Ramana,
Wonderful post from you!This is the point.Most persons are doing self-enquiry ,not because it is the only thing to be done,i.e their inner need ,but it is the 'ultimate' thing to be done!; what is dear is all that matters and not what is ultimate.Sri Bhagavan says clearly that what can be dearer than the self!If approached this way,it is one form of devotion.
Sadhana is an inner urge which cannot be rationalized.However humble that inner urge is ,if one proceeds with that one will be guided.Eventually all the sadhanas converge in 'I do not know.I am open and keen to receive the Truth' attitude.When this need is deeply felt,the Divine or God Responds.
This is how Sri Ramakrishna puts it:
"The grace of God falls alike on all His children, learned and illiterate―whoever longs for
Him. The father has the same love for all his children. Suppose a father has five children.
One calls him 'Baba', some 'Ba', and some 'Pa'. These last cannot pronounce the whole
word. Does the father love those who address him as 'Baba' more than those who call him
'Pa'? The father knows that these last are simply too young to say 'Baba' correctly."
It does not matter what our path is as long as we have deep love and earnestness.It is this that is paramount and not what path one pursues.
Again sri Ramakrishna says:
"One should have faith in the holy name given by the guru and with it practise spiritual
discipline. It is said that the pearl oyster makes itself ready for the rain that falls when the
star Svati is in the ascendant. Taking a drop of that rain, it dives into the fathomless depths
of the ocean and remains there until the pearl is formed."
Just 'one drop' -one seed idea,one relationship that God is our mother,our father,our self-whatever it be-Just deepen this and live it.This is all required.Sadhana is only this.In course of time it will mature into Love and Wisdom.
Namaskar.