Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the enlightened being, has said,
“Religion does not mean sitting in front of the idol of God; that is not called dharma. Dharma is to accomplish your goal; that is called dharma. Along with that, if you engage in any practice for concentration, then that is a different matter altogether.”

An Indirect Way of Serving God
“Serve mankind because God resides within them. God is seated right within. If you go search for God outside, then He is not such that you will find Him out there.
What is the nature of worldly life? God resides in each and every living being, so if you cause any distress to any living being, if you hurt them, then adharma (misdeed) will arise. If you give happiness to any living being, then it will give rise to dharma (good deed). The result of adharma is that things will happen contrary to what you desire, and the result of dharma is that it will happen in accordance with what you desire.”

The Beginning of Religion
“The moment a human being starts giving happiness to others, dharma begins. When one is not concerned about his own happiness; rather he remains continuously preoccupied with, ‘How can the difficulties of others be removed?’, that’s when kaarunyata (compassion) begins. Right from childhood, I was always concerned about how to remove others’ difficulties. When even a single thought about one’s own does not arise, that is referred to as kaarunyata. It is indeed through this that Self-Realization (the end goal of religion) manifests!”

The Goal of Life
“There is simply no point in life without a goal. You earn dollars and you eat, drink and enjoy yourself, and you keep worrying all day long; how can that be considered the goal of life?

The human life you have received, what is the point in letting it go to waste? So, after attaining human life, what should you do to accomplish your goal? If you want worldly happiness, material happiness, then you should give others whatever you have. If you give any happiness to others, then you can expect happiness; otherwise, you will not get happiness. And if you give unhappiness to others, you will get unhappiness in return.”

In just one statement, understand the law of this world, of all the religions in the world:
‘The one who wants happiness should give happiness to other living beings and one who wants misery, should make others miserable.’ Give whatever suits you.
Now, someone may ask, “How is it possible for us to make others happy, we do not have money.” So it is not that happiness can only be given through money; you can keep an obliging nature with people, run errands for them or give useful advice that helps. You can oblige others in many ways.

So if you can put up with this world, if you like this world, if you desire worldly things, if you crave the sensory pleasures of this world, then do this much, ‘Yog, upayog paropkaaray (help others through yog and upayog).’ Yog means the union of the mind, speech, and body, whereas upayog means to use the intellect, to use the mind, to use the chitt (consciousness); use all of that for others.
And if it is not used for others, then ultimately people use it for their family, don’t they?! Why is it that this female dog finds food?

It’s because God resides in her puppies and she takes care of her puppies, due to which she gets everything. The entire world functions on this basis. From where do these trees get their nourishment? Have these trees made any effort? No, they are not emotional at all. Do they ever become emotional? They never go back and forth. They never feel like, ‘The Vishwamitri [river] is one mile away, let me go there and drink some water!’
To mutually help one another is indeed the privilege of human life!

“Honesty and a mutually obliging nature, this is all that one needs. In this world there are two kinds of people who are free from worries, one is the Gnani Purush and the other is one who helps others.”

Nevertheless, the Enlightened One advises:
Until we are in a state to recognize the formless God (residing within), worshipping the idol of God is a very big support in life. There are many reasons and benefits behind worshipping God:

The worldly life has made us so busy that we constantly think about material things such as making money, having a big house, car, etc. But when we go to a temple for worship, we realize there is something superior that we can think about. We stop thinking about our materialistic life and consequently experience peace and happiness atleast during that time.

Serving and worshipping God boosts the divine energy in our daily life. Our mind does not wander around in bad things; it is able to concentrate easily.

When we go through a crisis in life, our strong faith towards God gives us immense strength to deal with such situations. Faith allows us to sail through the challenges in life without causing any harm to ourselves or others.
When we worship God with pure love and devotion, we are sowing the seeds of merit karma. The result of these seeds will give us happiness in the form of good life and luck. We will experience positivity around us easily and effortlessly.

When we are surrounded in a good environment, our thoughts mature which help us rise in our spiritual development. Moreover, this results in binding more merit karmas; with the help of which eventually we are able to meet Gnani, an Enlightened being, in person!!! This opens up the path of our ultimate liberation.

Finally, when we meet Gnani (the Enlightened One), our interest sits in him; and that interest directly helps us reach our Soul (Parmatma). Therefore, Param Pujya Dadashri has said, “Nurture interest in the Gnani Purush, the representative of God.” The living Gnani Purush helps us attain Self-Realization!!! He awakens our Soul (an abode of eternal bliss) by gracing us with the experiential knowledge of the Self.

It is then that we know by experience that we ourselves are God!
Thus,
Help others and serve mankind, making a beginning from your own home i.e. serve your parents and elders in the family - This is an indirect worship of God.
Spare some time and go to the temple. Worship the idol of God and pray to Him that, ‘May you soon meet the Enlightened One who makes us understand the true purpose of our existence.’

And most important, come to Gnani and attain Self-Realization. “One should make efforts towards that, and then all the puzzles will be solved. Thereafter, puzzles no longer arise, and when puzzles no longer arise, one starts to become independent”, says Param Pujya Dadashri.

Please visit: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/knowing-...

Author's Bio: 

Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization