Karma, jnana and bhakti are paths to realise the Supreme Brahman and involve intense and earnest search for the reality of the self. For none can escape the effect of Maya which is seen not only in the way the divine presence is hidden from human perception, but also in creating a wrong understanding of the values of the material world, pointed out Srimati Kausalya Sivakumar in a discourse. Among these paths, bhakti fostered by worship of the Divine Mother is shown to be more efficacious for it helps the devotee to transcend the material world constituted of the three gunas and understand Her omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence.
Selfishness or ahamkara is a natural burden and a great hurdle to God realisation. The feeling of I and Mine has to be eradicated and one has to be totally immersed in the glory of the Goddess. This purity in worship is also conferred on the devotee through Her grace. The aspirant begins to realise that everything is Her gift and that he has no claim over whatever he believes he possesses. He gradually learns to perform daily acts as an offering to her without expectation of any fruits though initially seeking material prosperity might have been the aim. The jnana that all these desires are ephemeral and fleeting becomes clear and the yearning for the permanence of bliss stands dominant. This is the vision of a seer who experiences his self in the Brahman. It is also seen as the Advaita bhava when there is no difference between the experiencer, the experience and what is experienced. It is similar to the light of a lamp that gets submerged in a far greater brilliance. What a jnani seeks by learning through meditation and study of scriptures is automatically gained through the practice of selfless devotion.
