Bhakti been referred to in the books as desirelessness. The thought is beautifully expressed in a prayer of the French mystic, Fenelon: “Lord! I know not what I ought to ask of Thee. O Father! give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or consolation. I simply present myself before Thee; I open my heart to Thee. Behold my needs which I know not myself; see and do according to Thy tender mercy. Smite or heal; depress me or raise me up; I adore all Thy purpose without knowing them. I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice; I yield myself to Thee. I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will. Teach me to pray. Pray Thyself in me.”
The bhakta is desireless because he has knowledge of God’s love. Religion is not a mere feeling. The bhakta’s life is not one of mere impulse or emotion. He has Jnana. Many things of life and the world, of history and science, of culture and civilisation he may not know. But he knows the one thing needful—the knowledge of God’s love. Hence his desirelessness is not something negative. It is a positive self-surrender to the divine love. The bhakta, thus, does not despise the world, does not hate the visible. To him things and forms of life are a mask of the only Love; and he knows that the service of man is also the worship of God. “Verily, I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The bhakta, whether silent or singing the sacred name, or doing his appointed duty, or serving his society, or communing with nature, or struggling for justice, moves in an atmosphere of the beautiful.
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