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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

Characteristics of a devotee

 

CHENNAI, DEC. 15. The Supreme Being is the sole refuge of

mankind. While the worldly people are not aware of this truth and

take credit for whatever they enjoy in life, a devotee is

conscious that it is God who dispenses his due and remains

satisfied with his lot. Ironically, even the best of devotees

have undergone tribulations in their lives and scriptural texts

like the Puranas highlight how they were able to face adversities

in life by reposing total faith in God.

 

The characteristics of unalloyed devotion have been described by

Sage Suka in the Bhagavata Purana. ``That speech alone is worth

the name through which one sings His praises; those hands alone

which do service to Him deserve to be called hands; that mind

alone is rightly so called which constantly remembers the Lord

dwelling in all mobile creatures; and those ears alone deserve

that name which hear the sacred stories of His sports.''

 

During times of distress it is very easy to get dejected and the

Lord's words of assurance in the Gita will serve as a beacon of

hope, ``The devotees, however, who loving no one else constantly

think of Me, and worship Me in a disinterested spirit, to those

ever united in thought with Me, I bring full security and

personally attend to their needs.''

 

In his discourse, Navalpakkam Sri Varadachariar said that

sterling devotees were rare and Lord Krishna has acknowledged

that it was only after countless births that a person developed

unalloyed devotion to Him exclusively. And, such a devotee is

dear to the Almighty. The Lord remains bounden to His devotees

and makes Himself accessible to them.

 

Jagannatha Dasa in one of his compositions conveys God's

accessibility to His devotee and the esteem in which He holds him

as follows: If the devotee sings His glory lying down, the Lord

listens raptly to it seated; if the devotee is seated, the Lord

remains standing while listening to him; and if the devotee sings

His praise standing, then the Lord dances with joy listening to

him.

 

Lives of devotees like Purandara Dasa are standing testimony to

such singular devotion to God. Though he was a wealthy merchant

and a miser to boot in his early years, after the turning point

in his life when the Almighty Himself interceded to claim him as

His devotee, Purandara Dasa transformed into such a pious man of

God that he renounced all his wealth and spent his remaining

years in the sole pursuit of singing His praise in inimitable

musical compositions. Such a total transformation for one who was

so attached to his wealth was possible only because of devotion.

 

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