Nava Vidha Bhakti

The nine steps in the pilgrimage of man towards God along the path of dedication and surrender are:

1. Developing a desire to listen to the glory and grandeur of the handiwork of God and of the various awe-inspiring manifestations of Divinity.
2. Singing oneself about the Lord, in praise of His magnificence and manifold exploits.
3. Dwelling on the Lord in the mind, reveling in the contemplation of His beauty, Majesty and Compassion.
4. Entering upon the worship of the Lord, by concentrating on honoring the feet.
5. This develops into a total propitiation of the Lord and systematic ritualistic worship, in which the aspirant gets inner satisfaction and inspiration.
6. The aspirant begins to see the favorite Form of God, which he likes to worship, in all beings and all objects, wherever he turns to and so he develops an attitude of Vandana or reverence towards nature and all life.
7. Established in this bent of mind, he becomes the devoted servant of all, with no sense of superiority or inferiority.
8. This takes the seeker so near the Lord that he feels himself to be the confidant and comrade, the companion and friend, the sharer of God's power and pity, of God's triumphs and achievements, His Sakha.
9. This is the prelude to the final step of total surrender or Atma-nivedanam, yielding fully to the Will of the Lord.
                                                                                                           
   Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba