Cultivate Passionate Devotion

by Aparna Khanolkar

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Each of us have a seed of passionate devotion that sprouts when our soul recognizes its highest path. Have you felt it? What is your experience?

When your highest path is revealed to you from within you, passionate devotion is what takes you from a dreamer to someone who makes it happen. You can’t help but makes things happen. You have unending energy and excitement to fulfill your dharma. You don’t hesitate to do what needs to be done. Work is not work anymore. Hard work is a term that does not exist in your vocabulary.


Your dharma will require work, but in the form of passionate devotion. Your dharma just does not include your career. It is also your dharmic duty to your children, your relationships.

Passionate devotion is when you act for the highest good of all. You feel the integrity in you, the clean energy and the satisfaction from having done a worthy act.

Before you cultivate passionate devotion, do the following:

1. Figure out your highest purpose. 
2. Ask yourself how you will fulfill it, even with small steps. Be innovative. You don’t need to make a big leap. 
3. Do it. No excuses, no feeling sorry for yourself, no guilt, no shame, no pride or arrogance.
4. There is great love and humility in your passionate devotion.

Go deep when you can. Don’t skim the surface. Dig deep and you will find treasures. If you wish to bring passionate devotion to your art, find a teacher who will nurture you. Read books, visit museums, jot down your ideas, paint often, even if it is 8 hours in a row.

When I wrote my books, I spent countless hours on it. I was excited, energized that I was writing and felt a great devotion to my project. I didn’t doubt it or worried about it. I didn’t think about sales or marketing. I wrote for the sake of writing.

When I cook for people, I put my total love into it. I consider what is good for them, how good they will feel when they eat that meal and often I will even chant mantras over the food as I cook. Even if my body gets tired from the work, my mind and heart feel energized and happy from it.

The best part of cultivating passionate devotion is the joy that wells up from deep within. You are clear, strong, confident, on purpose and satisfied. Feeling satisfied is important. People are drawn to those who have cultivated these qualities. The Universe will support your dharma greatly.

From that humble place of passionate devotion, be grateful and thankful for that which bubbles and brews within you for the fulfillment of your dharma. There are few that are on this path. This path requires sincerity and courage to listen to your soul, your inner guru. It also requires commitment and self-discipline and a deep love for your dharma.

So dream it. Do it. Listen to your soul. Commit to passionate devotion. It is yours. All that you put into it will come back to you, hundred fold.

(photo credit: Lucinda Kinch)