Practice is equally important

[dattaswami]

Practice is equally important

 

The extent of the determination to sacrifice wealth for the sake of God is one important angle. Another important angle is the recognition of human form of God, who enjoys your sacrifice. The people, who are not matured in either of these two angles, neither like the sacrifice nor like the recognition of human incarnation. They become very intelligent and like to have the fruit of sacrifice of both the angles through their clever interpretation. They treat the statue or photo as God. They sacrifice the food to God represented by photo or statue and eat it. They claim to achieve the fruit of the devotee sacrificing the food to human incarnation. Statues and photos are the results of the clever interpretations of such selfish people only.

 

If such angle is not present in the mind, the offer of food to the statues and photos is not at all wrong because such sacrifice develops at least the theoretical devotion in the beginners. Theory is the mother of practice. Without theory, there is no birth of practice. But, the theory without practice is a waste in the long run and does not yield even a trace of the fruit at anytime. The knowledge and devotion are the two parts of the theory. You may have lot of information about Delhi and its path and you many have a lot of inspiration also to go to Delhi. Both these are knowledge and devotion respectively. Without putting even a little effort like going to the railway station to purchase the ticket, there is no use of the knowledge and the devotion. Theory is very important because it is the generator of the practice. But, practice is equally important since there will be no generation of even a trace of fruit without practice. Therefore, the theory involving jnana yoga (knowledge) and bhakti yoga (devotion) along with karma yoga (practice) are equally needed for achieving the grace of God.

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