All World
Gayatri Pariwar

How do You Please God?

Now-a-days offerings of some materials, e.g. sweets, cocoanut, cardamom etc. to God or the deity and doing some rituals or to chant the praises of God are considered worship; and it is expected that He will be pleased with the devotee and fulfill his desires, proper or improper, just or unjust. Such persons are totally ignorant about the true nature of Godhead and consider Him to be a stupid Superperson who could be allured or befooled like a child. The common man is a victim of this illusion.

It should be clearly understood that a really worthwhile thing is bound to cost more. You should realize that God cannot dance to your tune. You will have to act according to His will. If you are able to do so, you will become identical with God. Fuel has no worth except when it embraces fire and becomes fire itself. Fire does not become fuel. A drain meets a river and becomes as purifying and great as the river itself. But it never happens that a river flows in reverse, meets the drain and becomes dirty like it. A drop of water merges into and becomes one with the ocean. The ocean does not become a drop. It is the Sadhak who has to dance to the tune of God’s will like a puppet. God does not fulfill the wishes of the Sadhak. A Sadhak has to surrender himself to God and fulfill His will. This is the philosophy of worship.

If a person wants to please God, he has to unconditionally surrender himself to Him, do His will and become His beloved.
- Pujya Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya
(Excerpts from his autobiography ‘My Life: Its Legacy and Message’)