One final point in this discussion. Each sense organ is the specific means of knowing its respective object. As an example, form can only be perceived through the eyes and sounds can only be heard through the ears. Form cannot be perceived through the ears, and sound cannot be heard through the eyes. But there is a general means underlying all five senses which is called the mind, without which no sense organ can know its object. People say : My mind went somewhere else, I did not hear what you said. My mind was somewhere else, I did not see and so on. So, just like the senses cannot grasp their objects without the mind, similarly, is there a general means with which the four fold qualification can be successful, and without which, they will not? That general means is called - devotion or bhakti.
Bhakti means a love-filled firm resolve that "I will certainly attain liberation". If there is an absence of firm interest or love towards attaining liberation in the minds of people, they will never attain liberation. First interest, then faith, then love, then engagement. Now, we of course know that we cannot create liberation, we just have to know what is already present. But, in addition to an interest in its knowing, we have to march towards its realization.
"Bhaago bhaktihi". "Bhaaga" means to divide. The Yajurveda says : "O Rudra, this is your bhaaga (portion)". So on one side there is the world, on the other side, liberation. Those who say this : "O liberation, I am your portion, I do not want the world", they have devotion. "O Ishvara! Now we are not the portion of brother, caste, religion, we are yours". In other words, "we have gone into the liberation fund, we are not in the fund of worldly entanglements". This resolve is called bhakti.
The discrimination that is endowed with the desire of liberation is called bhakti, devotion. Or, the discrimination that is in the camp of liberation is called devotion. Devotion brings the true identity (svaroopa) of its target in its heart, and creates dispassion towards everything else. But this is to be noted that it does not bestow the knowledge of the identity of brahman and self. Transforming the mind is the job of devotion, and removing the ignorance of the essence is the job of knowledge. Both have different roles to play. Worship is the discrimination of an individual, and in addition, dharma and yoga are dependent on the disconnected ego. This is not the discrimination of the essence.
The constancy of thought flow is resolve (nishthaa), that is why devotion is a firm cause of constancy. But, the knowledge of the essence is for removal of ignorance. If someone is liberated without devotion, then he will complain his entire life that the thought flow does not remain constant. Therefore, devotion is an important aspect of qualification.
Naaradajee has defined worship as follows : Submitting our entire life and character to the object of our worship is devotion. Also : Being extremely disturbed in its going away from memory. "Oh no! I have forgotten it. My life is ruined". This is devotion. Shree Shankaraachaarya defines it as this : "Investigation into one’s own true identity is worship". If we combine both defines, we can say this : Taking oneself out of the fund of the world and submitting one’s life to the fund of moksha, and also, the investigation into the identity of self and brahman which has been imbibed by taking the teacher’s refuge, and sorrow on its forgetting - this is called devotion. Investigation means aiming at the target, and moving like an arrow towards it.
Once a mumukshu is endowed with the four fold qualification, he should take the refuge of a teacher who has his resolve in brahman, and find the solution to fulfilling his mumukshaa.
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