1

Introduction

This paper is about the central role that devotion plays in the Hindu tradition, as

propounded by the traditions most sacred and foundational texts, and some of its great

sages. Devotion or “bhakti” as it is called in Sanskrit, is a heart-centered path, and as the

heart is the center of the body, devotion is the heart-center of the body of the Hindu

spiritual tradition. There are many misconceptions and much ignorance about what

devotion is in terms of spiritual and religious life. Devotion in its purest form is a

complete path in itself that leads to God or Ultimate reality. The Hindu tradition lays out

four main paths to yoga or union with the divine; karma yoga, the path of action and

selfless service to God, serving God in man, jnana yoga the path of wisdom, often

practiced by rigorous self-inquiry meditation, raja yoga the path of intense meditation

practices, and bhakti yoga the path to God of love and devotion. These four paths are not

separate but often intermingle and mix, and all of these paths must contain bhakti, for one

must at least have love and devotion for their own path itself, or they will not travel far.

I will explore the path of devotion in Hinduism from three main sources and from

three different time periods, the Upanishads (1000 BCE-500 BCE), the Bhagavad Gita

(300 BCE-100 CE), and the Puranas (300CE-1500 CE). Devotion is the cornerstone of

Indian spiritual traditions, and this is revealed in its most essential scriptures, the

Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. The Upanishads are considered along with the

Vedas, as shruti, which means that they are based on direct knowledge of God or the

Ultimate reality. In other words they are considered not to be from a human source but

from a divine source, like the Torah in Judaism. The Gita is considered by many to be an
 2

Upanishad even though it is part of the epic the Mahabharata, and is believed by many in

the tradition to have been inserted into the text at some point by a great sage to illuminate

the epic so that it would be a great spiritual teaching, as well as a great mythology. Adi

Shankaracharya, who was a mystic and scholar from the eighth century CE, and is a

spiritual and authoritative giant in Hinduism, chose ten central Upanishads and the

Bhagavad Gita as the essential sources of Hinduism in conjuncture with the authority of

the Vedas, which are the foundational teachings of Hinduism dating from 1500 BCE or

earlier.

I will explore the sources of the tradition somewhat chronologically but I will also

mix them up when two or more sources from different periods support and give insight

into specific themes. Also when studying a tradition it is equally, if not probably more

important, to study the saints, sages, and illumined beings of that tradition because they

are embodiment of the wisdom of the scriptures. Without looking at the human beings

who are considered masters and lineage holders in a tradition, how can we understand the

tradition in terms of our human experience, and how can we judge its authenticity and

depth of knowledge into the Ultimate reality? So I will present the life and teachings of

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who is considered a spiritual master in the Hindu

tradition.

Devotion

In the tradition of Sanatana Dharma (the eternal code of life), more commonly

known as Hinduism today, the sages have for thousands of years proclaimed that,

devotion is absolutely necessary on the path to liberation. From the sages of the

Upanishads to Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, from Shankara in the eighth century to
 3

Ramakrishna in the nineteenth, all say that realization cannot take place without devotion,

and that the path of devotion is the quickest way to realization, especially in the Kaliyuga

(dark age of materialism), that is the name of the present age.1 Even all the great jnanis,

followers of the path of knowledge from Shankara the great propagator of Advaita

Vedanta (non-dual philosophy), to Ramana Maharshi, to most recently in the last hundred

years Nisargadatta Maharaj; they all said that Self-realization cannot be attained without

devotion. Devotion comes from the heart, is directed to the heart, and it’s goal is the

secret of the heart, the knowledge of the Atman or Self, as propounded by the Hindu

scriptures. But what is devotion?

Shandilya’s Bhaktimimamsa sutra says of devotion, “It is supreme longing for the

Lord.”2 Devotion is love for God and seeing God in all of creation, “It is a dissolution of

the mind in God, forgetting oneself.”3 Shankara says, “An enquiry into one’s own true

form is devotion.”4

The great Bengali saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that devotion has to be

prema bhakti or raga bhakti, that is devotion fueled by intense love for God and intense

longing for God-realization, if the motivation of devotion is for worldly pursuits, like

security, health, and riches, then union with the absolute will not be attained.5 Shankara

1
1. Swami Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (New York: Ramakrishna-
Vivekananda Center, 1984), 170.
2
2. T.V. Narayanan Menon, The Thousand Names of the Divine Mother: Sri Lalita
Sahasranama with commentary (Amritapuri, Kerala: MA Math, 1998), 65.
3
3. Ibid
4
4. Ibid
5
5. Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 172.
 4

gives us a good definition of devotion for an aspirant who does not want to take a theistic

approach to ultimate truth. He says devotion is an enquiry into one’s own true nature, but

still the aspirant must have intense longing and dedication in order for them to realize

their goal, and they must also be centered in love or else they will become stuck in their

self-centeredness. Devotion is love and longing for either God, or the Ultimate reality as

revealed through knowing one’s own true nature. Either way devotion is a form of

supreme dedication to the path of Self-realization, which is liberation from all bondage,

bondage being the cycle of birth and death, pain and pleasure, joy and suffering, and

ultimately the sense of separateness.

