Happiness is the greatest Divine birthright – the buried treasure of my soul. -Paramhansa Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda said that if you want to succeed in meditation, you must develop devotion. But people who aren’t particularly devotional by nature often wonder, “What is devotion and how do I practice it?”

Swami Kriyananda gave us an important key when he described devotion as “living our life and practicing the teachings with a sense of self-offering.” You should try to see devotion as the practice of offering yourself, with freedom and deep love, at the feet of God or the guru.

If you can offer your entire self into the light of God with complete freedom, with absolutely no sense of compulsion, with no feeling of “What am I getting out of it?” but with love and gratitude—you’ll experience divine bliss.

What if you can’t see the light in meditation?  Then you can simply offer yourself at the spiritual eye, the point between the eyebrows, as if you were giving the gift of yourself to God. Swami Kriyananda said that by the practice of offering yourself into the Christ center, you are taking the energy of the ego and offering it to God for purification. By repeatedly making that self-offering, you will gradually transcend the ego and become freer and freer within yourself.

Self-offering consists of offering all your positive attitudes, all the negative issues you’re struggling with, everything you own, anything you’re proud of, all of your tests, your joys,  your entire being—and offering it either into the light of God or the Christ center.

Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said that “even a leaf offered with devotion is pleasing to Me.” Instead of offering just a leaf, offer your entire self. That’s what pleases God the most.

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