As we
talked about bhakti in class today, I thought about how it could contribute to
becoming one with God. I've heard a lot lately, that out of love for God,
one ought to do everything one does on His behalf. Friends of mine who have
adopted this philosophy have explained that all they have is from Him, so it
only makes sense to turn it back to Him. A resident of mine just said this
morning that when she was in high school, her parents gave her the choice to go
to church or not. She said at first, she took advantage of the opportunity to
sleep in at home. After awhile, however, she decided that in spite of how
busy she was with school and sports, she would go to church again because God
was the only reason she was excelling (and therefore kept busy by) sports and
school. Colossians 3:23 sums it up well, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working
for the Lord, not for men." According to the Gita one should devote all of
one's actions to one's deity, whereas the Yoga Sutras direct readers to follow
specific spiritual disciplines, such as reading sacred texts, practicing yoga,
stilling the fluctuations of the mind.
I suppose I
should prefer the former because it allows for more leeway in showing my
devotion to God. I mean, I may do homework earnestly, for God, as opposed to
being limited by traditional forms of spiritual devotion such as scripture
reading.
There are many
noble/mundane things one can do for God, such as study, cook for someone, make
a craft (sorry, the imagination bank is running dry). It makes me laugh to
think that a person who is new to a certain religion and isn't being discipled
in the ways of the faith might misinterpret the aforementioned scripture. A
thief could say, well, I'm taking this stuff for my poor friends, in the name
of God! Hmm...
That is quite a resident you have. When I first read that verse, I didn't think about how people could interpret it for stealing as you said, that's a really interesting thought. When you pointed that out, I thought about when people in history have said they "killed in the name of God," it's a crazy world out there.
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