The longing aspect of devotion is harder for many people to understand,

especially those people who are not on the spiritual path. The modern-day saint from

India, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, says that an aspirant on the spiritual path should

long for God with such intensity as if they were trapped inside of a burning house, and

frantically trying to escape. This is an intensity that many spiritual masters have

described. The sages of the Upanishads more gently described this intensity of devotion

as a one pointed concentration on the knowledge of the Self. Krishna also describes

devotion in this way in the Gita, “Those who follow this path, resolving deep within

themselves to seek Me alone, attain singleness of purpose.”6

Devotion is singleness of purpose. The idea of singleness of purpose does not

necessarily mean that one simply sits and thinks about God all day, or meditates all day,

although this could be one form of devotion. The Bhagavad Gita talks about selfless

service in the world, doing one’s work or dharma (righteous duty) while offering all

6
6. Eknath Easwaram, The Bhagavad Gita (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 2004), 65.
 5

actions to God without ever thinking about the fruit of the actions. This is only a more

gentle way of describing the same necessary trait of devotion, which is that it has to be so

intensely hot that it burns away all selfish desires that would only lead to more bondage

and suffering.

The path of bhakti is not for those spiritual aspirants of lesser intellectual strength,

those more emotionally dominated, or those less naturally inclined towards sitting

meditation. These all are common misconceptions, but rather it is for those brave enough

to surrender to God, Guru (an illumined teacher), or to the path itself. The Shvetashvatara

Upanishad says, “I live in fear of death, O Lord of Love, I seek refuge at your feet.

Protect me; protect us man and woman, cow and horse. May the brave ones who seek you

be released from the bondage of death.”7 It takes a brave person to walk the path of

bhakti because it takes a brutal honesty to admit that life without knowledge of our true

Selves is plagued by fear and unfillment, and secondly, to lay down one’s precious ego

and to take refuge in God, Guru, or a disciplined path, is very difficult to do. This is not

the kind of taking refuge where one blindly and passively sits back and says that

everything is in God’s hands, all we have to do is pray. Devotion and renunciation as

illumined by the Indian scriptures, especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita,

speaks of the path of meditation and action combined, and they are the scriptures that

inspired Mahatma Gandhi in leading the Indian people to win independence from the

British. Diana Morrison writes about renunciation in the Gita,

“Krishna is not trying to get Arjuna to lead a different kind of life and renounce the
world as would a monk or a recluse. He tells Arjuna that if he can establish himself
in yoga, in unshakeable equanimity, profound peace of mind, he will be more

7
7. Eknath Easwaram, The Upanishads (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 2004), 228.
 6

effective in the realm of action. His judgment will be better and his vision clear if
he is not emotionally entangled in the outcome of what he does.”8

Bhakti is a warrior’s path for it prescribes meditation in action.

Eknath Easwaram writes of the Gita, “It’s a handbook for self realization and a

guide to action.”9 In the Gita Krishna is telling Arjuna that he must fight against his

family members because it is his dharma (duty) to uphold righteousness, and there is a

dispute over who will rule the kingdom. Arjuna is completely in despair at the prospect of

this. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the greatest stories about meditation in action because

it shows that so often the work that a spiritual aspirant is called on to do is the most

difficult work. No one would ever desire to live the life that Gandhi lived; he was beaten

so many times, spent years in prison, and would go on marathon fasts, to the brink of

death, as a means for social and political change. He is a model of the type of bhakta

(devotee) that the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita describe; he does not chase after

pleasure or comfort, and performs his dharma without ever thinking of personal rewards.

He surrenders all efforts to God and walks straight into the fire.

Bhakti itself comes from the root “bhuj”, which means to give up one’s share, and

one’s share is his or her ego. This means abandoning one’s drive for personal pleasure,

comfort, and security, and putting one’s energy into serving the greater good. The bhakti

path is rooted in surrender and renunciation of selfishness. If one is not willing to

sacrifice their ego to God or to the pursuit of truth then they cannot walk the path of

bhakti or any true spiritual path for that matter. The Lord as Krishna says to Arjuna in the

8
8. Easwaram, The Bhagavad Gita, 59.
9
9. Ibid., 30.
 7

last chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, “Abandon all supports and look to me for

protection.”10

The Upanishads

In the Upanishads devotion is sometimes directed at God, but is most often

directed towards knowledge of the Atman or Self. In the Upanishads the Atman or Self

with a capital “S”, is the soul, or indidualized God-consciousness that dwells within all

beings and is the true nature of all beings. It is that which is infinite while all other

knowledge and experience is finite. Brahman is the Supreme consciousness, the ocean of

the Ultimate reality within which all the individual jiv-Atmans (individual souls) reside

in. Therefore the view of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita is that, Atman is

Brahman; the individual Atman ultimately does not exist independently but is part of the

one non-dual Supreme consciousness, Brahman. Common metaphoric imagery for this is

that the individual souls are like separate waves on the ocean, only appearing separate but

part of the same body of consciousness. Brahman is a neuter form of the noun identifying

that it is absent of gender, and also absent of any attributes or characteristics, because it is

limitless and beyond the intellect.

