Joy of Devotion

"Do not sorrow, for the joy of the

Lord is your strength"
Starting with one of my favourite scriptures above, I strongly believe that the joy of the
Lordour gladness of heartis present even through the trials of life.
There is a thin line between Joy and happiness! Happiness is temporary emotion and is
dependent on your circumstances and the comfort of your flesh whereas Joy, on the other
hand, is true contentment that comes from internal factors like our faith in the Lord. True joy
is everlasting and not dependent upon circumstances. The book of Philippians is a great study
in the difference between joy and happiness. Written by the Apostle Paul while imprisoned in
Rome, this book uses the words joy, rejoice, and joyful 16 times and teaches us how to
have true contentment in Jesus Christ, despite our circumstances. It is a feeling that instils in
your soul and comes from within! This joy, gladness, is not happiness that depends on our
circumstances and our moods; which has to do with our emotions or station in life. This joy
is something that is constant; it is from within us because He lives within.
Joy like faith is a spiritual force which needs to be actively stirred up. As Christians the
Bible instructs us to walk by faith and not by sight so even if your world appears to be
crumbling down we are told not to focus on our circumstances, but on Gods saving power to
deliver us from our circumstances. We would do well to remember that the aim of the enemy
is to shift our focus from dependence on God onto our current situation. When we do this we
are not walking by faith instead we are walking by sight which essentially causes us to walk
in fear.
If the fire of devotion is absent within you, you will go through the process of life as up and
down, day and night, darkness and light, wellness and illness, joy and misery. For one who
has nurtured the fire of devotion within himself, there is no day and night, no light and
darkness, no up and down, for such a being there is no such thing as joy and misery. It is this
fire of devotion, which sets a human being free from everything else that every other creature
on this planet goes through.

Some of the lines and excerpts from Bible that I firmly believe upon are:
The joy of the Lord is a place where we get to where we can stand firm in assurance that for
God there is no situation too hard for Him to deliver you and I from (Jer 32:17) and that only
He has the ability to do it for as (Psalm 20:7). When we get to this place we experience a
supernatural peace which stirs up joy within our heart. This joy kicks fear and worry out
of our heart and joy takes residence within our spirit and flows like blood through our spirit
and causes our spirit to experience supernatural strength. God tells us that we must enter His
rest (Heb 4:10-11) and to cease from trying to do Gods work for Him and to let Him take
full control of our lives. We are to cast ALL not some of our burdens upon Him so that He
can exercise His full power in our lives! Some of us are too busy trying to do Gods work that

we have never entered into His Rest and are constantly frustrated and tired with life we
are all guilty of this!

However with the joy of the Lord it doesnt matter the circumstances, you and I can feel
rest assured that a brighter day is to come. The knowledge and experience of this can be
likened to a person who walks alone down the high street with a big smile on their face. You
may think that they are deluded or has just remembered a joke; however this person knows
the secret. They know how to possess the supernatural strength which is a product of
experiencing joy even though their circumstances contradict this.
Have you experienced the joy of the Lord? If you havent shift the focus from your current
situation, and back onto God. This joy is not exclusive and is available to all who have faith
and dare to believe that there is nothing too hard for Jehovah (Jer 32:17) and that when He
takes over the battle, the battle is over!
In Hindu tradition, bhakti or loving devotion refers to a personal, generally emotional,
relationship of belonging, participation and communion between the devotee (bhakta) and
God, as well as among the devotees themselves. There are three things that strike us in this
description of bhakti. Firstly, it is not only that devotees love God, but God loves the
devotees too: it is a reciprocal relationship of love. Secondly, bhakti is not merely a vertical
communion with God, but also a horizontal relationship with ones fellows devotees.
Thirdly, the dual association is generally expressed in an emotional manner. The earlier
somewhere placid, quiet devotion of the Bhagavat- gita soon developed into an effusive,
euphoric devotion, that at times even expressed itself in eccentric behaviour.
The combined power of the Bhagavat, the Ramayana and the Bhagavad-Gita can sustain a
man through the journey of life. While the Bhagavat is devotional, the Ramayana stresses
responsibility in conduct and behaviour and the Gita advocates total spiritual knowledge.
Hence, one imbibes knowledge from the Gita, the art of living from the Ramayana and
devotions from the Bhagavat.
The Gopis of Vrindavan who are enjoined with Lord Shri Krishna in various forms, are
considered to be the epitome of love and devotion. According to our scriptures there are four
kinds of efforts or deeds that the living entity is involved in, which can be categorized into:
Righteousness or Religious acts (Dharma), Accumulation of wealth (Artha), Desire (Kaam),
and Salvation (Moksha). When a man performs any religious or righteous deed with love, the
emotion of love transforms the act of righteousness into a flow of devotion. There is a
delightful transformation of the religious act into an act of devotion when it is touched by
love. In the same way when wealth is utilized with love, then an individual moves beyond
personal and selfish happiness and takes a step away from self-interest, moving towards using
this wealth for philanthropy and social good. Then such an individual becomes kind and
merciful and puts the money that he has earned into good causes, for charity and altruistic
purposes. The emotion that the great saint Meera had for Lord Shri Krishna reminds us of
this divine energy of love. Even the Sufi Saints have referred to this frenzied pulse of the
emotion of love in their poetry and ghazals and this sentiment is also reticent of the same
progression towards that divine infinite love.

Devotions is characterised by five emotions that arise in the heart of the devotee:
First amongst them is motherly love (Vatsalya) in which the devotee envisions God in the
form of a small child. The emotion felt by Nand-Yashoda is of this nature, it is wonderful and
fascinating that on the path of devotion, the almighty God whose form is large and
magnanimous becomes a small infant and cradles in your lap!
The second emotion in devotion is Shringar or adornment. This has the sentiment of the
lover and his beloved. It is also called Madhura Bhakti. In this practice, the devotee
perceives the Lord as his lover. The Lord is the husband of our soul and we are his beloveds.
Devotees on this path believe that God is the only single masculine form in the world. All
other living entities are perceived as belonging to the feminine gender. This is the vision of
the great saint Meera Bai. For this, one has to possess the heart of the Gopi of Vrindavan.
This is the emotion that grants us an entry into the Raas Leela.
The third emotion with which a devotee worships the Lord is the emotion of Peace. He
considers God to be an embodiment of all roles and relationships. To such a devotee, his
worship is a combination of all emotions because he thinks that God is everything and
everybody to him. This is the emotion of Peace (Shant Bhaav).
The fourth type of emotion experienced by a devotee is the association of friendship. The
devotee perceives God as his true friend. In this material world, God is the only real friend of
the living entity.
The fifth emotion is servitude or Dasya. The emotion that Hanumanji had for Shri Ram is an
example of this kind of devotion.
Joy of devotion is not only confined to God and discovering your inner self, but devotion also
means following your passion to make a difference in the society or the world. The joy of
giving, the sense of belongingness, the sense of helping others, the feeling of benevolence.
One fine example is Mother Teresa who devoted all her life serving the weak and the
oppressed. The doings of your life define who you are and what inner satisfaction it brings to
your soul.
Therefore, I feel, devotion can be in any form helping your mother in household,
respecting your grandparents and taking care of your family, contributing some amount of
your earnings to help the poor or maybe anything that makes you feel worth full and
contended in life is what brings joy and peace.
I would like end this article by a famous quote by Muhammad Ali Jinnah:

With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to

duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot
achieve