” There is a great difference between observing rituals and walking the spiritual path. Your aim should be to transition from a life steeped in rituals onto the path of spirituality – the only True path.”

Swamiji says …

” Our faith , our religion is determined the very moment we are born and it plays a very important role in influencing us and evolving us into individual personalities as we grow. The prayers said and sung by our family members in praise of God ; the manner in which the Almighty is worshipped by the elders of our family ; the rituals that are followed by them are keenly observed by us, right from our nascency, and we try our level best to emulate our parents and imbibe the teachings of all that our religion teaches and directs us to do. We, as children , find the ritualistic pattern very complicated in the beginning, but over a period of time, learn the art of performing the rituals that have been observed by the previous generations of our family.”

“It is extremely good to do all that you can do as an individual to portray our love and devotion for God…but whatever you do should be done with sincerity ; with a pure heart and without any expectations from Him. The love with which you weave garlands for your ‘ishta dev’ … ‘ishta devi’; the faith with which you conduct ‘katha” and ‘havans’ on auspicious days for your favourite deity ; the offerings that you make to God – should all be done with a pure heart. You should not be pretentious while serving God. No religious act of yours … no ritual performed by you should be coated with a selfish desire of benefiting monetarily or otherwise, but rather, performed reverentially with the intent of enabling you in establishing a personal rapport with God and to gain proximity with Him. ”Tum bhagwaan ke liye jo bhi karte ho , usme koi dhong nahi ho na chahiye…Sacche , saaf dil se bhagwaan ke liye har kaarya karo.”

” You try to tempt God , lure Him by offering Him gold … cajole Him to fulfil a long unfulfilled deisre of yours by making a financial deal with Him. ‘I will give you this IF you do that for me.’ Do you really think you can buy God ? And when things don’t work out the way you want them to .. then God really gets it from you. You curse Him , abuse Him, hold Him guilty for not giving you what you want…for not paying heed to your call … for not granting you your wish …for not giving you in return an equivalent amount of what you have offered Him as a bribe. Did He ask you to do anything for Him ? Does He need you or is it vice versa? Has He ever asked you for recognition in any way ?’ ‘Kya Bhagwaan ne kabhi tumhe kaha hai ki tum unhe maano ?’ It is you who needs Him…’Garaj insaan ki hai … Bhagwaan ki nahi.” You require Him. He does not ask you to take His name , remember Him. He has ‘devtas’ … demi-gods , ‘farishtey’ … angels to take His name and worship Him. ‘Jo ‘neeli chatriwalla’ hai …’sabka ‘maalik’ hai , unki aradhana karne ke liye sachche sant baithe huey hain’. He is not dependent on you for anything ? Would your barter system impress Him and make Him your subordinate and subservient to you ? “

“But the one and only thing in which He is actually interested and that would really make Him happy is when you make an earnest , honest and genuine attempt to draw Him within you …’jab tum apne andar Bhagwaan ko utaar te ho’ … and want to cleanse your soul from the layers of impurities that have nested on it .This is the only thing that He requires from you.But you fail to discern this simple requirement of His as you are busy blaming Him for every mishap or misfortune that takes place with you! Who has given you the authority and right to hold Him responsible for the hurdles, obstacles and difficulties that come your way and challenge you during your journey of life? Desist from doing so! You have the gall to question the Master plan that He has drawn out for you ? The irony is that you blame ‘He’ who has created you!You accuse Him of being careless and not taking adequate care of you! Have you ever thought for a second about His capabilities and compared them with yours ? Try making a grain of wheat ! Try creating a small finger! Can you do it ? You know you can’t. What you can certainly do is try to follow the path of ‘dhyaan’ , ‘gyaan’ and goodness – the spiritual path – that alone will make you realise that ‘parmatma’ is already seated in your heart and your foremost duty on becoming aware of this reality is to draw Him inside you , within you. When God sees your implicit trust in this path, He decides to guide you towards Him, free you forever from the cycle of life and death and finally makes you His.”