Knowledge of the Self is not intellectual knowledge. The Mundaka Upanishad

says, “Not through discourse, not through the intellect, Not even through study of the

scriptures can the Self be realized. The Self reveals himself to the one who longs for the

Self. Those who long for the Self with all their heart are chosen by the Self as his own.”11

This longing and dedication to the practice of self-inquiry, as practiced through

1
0. Ibid., 212.
1
1. Easwaram, The Upanishads, 117.
 8

meditation, is the type of devotion illuminated by the Upanishads. It is believed in the

Hindu tradition, that even for the most devoted and dedicated aspirants, it is ultimately

only the grace of God, which bestows final liberation or knowledge of the Self. Devotion

and exertion are believed to be absolutely necessary to get one to the threshold, but it is

only grace that finally opens the door to ultimate reality.

An important insight from the Katha Upanishad, on devotion and knowledge of

the Self, is that spiritual awakening comes “not from logic or scholarship, but from Close

association with a realized teacher.”12 Devotion to the Guru (Self-realized teacher) is of

major importance in Hinduism and all Indian traditions, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and

Indian Sufism. The famous Gururbrahma sloka says, “The Guru is the Lord Brahma,

Vishnu, and Shiva. The Guru is the Supreme Absolute Itself. My obeisance to the

Guru.” It is understood in the tradition that one who knows the Self, becomes the Self,

and abides in the Self. The Guru is considered to be an embodiment of Brahman, and to

the disciple, a true Guru or Satguru is not so much a teacher as they are a transmitter.

This is what is meant in the Katha Upanishad when it says, “The truth of the Self cannot

come through one who has not realized that he is the Self.”13 The Katha Upanishad

makes a point to specifically address two important aspects of the devotional path,

devotion to the path, and devotion to the Guru. In the Katha these two aspects are tied

together clearly and importantly when Yama the God of death tells the young Nachiketa

about the path of Self-realization and liberation; “It is but few who hear about the Self.

Fewer still dedicate their lives to its Realization. Wonderful is the one Who speaks about

1
2. Ibid., 85.
1
3. Ibid
 9

the Self; rare are they who make it the supreme goal of their lives. Blessed are they who,

through an illumined Teacher, attain to Self-realization.”14 This verse highlights both the

importance of the Guru, and the importance of devotion. The second to last line is the

most poignant, “rare are they who make it the supreme goal of their lives.” This line is

clearly indicating true devotion to the path is a rarity. Even more rare is to be blessed to

have a Satguru. This line is also referring to a belief in Hinduism, that a true Guru only

appears to an aspirant when they are ready to be dedicated to the path. The great jnana

yogi of recent times, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, when asked the question of how he

attained such great dispassion, he replied, “Nothing in particular. It so happened that I

trusted my Guru. He told me I am nothing but my Self and I believed him. Trusting him,

I behaved accordingly and ceased caring for what was not me, nor mine.”15

Nisargadatta Maharaj said that his trust in his Guru was the root of his realization.16 This

is an example of Supreme devotion to the Guru, and also an example of how devotion is

connected to the path of knowledge, jnana yoga. Nisargadatta’s Guru told him to always

come back to the question, “Who am I,” and to negate everything else. He followed his

Guru’s instructions with complete faith and devotion and attained realization.

The Katha Upanishad says, “Sharp like a razor’s edge, the sages say, is the path,

difficult to traverse.”17 As I mentioned earlier, singleness of purpose is a very important

aspect of devotion and is given great importance in the Hindu scriptures. Along with love
1
4. Ibid., 84.
1
5. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Durham,
NC: The Acorn Press, 1973), 4.
1
6. Ibid., 421.
1
7. Easwaram, The Upanishads, 89.
 10

and longing, it is the most important factor in what I see as the supreme triad of devotion.

For as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, “As our desire is, so is our will. As our will

is so are our acts. As we act, so we become.” “We live in accordance with our deep

driving desire.”18 If our desire is Self-realization then our will, will drive our actions

towards that goal, and through action aligned with will and desire, we will attain the goal.

This is a process of aligning body, speech, intellect, and heart. This alignment is the

razor’s edge because it takes tremendous bravery and dedication. The path of bhakti is

by no means easy or a lesser path, and takes surrendering of the ego, and renunciation of

selfishness.

