Who is a Devotee?

From the Lord's angle, a 'devotee' is totally different from what we generally think. We often think that only those:

1. who chant God's name turning the beeds,
2. goes to the temple everyday,
3. pastes vibhuti all over his body,
4. reads some hymns from the scriptural texts by rote,
5. who observes certain rituals and does elaborate puja everyday,
6. who sings bhajans and attends bhajans regularly,
7. who gives discourses on Lord's story and His glory and a person who listens to that,
8. who dances singing or uttering the name of God,
9. who undertakes pilgrimages to holy places,
10. who fasts for days together for His sake!,
11. who keeps vigil without a minute of sleep in the nights on a Shivratri or Vaikunta Ekadasi, etc.
12. who sits in Padmaasana pose and does pranaayama,
13. who does meditation with closed eyes,
14. who observes vow of silence on certain days in a week,
15. who performs Agnihotra or homa, etc.
are great devotees
But, from God's angle, all such practices do not dertermine or define devotee. The persons as mentioned in the 12th Chapter of Gita alone are His devotees. Without these fourteen sterling qualities, any amount of outwardly devotion is nothing but pretension and hypocrisy. To put it simply, one can say with certainty that those who adhere to the following five basic human values are dear to HIM and they alone are HIS true devotees:

Sathya -- Truthfulness
Dharma -- Righteousness
Prema -- Love
Shanti -- Peacefulness
Ahimsa -- Non-violence

One need not even utter His name or go to temple. Bhagawan Dattatreya says in Avadhoota Gita:

'By coming to your temple, I try to destroy Thy omnipresence! Please forgive me for th is sin committed by me very often'.

M.N. Krishnamani in Bhavan's Journal, May 31, 2012