The spiritual state of a devotee who genuinely desires God is no different from the state of a lover yearning for his beloved, as Shri Nathji often explained. The whole concept of devotion can be understood if one looks at the relationship between a lover and beloved. The lover yearns for the beloved, night and day. Eating, drinking, sleeping, working, all he can think of is his beloved. He has this constant ache in his heart to be close to his beloved, to think only about his beloved. Nothing in the world can compare with his beloved. Nothing in the world matters any more. All the desires of the world vanish when he thinks of his beloved. He desires only his beloved and nothing else. The desire for his beloved throws out all other desires from his heart and soul. He can find happiness only in the thought of his beloved and in the nearness of the beloved. All the time there is but one thought in the mind of the lover–and that is to be close to his beloved, to recite the beloved’s name, to think over the beauty of the beloved.
The lover is so lost in the thought of his beloved that he has no thought for himself. His I ceases to exist. The beloved fills his entire being. He lives only for the sake of his beloved. The temptations of the world have no meaning for him. Deep within the heart and soul of the lover there is only the beloved. The lover himself ceases to exist for his own sake, he does not live for his own self any longer, he lives only for the sake of the beloved.
His I is completely merged in the I of his beloved. He is happy only in the will of the beloved. He wishes to do only that which pleases his beloved. He identifies his will with the will of the beloved and becomes one with it. In such a relationship no contradictions can exist. He is willing to make any sacrifice for the sake of the beloved, even to give up his life. His entire being is possessed with the thought of the beloved. Union with the beloved is his life and separation from the beloved worse than death.
It is only when such an intense love for God fills a man that he can have said to have truly annihilated his ego, his I, and to have God within him. Ordinary love has a colour of Divine Love within itself. Shri Nathji often said: God is Love. If a devotee can have even a fraction of the love for God that a lover has for his beloved then he shall have truly acquired a devotion for God.