Before transitioning into the Bhagavad Gita, it is important to touch on the theme

of love in the Upanishads. In the Bhagavad Gita love becomes more of a central focus

on the spiritual path, but this devotional theme did not come out of nowhere, and had

already taken up roots in the Upanishads, if not in earlier Indian and universal, human

spiritual, and religious thought. One of the best examples of the theme of love in the

Upanishads is from the Mundaka Upanishad, “the Self dwells in the heart. Everything

that moves, breathes, opens and closes lives in the Self. She is the source of love and may

be known through love but not through thought. She is the goal of life. Attain this

goal!”19

1
8. Ibid., 48.
1
9. Ibid., 113.
 11

The Bhagavad Gita

The type of love that is the goal for the bhakti yogi is prema, divine,

unconditional love. This is a different type of love and concept of love than we are

commonly used to understanding. The Lord Krishna describes one who is established in

this kind of love, “ They see the Self in every creature and all creation in the Self. With

consciousness unified through meditation, they see everything with an equal eye.”20 This

is an intense equanimity of love that is the center of one’s whole being. It is a love

without jealousy, expectation, fear, or attachment. Krishna goes on to expound traits of

one established in the love of bhakti:

“I am ever present to those who have realized me in every creature. Seeing all life
as my manifestation, they are never separated from me. They worship me in the
hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from me. Wherever they may live, they
abide in me.”21
“When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his
own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.”22

While the belief and understanding of the divine’s immanence in all of creation is

not unique to Hinduism, it could be said that in no other tradition is it as pronounced and

clearly articulated. Because the foundational texts of Hinduism, the Upanishads and the

Bhagavad Gita, put so much emphasis on the divine residing in all of creation, devotion

in Hinduism is infinitely expansive. Devotion to God in its fullest manifestation is love

and devotion to all beings. Those closest to God are the one’s who see him and

experience him in the hearts of all beings. Krishna says, “That one I love who is

incapable of ill will, who is friendly and compassionate. Living beyond the reach of I and
2
0. Easwaram, The Bhagavad Gita, 103.
2
1. Ibid., 107.
2
2. Ibid
 12

mine and of pleasure and pain, patient, contented, self-controlled, firm in faith, with all

his heart and all his mind given to me, with such a one I am in love.”23

The concept of the separate Godhead ultimately dissolves into a sea of consciousness.

Therefore while to some, even in the Hindu tradition, the bhakti path may appear

dualistic, the core texts of the tradition and Krishna himself says that the true bhakta will

ultimately melt into the sea of non-dual consciousness, and Krishna also says that the

path of bhakti is the surest way to the Supreme consciousness. This is clearly evident

from the fact that Adi Shankaracharya chose the Upanishads and the Gita as the cannon

of the essential texts of Hinduism, both being devotional texts. In chapter twelve of the

Gita, which is entitled, “The way of love,” Krishna talks of the supremacy of the bhakti

path and how he the Lord loves the lovers, the bhaktas. When he talks about the

supremacy of the path of bhakti he does so not in a condescending way to other paths, but

he simply says that other paths are much more difficult. This is spiritual advice that has

been reiterated throughout the Hindu tradition for centuries, by sage Narada, author of the

Bhakti sutras, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and most recently Mata Amritanandamayi

Devi. The Lord Krishna says in the Gita,

“As for those who seek the transcendental reality, without name, without form,
contemplating the unmanifested, beyond the reach of thought and of feeling, with
their senses subdued and mind serene and striving for the good of all beings, they
too will verily come unto me.
Yet hazardous and slow is the path of the unrevealed, difficult for physical man to
tread. But for they whom I am the supreme goal, who do all work renouncing self
for me and meditate on me with single-hearted devotion, these I will swiftly rescue
from the fragment’s cycle of birth and death, for their consciousness has entered
into me.”24

2
3. Ibid., 163.
2
4. Ibid., 162.
 13

The Divine Mother

The bhakti tradition of the Divine Mother as the Godhead representing the ultimate

reality came mostly out of the Puranic literature, which came after the Bhagavad Gita. In

the Lalita Shasranama, the main text for the worship of Goddess Sri, one of her names is

“Prema Rupa”, She who is the form of pure love.25 The commentator, Bhaskararaya says

of the Goddess, “She who has taken the form entirely of love, affection, and devotion.”26

In the Devi Mahatmya it says, “Many salutations to that Devi who dwells in all beings in

the form of love.”27

On the same thread as the Upanishads, and the Gita, this continuum of the bhakti

tradition places God as the Divine Mother, and as the form of love and devotion in all

beings. The object of love and devotion is the form of love and devotion in all beings.

