God Loving or God fearing?

 "I walk barefooted to Siddhi Vinayak every Tuesday." "Every quarter I make it a point to visit Shirdi."  I'm sure all of you must have come across these devotees. I have for sure and then my mind goes ticking on a different tangent altogether. I am definitely not an atheist. I believe in the Almighty and have immense faith in him however I have my own beliefs. As they say to each his own but certain things do not escape my eye and as I am known to express myself ruthlessly, I could not help but think ... are these devotees God Loving or God Fearing? 

A plethora of thoughts came gushing as I thought to myself that will merely visiting temples or performing all sorts of 'pujas' qualify a person to be pious? Is such a person freed off all his sins? Is this done out of Love or Fear of the unknown? Do they earn brownie points merely by performing these activities to appease the Lord?

Then what about a person who does not visit temples or perform puja everyday however he has been performing his duties as a good human being? He has perhaps helped a stranger in the day or put a smile on someone's sad face, reached across to a friend who was depressed or attended to his parents, fed a starving dog or maybe visited his grandparents only to make them happy. However he has not worshiped any idol throughout the day. Does that mean he loves God any less? Will he be called the sinner for not having idol worshipped the Lord? 

At times I wonder if God himself would prefer a devotee who merely idol worships him or serves the community being a true humanitarian? 

Unfortunately most of the people who pray to the Lord have something to ask from him. Haven't known anybody who remembers the Lord purely out of Love. Would like to know someone who remembers God with no ulterior motive. However as there are exceptions to every rule, I admit there are pure hearted people out there who not only idol worship but also perform their duties as a good human being. They look for no selfish gains before paying obeisance to the Lord and they could be truly called God Loving. 

Whereas the other lot approach the Lord only out of fear. Fear that if they do not pray to him, they will face problems in life besides having a vested interest for pleasing the Lord for material gains. These people think that if they do not do certain things, God will get furious with them and he will not bless them with what they want from him.

I have observed some people performing puja daily, chanting the Lords name, reading holy scriptures however the same is only mechanical as their thoughts are elsewhere. They do all these things only to safegaurd their interest. However at that moment they could be looking out of the window at the fight happening across the street or their ears might be paying attention to a one sided conversation over a phone chat happening in the room. Once they are done with their so-called service to God, the next moment they could be back bitting someone, spreading gossip and rumours about whats happening in someone else's house, talking ill about someone with malice, jealousy, etc. So does their mechanical service to idol worship serve any good? 

Another thought that came across my mind was that would God himself prefer a devotee who loves him or the one who fears him? Even we humans for that matter would prefer someone doing something for us out of love rather than fear or some vested interest, wouldn't we? If an act is performed only to escape the wrath of the other or with a selfish intention, wouldn't it nullify the feeling of Love?

I have even come across someone performing the 'puja' everyday but at the same time serving stale leftovers to their house maid. I believe that if we cannot eat leftovers as they would not be good for our health, then how can anybody take a risk with someone else's life? Would that be considered loving 'God'?  I would say they dont even fear God coz if they would fear God they would not commit such an act with the fear that they will be punished for their wrong doings. 

We all know that God exists in every Human Being and so does the Demon. When evil prevails the goodness in person, the Demon wins and the person engages in demonic behavior and activities. Similarly when Goodness prevails and wins over the evil, the person becomes pious and angelic. However an amount of evil still exists in even pious people, else we would have become saints but we are not and hence unable to attain 'moksh'. 

A God Loving person believes that God exists in every human being and every good deed performed by him towards another living being is a service to God himself. He sees God in every living being and his every action is made with love for God and is attributed to the Lord. 

How many of them are really 'one' with the Almighty while chanting his name a thousand times? Is their mind and heart pure at that time with no malice, greed, ego, jealousy, anger, hatred towards another living being? However one does not realize that these feelings do not help them in reaching to the Lord.The name of the Almighty cannot be chanted with an unclean heart.  

On the other hand, a person who might not be performing the daily puja but has compassion towards other living beings, goes out of his way to help others, is not self centered and could be perhaps taking the Lord's name just once a day but with a clean heart and pure soul is bound to reach the Almighty. 

The presence of God in our day to day activities is as necessary as the breath we take and that can be achieved by performing all tasks selflessly and attributing it to the Lord and believing in Goodness towards another living soul which will in turn be our obeisance to God purely out of Love and not Fear.