Swami Prakashanand Saraswati taught that Divine Love Devotion requires placing God above worldly desires, with a love that seeks no worldly rewards. Only by recognizing God in a personal form (for example, the eternal forms of Radha and Krishn), can devotees transform their devotion into a deeply felt spiritual reality. From here they can move beyond their intellect into loving heartfelt surrender.
As Swami Prakashanand Saraswati describes…
The path of God realization is selfless love and devotion.
If any person gives first importance to Divine attainments and secondary importance to worldly achievements, then alone he can love God, otherwise not, as the significance of love is selflessness, not selfishness. If a person is lovingly offering a fee and requesting the doctor to treat his sick son, it is not love, it is bargaining.
You should not do bargaining with God; you should love God. And when you love God you will have only one desire and that will be for His vision and Grace. When a person loves someone, he naturally desires to meet him. So, the desire of meeting God in His personal form is called “love”, and this is ‘devotional consciousness’.
It is now literally understood that you have to love God, but when you will try to put it into practice, two problems will come before you. Firstly, what is the form of God? Because no one can have a formless imagination, and without the imagination of His form, how can anyone love Him? Secondly, what is our relationship with God? Because love is the effect of our understanding of a sweet relationship with Him. When these two things are understood and the devotee begins to feel his relationship with Him, he starts “divine love devotion”.Otherwise, the theory of love and surrender remains only in the intellect, it never comes into practice. That is why those who try to love God without a definite conception of His form and relationship fail to increase their love for Him. And their liking for God remains as an unborn embryo forever, because an imagination about something (God) existing in heaven will not produce love.
Love or longing appears in the heart when a person feels himself related to God in His personal form. And the truth is, that God has His Divine personal form which is eternal and omnipresent. This is the reason that He can appear before His devotees in any corner of the world, and whenever He will appear His Divine love form will be the same for every devotee. His Divine love form is Radha and Krishn. Both are eternally one but in two forms, and this is the sweetest innermost form of God.
In conclusion, Swami Prakashanand Saraswati emphasizes that true Divine Love Devotion requires a selfless heart focused lovingly on God, without bargaining or selfish intent. He explains that genuine devotion arises from understanding God in His personal form and cultivating a heartfelt relationship with Him. Without a true connection to God’s eternal form, such as Radha and Krishn, devotion remains theoretical and unfulfilled. When devotees begin to develop a relationship with God in personal form, their love deepens. This, in turn, leads them on the path to experience greater devotional bliss as they become closer to Divine realization.
Swami Prakashanand Saraswati’s books reveal the timeless path of divine love and eternal wisdom.