Surrender from this point of view is surrendering to our innate, natural, tendency to love

and experience unity, rather than to fight against our true Selves, stubbornly and

painstakingly reinforcing a separate identity. Christopher Isherwood writes in his

commentary on Narada’s Bhakti Sutra, “Narada assures us that as the bhakta’s devotion

grows, he or she will become more and more aware that they are actually worshipping the

2
5. Menon, Lalita Sahasranama, 312.
2
6. Ibid
2
7. Ibid
 14

God or Guru within themselves, which is his or her own true nature. In the supreme state,

worshiper and worshiped are realized as one.”28

In the tradition of Sri Vidya tantra, which can be translated as the knowledge of Sri,

the Goddess Sri is considered to be both the immanent and transcendent Godhead, thus

representing the ultimate reality. She represents Brahman, the absolute, as does Krishna

in the Bhagavad Gita. One of the main practices in the Sri Vidya tradition is the

recitation of the Lalita Sahasranama, which are the thousand names of the Goddess.

These names are taken from a section in the Brahmanda Purana. This body of a thousand

Sanskrit mantras of the Goddess is considered to be the Goddess herself, and can also be

considered as one mantra. The one hundred and nineteenth mantra is, “Om Bhakti

Gamyayai Namah”, She who is attained only through devotion.29 This corresponds

directly to the verse from the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says, “O Arjuna, only

through undivided devotion can I be known, seen, and entered into.”30

There is a unique flavor that the Goddess tradition has, and that the Goddess herself

has, and it could be the reason that so many of the great sages in the Hindu tradition have

put her up as the highest form of devotion and attainment. The great Adi Shankaracharya,

who was the propagator and founder of the Advaita-Vedanta school of Hindu thought, a

school which puts above all else self-inquiry meditation on the formless, even he was a

great devotee of the Goddess, and is credited as having written the famous hymn to the

Goddess, the Saundharya Lahari (Waves of Divine Splendor). Shankara says in the first
2
8. Swami Prabhavananda, Narada’s Way of Divine Love (Chennai, India: Sri
Ramakrishna Math, 1971), xi.
2
9. Ibid., 66.
3
0. Easwaram, The Bhagavad Gita, 157.
 15

verse of the great hymn, “United with Shakti, Shiva is endowed with the power to create

the universe. Otherwise, He is incapable of even movement. Therefore, who except those

endowed with great merits acquired in the past can be fortunate enough to salute or praise

thee, Mother Divine, who art the adored of even Hari, Hara, Virincini.”31 In its more

modern forms, Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu philosophical tradition that Shankara started,

gives little to no importance, or acknowledgement to the Goddess, but Shankara himself

is believed by many to have been one of the greatest devotees of the Goddess, and one of

the greatest hymns to the Goddess is attributed to him. In the first verse of Saundarya

Lahari, mentioned above, he says that even the Gods worship the Divine Mother because

they have no power without her. She is all manifestation of pure Consciousness, which

would otherwise lay eternally dormant.

The Goddess is described as Adi Parashakti, the primordial energy of the universe.

Without her the whole universe goes into dissolution. Another one of her names in the

Lalita Sahasranama is, “Stuti mati,” She who is the true object, the essence, of all

praises.32 A commentary on this name explains that since she is the energy that is the

fabric of the entire universe, all praises to all forms of the divine, in any language, are all

directed towards her, and she is the recipient of all, because there is no other reality than

her.33 All thought is the Goddess, all mental capacity, all of manifestation is she, and all

that is transcendent is she. She is the one receiving all praise, and she is also the love and

devotion within us giving the praise. It is like the Sufi prayer that says, “One, all is one,
3
1. Sri Shankaracharya, Saundarya Lahari: Inundation Of Divine Splendour (Chennai,
India: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1987), 27.
3
2. Menon, Lalita Sahasranama, 396.
3
3. Ibid
 16

returning to one.” Clearly in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna who is the Godhead says that, “I

reside in all of creation.” The Goddess tradition says the same thing but takes it one step

further, saying that the Goddess not only resides in all things, but is all of creation.

It is important to understand who the Divine Mother is, as described by the

tradition, in order to understand what devotion to her is. There is a story in Hinduism

about how Lord Shiva ate poison in order to save the world because he was the only one

who could ingest it. It is understood that Devi, the Divine Mother was the antidote.34 The

Sages of India say that the objects of the senses are more harmful than poison. Devi, is

the antidote, she is the destroyer of the poison and the one who bestows the bliss of

liberation. She is “Muktida” the one who bestows liberation, not only after death but in

this very life.35 She is also “Mukti Nilaya,” She who is the abode of salvation.36 She is the

union of the individual with the deity; she is Nirvana, the final emancipation. The

Kurmana Purana says, “ Any one desiring liberation should take refuge in Paravati

Parameshvari who is the soul of all beings and the essence of Shiva.”37 Paravati

Parameshvari is another name of the Goddess, and Shiva represents pure consciousness.

