा कलत्रं यशश्चारू चित्रं धनंमेरुतुल्यमे । मेनंश्चेन्न लग्नंगुरी रीचि!पंद्मे ततः किं ततः किं ततः किं ततः किमे ॥ 1 ॥
shareeram suroopam tathaa vaa kalatram yashashchaaru chitram dhanam merutulyam
manashchenna lagnam guroranghri padme tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim tatah kim
One's body may be good-looking, his wife may be beautiful, fame high and varied, wealth enormous like Mount Meru; but if the mind is not at the lotus feet of the Master, what then is the use?
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is one of the greatest enlightened masters. I can say, he is one of the architects of modern day Hinduism. All the Hindu masters, religious leaders, spiritual heads after Ramakrishna are directly or indirectly influenced by him. He gives beautifully in his book, 'The Gospel of Ramakrishna' the first teaching: the moment you remember your guru or God or their names, not even the form, just their name, if your eyes have become watery, this is the last birth for you.
I can say the essence of bhakti he has given in this one idea. That strong feeling connection is what he is saying. See, sometimes when you fall in love, even with ordinary human beings, suddenly you know the different dimensions which were there inside you. The dimensions of which you were not aware will be awakened.
Take for example, sacrifice. When you are in love with somebody, suddenly you start sacrificing so many things which you never imagined you can sacrifice. The sense of beauty, sense of grace awakens. You would have never stood in front of the mirror! Suddenly you find yourself sitting the whole day in front of the mirror, combing your hair, straightening your clothes. And your house would have been like a pigsty! Suddenly you start cleaning the whole house. Suddenly you have the sense of beauty and grace.