The devotee engages to the best of his ability into the play of life, fulfilling his role on this earth as student, employee, husband, wife, parent, neighbor, and community servant. But at the heart of the devotee is a burning desire for the Lord.
God Himself told me that the most basic and central truth of the universe is that God is the Father and we are His children. We are all created as children of God.
Burnt offerings, sacred feasts, intense meditations, puja and taking millions of cleansing baths at sacred shrines of pilgrimage: the merits of all these can be obtained by enshrining Lord within your heart for a fraction of a second.
Shiva is all-pervading and present in each particle. Never differentiate between a Hindu and a Muslim. If you are shrewd and intelligent, know THY SELF. There lies acquaintance with God.
The symbolism of the Goddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of God the Father. The Goddess does not rule the world. She is the world, manifest in each of us, she can be known internally by every individual, in all her magnificent diversity.