So far I have talked about the Divine Mother solely from the view of the Sri Vidya

tradition, which also includes Shankara, because the tradition uses Saundarya Lahari as

one of its foundational sources. Now I will introduce the Divine Mother as Kali Ma. The

Sri Vidya tradition and the Kali tradition are different although the Sri Vidya tradition

3
4. Ibid., 5.
3
5. Ibid., 315.
3
6. Ibid., 359.
3
7. Ibid., 315.
 17

does include Kali as one of the thousand names of the Divine Mother. The basic

difference is that in Sri Vidya, the Goddess as Sri, the eternally sixteen year-old beauty, is

the representation of the Ultimate reality. While in the Kali tradition it is Kali Ma, the

dark and ferocious looking Goddess, who represents the Ultimate reality. One is an

exquisite young beauty and the other is terrifying, wrathful looking deity. It is very

interesting that both images represent the Divine Mother of the Universe, who represents

the Supreme Ultimate reality to their devotees, yet the two images are so strikingly

different. This dichotomy, this paradox, is very characteristic of the Hindu relationship

with the Ultimate Godhead, whomever it may be. The reason that this paradox is

common is because the God or Goddess representing the absolute is all three of the

Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva that make up the Ultimate reality. The three

represent creation, preservation, and dissolution. Therefore the Goddess is the creator, the

nurturing mother who preserves, and the destroyer who takes all life back into itself.

Both traditions, Kali and Sri Vidya, are part of the rich Hindu Goddess tradition,

which can be seen, for the purpose of this paper as one Macro-tradition with many micro-

tradition sects. Both traditions are very valuable for the purpose of exploring the role of

devotion in Hinduism, and the Goddess tradition in particular.

Kali represents the entire play of the universe and the transcendent. Her name is the

feminine form of the word Kala, which means time. Time both creates and destroys. She

has a frightening form because she represents death, but to her devotees she represents

death of the separate self, and birth into eternal life. The imagery of Mother Kali is not

only fierce and frightening but also motherly and nurturing, for she is the balance of

paradoxes that creates the universe. Kali has four arms and in the lower left hand she
 18

holds a severed human head and the upper left hand she holds a bloodied sabre. Her right

hands are making the gestures, have no fear and I bestow boons. So on one side of her

body she carries a bloody sword and a human head dripping with blood and on the other

side she is making the gestures have no fear and I grant boons. This imagery although

seemingly paradoxical is a representation of the spiritual path in its fullness. The head

and the sword represent the killing of the individual ego, but the Goddess is telling the

devotee to have no fear at the same time and that she grants boons or deep desires, which

the deepest of all, for all of us, is the desire for liberation from all bondage, and to know

the true nature of ourselves. As Vedic scholar Dr. David Frawley articulates, “It is not

enough merely to adore the sublime; we must first cross over the terrible. This is the

allure of Kali.”38

The destruction of the ego is the dark night of the soul, and by all accounts does not

seem like a pleasant experience for anyone, but mother Kali tells her devotees, have no

fear, because the liberation that is your deepest desire is right around the corner from

your deepest fear, which is the fear of death. Death here not only represents the death of

the body but ultimately the death of the separate self. This is why to the outside observer

Kali seems like a fierce and frightening Goddess, but to her devotees she is the Universal

Mother, infinitely loving and compassionate.

The central importance of devotion in the worship of Kali cannot be understated

because Kali destroys all obstacles to enlightenment, and she will do so swiftly and

violently if need be, without paying any attention to the sensitivity of the devotees ego.

After the storm of her wrath comes the eternal calm and peace of liberation, but on her
3
8. David Frawley, Tantric Yoga and The Wisdom Goddesses (Delhi, India: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1994), 64.
 19

path there may be many trials and tribulations, one must have great devotion to weather

all of those storms.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

This drops us off in the lap of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), as we now

explore the experiences and teachings of a being who is believed by the tradition to have

lived in the highest state of union with the absolute, and was above all else a devotee of

the Divine Mother, Kali. However Ramakrishna not only gives us a portrait of devotion

to Kali, or the Goddess in general, but he also attained realization through the Vedantic

path of devotion to the formless Brahman. For this reason among many others,

Ramakrishna is one of the greatest masters of bhakti yoga because he embodies devotion

in all its forms within the Hindu tradition. Sri Ramakrishna often spoke of how God or

the Ultimate reality was both formless and with form. To a devotee who came to see him,

he said, “My Divine Mother is not only formless, She has form as well. One can see Her

forms. One can behold Her incomparable beauty through feeling and love. The Mother

reveals Herself to her devotees in different forms.”39

Ramakrishna embodies the devotional triad of love, longing, and singleness of purpose

that I mentioned earlier. When the young Ramakrishna was twenty, he became the priest

of the Kali temple at Dakineshwar, near Calcutta. After he began his worship of the

Goddess, the already intensely devoted Ramakrishna’s yearning for a vision of the

