About Devaji

Devaji is a modern-day mystic and non-dual teacher who embodies the heart of unconditional love. For over 25 years, he has been devoted to guiding seekers who are wholly committed to freedom on a heart-opening journey of liberation. His tender, loving wisdom and pure devotion offer a unique look at the non-dual teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the devotional path of Ramakrishna, in a hands-on way, where the personal relationship and smaller group arena is the framework for where the spiritual rubber meets the road. Devaji leads retreats as well as regular online gatherings available to everyone worldwide. He lives in Portugal, with his wife Faith. He is the author of the book Illuminated by Love.

The Path of the Mystic
Transcription

There is such a strong tendency in the spiritual arena to hold a position that my path is the best path. Sometimes it is looked upon as the only path. But whether the origin is Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Sufi, Jewish, Christian - the background really is immaterial. 

But it can be said, in truth, that there really is only one path. And this is the mystical path. And what is necessary to really know the path of the mystic is to carry a hunger for truth, for freedom – for reality. When it is the only hunger, the background no longer matters. The mystical path embodies all traditions, but how it stands apart is the level of intensity of the internal commitment.

So easy to get caught up in language, in subtle ways of separation. In an arena that is pointing to that which has no separation. When it is the only hunger – not the greatest, but the only hunger – it will give way to two flavors.

One is pure surrender, which arises out of pure devotion. Which is not the surrender to something, it is the surrender to everything. It is not the character's surrender to the character's environment – it is the surrender of every single thing including the character. What is surrender? It is the complete 100% availability to receive the grace of whatever is being offered. For this to supersede any conditioned desire or fear that is programmed into the character.

The other flavor is vigilance. The ceaseless self-remembering that pulls the attention back into what is present, real, and unbounded. The use of forgetting as a tool for self-reminding – as opposed to getting lost in the morass of the mind's interpretations.

When truth, when God, when love is the only hunger, both of these aspects will come to play. And the recognition that if freedom is truly wanted then this really is the only path, regardless of the history, the lineage – any story or interpretation.

This is commonly referred to as the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, non-dual teachings. But this is just a category. There is no category in the path of the mystic. It can be conveniently labeled, but there is no label for the path of the mystic.

There can be such subtle threads of forming particular beliefs, based on the flavors of teachings coming from slightly different angles, and using different language. But the angles and the language are always just attempting to pull you into your own purity, in which there are no angles, no language. The path of the mystic is so very rare only because there are so few who are ready to give up the mind's interpretation of what everything is.

So long as there is the subtlest distinction, one is lost. So long as there is the subtlest belief, one is lost. In true humility, which is the byproduct of true hunger, there is no belief, there is no interpretation, there is no separation. And what remains is the taste of the mystic. And what mystic means is that which cannot be spoken. Because there is no one left.

The only language that remains is the language of silence. And the nature of this language is only love.

-Devaji

"You and I are the same. 
What I have done is surely possible for all. 
You are the Self
now and can never be anything else.
Throw your worries to the wind,
turn within and find Peace."

-Sri Ramana Maharshi