Being devoted

Shiva:

This Lord is not to be worshipped by material substances but by one's own consciousness. Not by waving of lamps nor lighting incense, nor by offering flowers nor even by offering food or sandal-paste. He is attained without the least effort; he is worshipped by self-realisation alone. This is the supreme meditation, this is the supreme worship: the continuous and unbroken awareness of the indwelling presence, inner light or consciousness. While doing whatever one is doing -- seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing or talking -- one should realise one's essential nature as pure consciousness. Thus does one attain liberation...

This worship is performed day and night perpetually, with the objects that are effortlessly obtained, and are offered to the Lord with a mind firmly established in equanimity and in the right spirit (for the Lord is consciousness and cares only for the right spirit)...

... One should look with equal vision upon that which is pleasant and beautiful through and through and that which in unendurably unpleasant. Thus should one worship the self.

... One should worship the self after having abandoned the distinction between the desirable and the undesirable, or even while relying on such a distinction (but using them as the materials for the worship).

... Established in this state of equanimity, the wise man should experience infinte expansion within himself while carrying our his natural actions externally without craving or rejection. Such is the nature of the worshipper of this intelligence. In his case, delusion, ignorance and egosense do not arise even in dream. Remain in this sate, O sage, experiencing everything as a child does. Worship the Lord of the body (the intelligence that pervades it) with all that is brought to you by time, circumstance and environment, and rest in supreme peace devoid of desire.
(pp. 379-383)

Vasishtha (speaking to Rama):

From the time the Lord instructed me, I have been performing the worship of the infinite self. By the grace of such worship, though I am constantly engaged in various activities I am free form sorrow. I perform the worship of the self, who is undivided though apparently divided, with the flowers of whatever comes to me naturally and whatever actions are natural to me.
(p. 387)

©1999 by Deb Platt