Worship that is dear to the Lord

Worshiptul homage unto the Eternal Reality – the one, beginningless, endless, changeless, infinite, eternal, all-pervading, immanent and indwelling Reality – that is the source, support and ultimate fulfillment of all existence! Infinite and all-pervading,; therefore, everwhere present. Dwelling within you; therefore, nearer to you than yourself. That Being, in whom you live, move and have your being, indwells the heart-shin ofyoru body-temple; and, therefore, your every moment is a divine activity.
In this inner shrine of your heart, in the temple of your body, worship Him with the flower of truthfulness, with the flower of verity, with the flower of honesty, with the flower of loyalty to your vows, with the flower of a guileless heart, a frank and simple-hearted disposition. Worship Him with a life devoid of all crookedness, deceit and double-dealing. Worship Him with the flowers of straightforwardness, simplicity, purity and compassion. Worship Him with the flowers of a self-controlled life, with control of your senses.
These are the flowers that are dear to that Being who is the indweller of your heart, the sanctum sanctorum of this body-temple of yours. He does not desire costly ingredients for worship. He is the overlord of countless worlds. He owns everything. What can you give Him? There is nothing that doesn’t belong to Him.
But your ego belongs to you, your heart belongs to you, your belongs to you. If you offer your heart, your ego, your life as a flower at His feet, then indeed His grace will flow with you. For He delights, rejoices and finds intense pleasure when He is offered the flowers of truthfulness, forgiveness, compassion, simplicity, guilelessness, where there is no deviousness, no doublt-talk, no concealment, no human cleverness.
These are all despicable from the point of view of the spiritual ideal of a saint or a man of wisdom. These are the devices of the cunning and crooked, the dishonest and cheats. Therefore, these despicable devices do not become the dignity of a spiritual personality. They do not become a sannyasin, a sadhaka and a devotee of God who have chosen God as their highest value.
When these prevail, when these are not eradicated through introspection, self-examination, and prayer, they act as a brake in your spiritual life. You stop proceeding further. You may be living a spiritual life for ten, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years, but you will be where you are, because you are shackled to your earthly imperfection, to your human defects and foibles – you are not seeking to progress in divinity. That is the tragedy of spiritual life – to miss the way.
In our Vedic way of life, our entire lifestyle is pervaded by the concept of dharma. Whatever you are, in whatever context, you have a certain dharma to fulfil. And for you who have become aware through the teachings of the guru that your real identity is divinity, to be true to what you really are and to manifest your real identity in your life by living a divine life, by thinking divinely, speaking divinely, acting divinely, living divinely – that is your dharma. Because you are meant to express outside what you are inside.
And if you know that you are part of paramatma – you are jivatma, part of paramatma – that you are divine, that divinity is yoru real identity, then it becomes your dharma, your svadharma to live to manifest what you are. To be what you are is your svadharma, to be contrary to it is to move away from truth.
Truth pervades every activity of our life within and without. Therefore, ponder deeply the all-pervasive presence of the principle of truth in your own life – inner and outer, subjective and objective, individual and collective –and worship that Great Being, that shines with the strength of a million suns in your heart-shrine, with the flower of truth! That is the highest worship, and that is your greatest duty.
Swami Chidananda