Dear Ram....

I was reading one of your satsangs from your webpage and it said:

"About the only thing that generates deep feeling in me is devotion to God, uncompromising honesty, and the overcoming of adversity but I don't have 'feelings' waiting to be indulged or hurt."

This brought up some confusion..... 

As you ARE the Self... how does the Self...have devotion to God?  Is Self separate from God?  Does Self have devotion to God??  How does this occur??  Sorry to trouble you but I need to hear about this from Ram/Self.  Is there anything one can do to deepen the devotion/love?

Ram: This is a good question. It certainly seems like a contradiction. Let me see if I can clear it up. Obviously in a non-dual reality there is no devotee, no object of devotion and no devotion. But when we accept Maya, the apparent temporary, changing reality the non-dual Self appears a subject and object and the relationship between them. So in Maya devotion is possible. It is not ultimately real because one is what one is devoted to but it is a nice game for the Self to pretend that it is something other than what it is and worship itself. And a devotional mind is very useful for Self inquiry. In fact Self inquiry is a devotional state; one is devoted to understanding the nature of reality.

God is just the Self in its role as the creator. Remember in a non-dual reality there is no creation…all this is just eternal, uncreated Awareness…the Self. But when we admit Maya we need to explain the existence of the ‘creation.’ We know that as individuals we did not create the universe…we only create the universe of thoughts and feelings around our perception of reality. So we speak of Self…which we don’t know but infer…as God.

It is possible for an individual to work his or her way out of Maya into the light of full Self knowledge. If one is not inclined to rigorous Self inquiry scripture asks us to worship the Self in the form of the Creator. It so happens that the dualistic point of view works just as well as the non-dual point of view. Why? Because the Self, Awareness, responds to all sincere requests for It to reveal itself. So it operates through your chosen deity…the symbol that inspires and motivates your spirituality…to reveal itself. The symbol can be anything; a great spiritual figure like Jesus or the Buddha, a sound syllable like Om, a sunset, a tree, your guru…you name it. These revelations…like your out of body experience…give the person an experience of the Self. And these experiences, if they are rightly understood, can lead to Self realization. So devotion to God or surrender to God can lead to Self realization. This is why the scriptures encourage it…even the scriptures on non-duality.

Statements like this one of mine often cause confusion because they appear contradictory. But I do not always speak as the Self. It is not appropriate in every case. If I refuse to come into Maya how can I help people out of Maya? There are a few rare highly qualified pure souls who can hear a mahatma speak as the Self and immediately experience and know the Self through the words. They have the ability to identify with the teacher and his or her words (and state of mind) becomes theirs. But most people’s minds have tamas and rajas in them and this ties them to Maya. So to help these people I speak as if I were a human being. It is much easier for them to identify with a human being than with the Self. And gradually…this approach takes time…they are able with the help of the teachings and their epiphanies to work their way out of Maya. So if a person in Maya hears me speak as the Self at one time and later as a person it causes a doubt. There is no actual contradiction from my point of view because I am doing this consciously to help them understand something or to motivate them to seek the Self.

Carolyn: Is there anything one can do to deepen the devotion/love?

Ram: Yes. Pour more and more energy into your spiritual pursuits until you develop single-pointed concentration on the Self or your symbol of the Self. Everyone has love/devotion for something but that devotion should be intense. The Bhakti Sutra (the Gospel of Love on my website) says that bhakti, devotion, is ‘intense love of this.’ ‘This means the Self. The word ‘this’ is used to indicate something that is always present. What is always present? You, Awareness, the Self. So devotion is just Self/self love. In the highest state of devotion there is no separation between the devotee and the Self. The devotee knows that what I am worshipping is me. At this point the whole idea of devotion as a dualistic state of mind disappears into the understanding of non-duality.

Carolyn: Sorry.... but I guess I am not finished.  I have had a few experiences of this amazing, blinding, perfect, overwhelming love that the mind can't comprehend and has labeled "the Love of God."  Somehow the mind has turned this around and longs, very much, to have that much love for God..... do you see what I am saying?  And, as Carolyn, not being real, is not capable of this love..... how does this come up???

Thank you!

Ram: I love you, Carolyn. You ask the best questions. The answer is that Carolyn is real if Carolyn is a name of the Self. So it is just you, the Self, masquerading as Carolyn experiencing itself in the form of intense devotion. So when you think ‘Carolyn’, you should understand that it means Awareness and not that bundle of memories that are saved in Awareness’ memory, the Causal Body. Then you don’t have to pack around this belief that you are unreal. If you are here and you are aware…how can you not be?...then you are real.

Of course it is ridiculous to long for yourself because you are yourself. The thing to do is to realize that these experiences are just experiences appearing in Awareness. They are so positive and powerful that they immediately set up a vasana for more. And sometimes they come and sometimes they don’t. It is pointless to long for them and try to repeat them and believe that enlightenment is a permanent ‘experience of intense amazing blinding perfect love.” All experiences appear and disappear in you, in Awareness.

I’m sorry for the delay but I had to work through the backlog of emails in my box before I got to this. I trust you are well and your life is peaceful and happy.

Much love,

Ram