Goddess intensified to the point to where the separation from the Goddess that he felt

became unbearable. Swami Nikhilananda writes in the introduction to The Gospel of Sri

Ramakrishna,

3
9. Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 175.
 20

“He felt the pangs of a child separated from its mother. Sometimes, in agony, he
would rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he
had lost his earthly mother, would sympathize with him in his grief. Sometimes, in
moments of skepticism, he would cry: ‘Are you true, Mother, or is it all fiction,
mere poetry without any reality? If you do exist, why do I not see you? Is religion
a mere fantasy and are you only a figment of man’s imagination?’”40

During this time of Ramakrishna’s intense sadhana (spiritual practice), he would stay up

all night in a secluded area near the temple crying to the Goddess, and forgoing almost

entirely food and sleep.

Ramakrishna really challenges our ideas of piousness and religiosity in connection

with devotion. His spiritual practices were highly unconventional yet he is regarded as a

spiritual giant in Indian among the entire spectrum of Hindu culture and society, and is

renowned throughout the world as one of the greatest spiritual masters in history. He

challenged his most beloved Divine Mother by asking forbidden questions like, “Do you

really exist, or are you mere fantasy?” Think about this, here he is, the head priest of a

well-known temple, and one of the most respected saints in Hinduism, asking questions

that many are afraid to ask, while still holding the greatest devotion. He gripped his

devotion so tightly as he kicked and screamed and clawed is way to realization, and never

lost sight of the goal for even a moment.

Ramakrishna showed how personal and dynamic a genuine spiritual life can be. Later

in his sadhana Ramakrishna would dress as a woman pretending that he was Radha, the

beloved of Lord Krishna, in order to attain Krishna’s vision. He also dressed in only a

loincloth leaving a little extra cloth hanging in the back so that it looked like a tail, and he

jumped around in trees pretending that he was the monkey Hanuman, who was the

greatest devotee of Lord Rama.41 During this time he lived off of roots and fruit and he
4
0. Ibid.,13.
 21

was even reported to have peed from the tree to the ground openly like a monkey.42 This

role-playing in a state of divine madness or ecstasy is called “bhava” or divine mood.

Ramakrishna went through many less than pleasant experiences during his time of

intense sadhana. When he sat to meditate he would here clicking noises and feel his legs

being locked into place so that he could not move, and at the end of his meditation he

would here the clicking again and feel his legs being unlocked.43 He felt intense burning

sensations throughout his body, which was just one of the painful ailments that he had

during this period of spiritual transformation. This period really exemplifies crossing over

the terrible waters of Mother Kali to reach the shores of eternal peace. Throughout this

period three things remained, devotion, longing, and singleness of purpose. The

culmination of Ramakrishna’s initial period of intense sadhana, and longing for the

Mother Kali is described by himself as thus,

“I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered
with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize her in this
life. I could not bear the separation from her any longer. Life seemed to be not
worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother’s
temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman
and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed herself. The buildings with
their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight,
leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent,
Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were
madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! I was
panting for breath. I was caught in the rush and collapsed, unconscious. What was
happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady
flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine
Mother.” On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word
“Mother.”44
4
1. Ibid.,16.
4
2. Jeffrey J. Kripal, Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings
of Ramakrishna (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 103.
4
3. Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 14.
 22

This was the beginning of a life for Ramakrishna that was described as being in a God

intoxicated state. One incident that describes Ramakrishna’s state from then on was that

one day he fed a cat the food that was supposed to be offered to Kali. Ramakrishna

described the incident, “The Divine Mother Revealed to me in the Kali temple that it was

She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of

Consciousness.”45 Ramakrishna said that he clearly perceived everything to be the Divine

Mother, which was why he fed the cat the offering. The Divine Mother ceased to be

limited to a form or even to the formless; Ramakrishna realized that the totality of the

entire universe was one Supreme Consciousness.

Ramakrishna is a being who clearly walked the path called the “Razor’s Edge” by the

sages of the Upanishads. He went through physical pain, mental and emotional anguish,

and such despair that he attempted to end his own life, all because his love, longing, and

singleness of purpose was so strong. If he could not realize the Divine Mother he could

not bear to live. He was thought to be insane by many before he was recognized as a saint

by the masses. What may seem to some to be a simplistic form of devotion to the

Goddess manifested into the greatest realization and deepest wisdom attainable. One of

the names of the Divine Mother in the Lalita Shasranama is, “Jnana Vigraha,” She who

is the embodiment of knowledge itself.46 Once Ramakrishna attained unity with the

Goddess, she bestowed the deepest knowledge upon him. Ramakrishna realized the

Ultimate reality as both having form and as formless, as Jesus, Allah, and the non-dual
4
4. Ibid
4
5. Ibid., 15.
4
6. Menon, Lalita Sahasranama, 275.
 23

absolute Brahman, as well as the Divine Mother of the universe. I believe that

Ramakrishna is so well respected and such an important figure because it is clear to all

that the depth of his realization was so great that not only did he become absorbed in the

greatest heights of non-dual consciousness, but he experienced that it could be reached

through many paths. Many teachers have taught this but very few people have lived it.

