Ananya-Bhakti 6: Īśvara
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 01/07/2017

This series is classified Viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda | Bhakti-yoga | Svapna | Anāhata-cakra
Īśvara or God is simply our own infinite power of Self-love. When reflected in the limited mind, He seems to us to be another. When we walk the spiritual Path leading to surrender and Self-realization, that illusion is vanquished and we see Reality as it is. 

“To know God is to love God. Therefore the path of bhakti and of jñāṇa are same. The thought of God is divine favor, is by nature prasad or arul. It is by God’s grace that you think of God.” — Talks, 29

“Take the case of bhakti. I approach Īśvara and pray to be absorbed in Him. I then surrender myself in faith and by concentration. What remains afterwards? In the place of the original ‘I’, perfect self-surrender leaves a residuum of God in which the ‘I’ is lost. This is the highest form of parābhakti (supreme bhakti), prāpti (surrender) or the height of vairagya (renunciation).” — Talks, 28

“Being completely absorbed in Self-abidance, giving not even the slightest room to the rising of any thought other than Self-contemplation, is giving ourself to God. Even though we place whatever amount of burden upon God, that entire amount He will bear. One pārameśvara-śakti (supreme power of God) is driving all activities—causing and controlling everything that happens in this world. Why should we always think, ‘it is necessary for me to act in this way; it is necessary for me to act in that way’, instead of being calm, peaceful and happy, having yielded to that supreme controlling power? Though we know that the train is carrying all the burdens, why should we who travel in it suffer by carrying our small luggage on our head instead of leaving it placed on that train?” — Who am I? 13

Everything that happens in our life—both externally as a body living in this material world, and internally as a thinking and feeling mind—happens only by the will of God: that is, by the love that He has for us as His own Self. Since He is all-knowing, nothing can happen without Him knowing it.

==========
Dharmasār Video Series Index:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EZFqp9G893-LMYSm-ucUt3CylMTbfLV2/view?usp=drivesdk

Four States of Consciousness Diagram: 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13OWr_2V857yq7AjS59yhF4ub2q9k8Kl9/view?usp=sharing

Dharmasār Complete Archive Library:
https://archive.org/details/dharmasar-essence-of-dharma