Dear Reader,

Bhav (spiritual emotion) is an intense awareness about the existence of God or the Guru in any form and an intense attraction towards Him. Carrying out day-to-day activities based on this feeling and experiencing life based on this background is referred to as spiritual emotion (bhav) towards God or the Guru. Absolute development of this awareness is the presence of this awareness in all the three states, i.e., waking, dream and deep sleep.

Devotion is that energy which eliminates duality and takes a seeker to Self-realization. Without spiritual emotion it is not possible to develop devotion (bhakti).

     Spiritual emotion and devotion are states that we experience as we advance as seekers in our spiritual journey towards the Ultimate, that is merging with the Supreme God Principle. The following diagram shows the various stages that a seeker goes through in the journey to merge with God. As the diagram shows, when one has intense faith in Guru or God one begins to experience spiritual emotion.

* Constant remembrance or repetition of The Lord's Name. Seekers in the initial stages of spiritual practice (less than one year) are advised to repeat The Name of the Lord as per their religion (refer to Issue 3, Clarification of Doubts section for details). Those seekers who have been doing regular spiritual practice for over one year are advised to determine The Name appropriate for them from the experiment given in Issue 124, Message to Seekers section.