By SADHGURU, Isha Foundation
ADDICTION is usually to substances. Devotion is towards something that you hold way above yourself. Devotion cannot be practiced. It cannot be cultivated or cultured. When you are overwhelmed by something or someone, when you see something or someone as far beyond yourself, devotion naturally happens.
Addiction happens because you taste something and you like the experience of it. The more you taste, the more hooked and trapped you are.
Interestingly, a devotee looks more than an addict than an addict himself. An addict can hide his addiction but a devotee cannot hide his devotion. Even a drug addict has a certain degree of control over himself. If he has sufficient control, he can look very normal and deceive the whole world. But a devotee is not capable of such deception or pretence. He just bursts forth anywhere; he cannot hide it.
A similarity between the two is that both devotion and addiction can create a certain pleasant or ecstatic experience within a person – and in the case of addiction, this pleasant experience is strong. For example, you would never get addicted to something that tastes bitter. You have to eat it consciously. You have to think every time you eat it: ‘Should I do it?’ People get addicted to tobacco, coffee, alcohol and various kinds of drugs because they is create a pleasant experience.
Devotion means your emotions have become very sweet. The ways of a devotee may look utterly silly, illogical and stupid for a thinking person, but a devotee is very intelligent. Think about this: you have 24 hours in a day to spend the way you want. What would you consider intelligent? Spending your time in utter intelligence or in complete turmoil with all sorts of problems which has no relevance to the ultimate reality?
A devotee is very intelligent because he has understood the fact that if you spend all your time in complete pleasantness, nothing entangles you. There is no pain. It may not seem logical. Dissected and analyzed, it does not make sense. The concept may look silly for an intellectual person, but there is a very deep life sense involved in a devotee’s attitude towards living. The historical fact remains that more people have attained to the ultimate through devotion than any other way.
Devotion causes ecstasy. Not like the lumps of chemicals that are labeled ‘ecstasy’; such pills just get you on a high for a while and dump you in such a bad way, they ruin you completely in the process. They shrink your physical capabilities and mental capabilities. Devotion on the other hand hugely enhances you. Imagine a pill which you could pop to be permanently ecstatic – great, isn’t it!