Bhakti and Advaita Upadeshamrita II

2. Perform all your duties with your mind always fixed on God.
As for your parents, spouse and children, serve them as your own, but always remember they do not belong to you, that they are the children of God. You are also a child of God and your own people are those who love God.

3. Cry to God with a yearning heart and then you will see Him.
People will shed a jug full of tears for the sake of their wife or children; they will be carried away by a stream of their own tears for the sake of money; but who sheds a tear for God? Cry for Him, not for show, but with a longing and yearning heart. The rosy light of the dawn comes before the rising sun; likewise a longing and yearning heart is the sign of God-vision that comes after. Extreme longing is the surest way to God-vision. Through extreme longing the mind remains fixed on the Supreme Being.

Bhakti and advaita upadeshamrita

I am astonished to see how many Iskcon-marred persons (see Gaudiya Repercussions)
leaving the path of bhakti, due to disappointment and frustration became atheists or impersonalists.
Some left Gaudiy-Mat, and some left even the babajis in Radha-Kunda.

In this connection I read the wonderful Ramakrishna Upadeshamrita, which is not so much different from Gosvamipada's begining of his Upadeshamrita.


Ramakrishna Upadeshamrita

The Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886)
Recorded by Sri M,
and translated by Swami Abhedananda

Compiled and Edited by Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati

1.
One must always sing forth the holy name of God
and talk without ceasing of His glory and attributes.

Then one must seek the company of holy men.
One must from time to time visit the Lord’s devotees
or those who have given up attachment to the things of the world
for the sake of the Lord.

It is, however, difficult to fix one’s mind upon God in the midst of worldly cares and anxieties; hence the
necessity of going into solitude now and again with a view to meditating on Him.

In the first stage of one’s spiritual life one cannot do without solitude. When plants are young, they stand in need of fences around them for their protection; otherwise goats and cattle will destroy them.

The depth of the heart, the retired corner, and the forest
are the three places for meditation.

One should also practice discrimination.
One should discriminate between the real and the unreal,
between matter and spirit.
It is thus that one will shake off one’s love for the things of the world and attachment to sensual pleasures, wealth, fame, power.