Liberation...can be reached without devotion to God. But this is a subtle and dangerous path, threading its way through the pitfalls of ambition and pride. Devotion to a personal ideal of God brings with it a natural inclination to humility and service...It calls forth the highest kind of love of which man is capable. We cannot even imagine Brahman until the moment of our liberation, but we can all imagine Ishwara (Ishwara is what Brahman looks like from the phenomenal world; He is conceptualized in a manner that more or less corresponds to God the Father in the Christian tradition)...
This kind of devotion requires, perhaps, a special temperament.
It is not for everybody. But to be able to feel it is a very
great blessing, for it is the safest and happiest way to liberation.
(p. 37)
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