love, obedience, humility and sincerity. Man seeks life and is given a stone. Nevertheless, it may be said that the ritualistic worship, which the masses of humanity confuse with religion, is Bhakti yoga, or the true art of worship in its incipient or initial stage. Most of the ceremonies performed by the followers of every creed are doubtless useless, but those ceremonies and modes of offering prayers which are essentially based on the principle of conveying or evoking worship, may be said to constitute the first or elementary stage of Bhakti yoga. It is the act of sincere worship, and not thoughts and beliefs, that counts. The performance must be from the very depths of the heart; otherwise a religion, however beautiful be its teachings, however grand be its philosophy, becomes nothing but mere farce, which people indulge in generally more through force of habit and fear of society than through any idea of true devotional worship.

A Hindu may have the Shastras (Scriptures) at his fingertips, but if he lacks devotion from the heart, he is no better than a typewriter or a calculating machine. A Mohammedan may laugh at so-called idol worship, but he becomes guilty of stray-thought worship, if, while in laying down his forehead in obeisance (sidja) during his prayer (Namaz) he is attacked by objectionable thoughts and has no will to worship, it means that he is at that time paying homage, not to the Almighty, but to those very thoughts. For instance, if a Muslim gets the thought of any man or woman during the " sidja,” it amounts to the "sidja" having been offered to that man or woman, and thus the Namaz turns into a farce.

But worship from the heart presupposes great efforts. It cannot be evoked with a mere wish. If one decides upon practicing true Bhakti yoga, one has to make heroic efforts in order to achieve fixity of mind, for contrary thoughts are very likely to disturb one's mind. It is because an average person's frame of mind is averse to remaining unchanged for any considerable period of time that the repeated efforts to evoke deep devotion are essential.

In the beginning of the second stage, one has to make vigorous efforts in thinking about the Almighty as much and as often as possible. The efforts must be continued until one becomes above efforts, and one becomes above efforts only when worship from the heart becomes second nature. He who can naturally worship from the heart without finding it necessary to make artificial efforts, may justly be said to have attained the higher Bhakti. This second state concerns itself with the constant remembrance of God, and through the constant mental or physical repetitions of any one Name of God, achieves fixity of thought, without the medium of any ceremony. This kind of constant remembrance of God must not be confused with meditation, wherein one makes an attempt to achieve fixity of thought; but here in the second stage of Bhakti yoga, one already posses sole and single thought for God, and therefore has no more need for organized thinking.

It is not necessary for a person to stop carrying on one’s worldly duties and obligations, to achieve or to practice this higher Bhakti. One may conduct one's business or follow one's profession, one may lead the family life and look after all the necessary external requirements; but amidst all the worldly engagements one should ever be alert to the Lord. The more a person can remember the object of the heart-worship along with the routine work of everyday life, the better for him.

The third stage concerns itself with Divine Love and longing of a high order. The higher Bhakti of the second stage ultimately leads the aspirant to this third or highest stage of worship and to true love.

Meditation or organized thinking also serve the excellent purpose of counteracting the might of Maya — the phenomenon that presents Illusion as real. One