Attitude of a Devotee

April 1975
Attitude of a Devotee

Develop an attitude of a devotee and you will become a good disciple.

When you want to advance spiritually, adopt attitudes that will help you minimize your sense of self.

Respect and love God in everyone. Try always to see the good side in people.

Live to please God.

Be impersonal.

The great masters have their consciousness totally in the Divine Light, nothing else. They don’t have likes and dislikes, and they don’t have attitudes like humility. Yogananda said, when someone told him he was very humble, “how can there be humility when there is no consciousness of self?

The attitude of devotion is one of the most important on the spiritual path. You can love God so much, that you don’t want anything except to please God.  Let the heart send a constant stream of childlike love, where there is joy in just singing God’s name and joy in communing quietly and feeling His presence in your heart.

There isn’t anything God does not have in abundance. The only thing He doesn’t have is our love, until we give Him our love.

Spend more time talking to God.

The spiritual path is demanding, a constant struggle up and down, back and forth because of our karma and past tendencies.

Devotion is the most important quality on the spiritual path and the most important attitude the devotee should develop.

It takes willpower and courage to stay on the spiritual path. It is very demanding.

Stay in the strong stream of energy leading you to God. But if you find yourself pulling away from that, don’t worry about it. Just get back to it. Yogananda said, ‘a saint is a sinner who never gave up.’

Have a sense of willingness. As God, “is this what you want.”

Seek attunement with the guru in meditation, attunement with the guru’s consciousness.

Understand that you are trying to attune yourself to God within yourself, not outside yourself. God lives in your own self, and that’s where the gurus is too. The guru lives in your heart. God lives in your heart. Anything you can hope to attain must be found within.