To his devotees and disciples Ramakrishna said,

“The path of knowledge is very difficult. One cannot obtain Knowledge unless one
gets rid of the feeling that one is the body. In the Kaliyuga the life of man is
centered on food. He cannot get rid of the feeling that he is the body and the ego.
Therefore the path of devotion is prescribed for this cycle. This is an easy path.
You will attain God if you sing His name and glories and pray to him with a
longing heart. There is not the least doubt about it.”47

Ramakrishna explained that even after attaining Samadhi, the bhakta retains some ‘I

consciousness’ as the ‘servant ego’ or the ‘devotee ego’ and by constantly abiding in this

state of consciousness, he or she attains God-realization. This, Ramakrishna says, is

bhaktiyoga.48 Ramakrishna’s teaching in conjunction with the Gita is that when one

maintains the ‘I Consciousness’ that one is ‘God’s servant,’ one’s actions, speech, and

thought become harmonized with the divine will, and one attains union with the lord,

while still performing whatever necessary duties in the world.

Ramakrishna stressed that, “it isn’t any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to

realize God.”49 He said that one must have prema bhakti and raga bhakti. That is, one

must have love and longing for God. Ramakrishna said that God cannot remain unmoved

4
7. Nikhilananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 171.
4
8. Ibid., 171.
 24

by a devotee who has prema bhakti and raga bhakti.50 He described this type of devotion

as a love of God with passionate attachment to him.

Conclusion

The sages of India have said that Love is the universal attraction that brings all beings

back to God. Though this love for our divine source, and our deep desire to return to it is

inherent in all beings in creation, we still must cultivate a desire for God and a love for

God or we can get swept up in maya, the illusion of duality, separateness, and finite

existence. In non-theistic language, if one is dedicated to discovering the Ultimate truth

of who they are, and dedicated to the discovery of an existence beyond the dualities of

the world, pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow, and so forth, then they must cultivate

a deep, unquenchable desire for that truth. This is devotion to the path. One must

cultivate love and longing for either an object of devotion, God or Guru, or to their path

itself, and ultimately what the path itself represents, is truth. So there must be a love and

longing for truth. This love and longing for the Ultimate truth characterizes devotion in

Hinduism.

Love, longing, and singleness of purpose are the three qualities that I characterized as

the essential triad of devotion. These traits are said to be necessary to attain Self-

realization by the essential Hindu scriptures the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, and

by some of the greatest sages in the tradition, Narada, Shankara, and Sri Ramakrishna

4
9. Ibid., 172.
5
0. Ibid., 183.
 25

Paramahamsa. The Hindu tradition is specific in saying that there are many paths to the

one. The ancient Rig Veda says, “Truth is one” “though the wise call it by many names.”

Some people like to worship God or Ultimate reality as form and others the formless.

The most important aspect of spiritual practice and spiritual life is devotion. Love must

be cultivated in order to purify the mind and heart of negativities and selfishness.

Longing gives one the strength and endurance, and the desire to stay devoted to the path.

Singleness of purpose and longing are both rooted in knowledge because when one

attains the longing and the singleness of purpose to attain Self-realization or Ultimate

truth, it means that most probably they have clearly seen the transient nature and

suffering of the world, and are dissatisfied with it.

Charting the course of devotion in Hinduism we see that in the Upanishads the focus

of devotion is on knowledge of the Self and to one’s Guru. The teachings were primarily

for ascetics who had renounced the world, and the transmission of the teachings was from

Guru to disciple. In the Bhagavad Gita devotion takes on the form of devotion to God,

and in that text specifically, God has taken the form of Lord Krishna. Also in the Gita,

devotion takes on the form of devotion to one’s dharma or duty in life. This text is about

devotion in action, doing one’s work in the world without selfish motivation and

surrendering all work to God. The Bhagavad Gita is very helpful for anyone in a society

whether they are a renunciate or a householder. The bhakti tradition of the Divine

Mother, coming out of the Puranas, and taking root in many tantric traditions, is a very

dynamic devotional tradition where the Divine Mother is both the manifest world, the

formless, and the transcendent beyond. In this tradition both householders and
 26

renunciates are devotees of the Divine Mother and can follow her path by worshipping

and meditating on her forms, or her formless aspect.

The richness and diversity of the forms of Hinduism is so vast and that I was only able

to touch briefly on a few of the many forms. All of these forms have devotion at the

center of their tradition, rooted in love, longing, and singleness of purpose, which is

Realization of the Ultimate truth beyond forms and the formless, deity and Guru, and the

intellect of human beings.