The more you desire God, the more you have to let go

Today Sri Swami Vishwananda is explaining to us, that prayer to the outside in the form of Puja or other rituals is of course good, but that it is of more value to do your prayer inside and also to concentrate permanently on the Divine, like the Saints did. For example Mirabai on Krishna or St.Therese on Jesus.

Sri Swami Vishwananda: You rush to God, but at the same time, you don't want to let go of many things.
We like to hang on things.
We think that we really need it for Self- realisation.
Do you think, for Self-realisation we need this insence!?
We need these deities, this statues!?
We don't need all this!
This helps us only.
These things are here to help us to achieve... because our mind has to focus on something.
But in reality, we don't need all this.
If we have faith really, we don't need all this.
So when you have faith, God will show His formless form to you.
I said formless form, because the mind need something. Even the abstinence is a form.
But beyond that He will show it, He will grand you the vision of that.
But know one thing: the more you desire God, the more you have to let go off the world.
Here again a Bhajan from one of the greatest Saints: Mirabai, who was a Rajput Princess. But despite Her material wealth, She was only interested in spiritual wealth and thus let go of everything.
Even though She was called mad, She renounced everything (even Her husband), to merge with Her Beloved Krishnaji.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBKNpxH-z5w
In India about 500 years ago, there was a poet-saint called Meerabai. She was born into royalty and since childhood was a staunch devotee of Lord Krishna.
This is one of Her devotional poems in Hindi, or bhajans.
It is beautifully written and no matter what kind of lifestyle we come from or what religion we follow, we can use it to progress on our own paths to God and to experience the Love that Meerabai and God shared.