Narada Bhakti Sutra Selections

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Intoduction to Narada Bhakti Sutras:

 

Supreme Divine Love, together with the steps leading to it,is called

Bhakti.

 

Phenomenon of Bhakti, therefore, has two stages:

- AparaBhakti (a pre-mature stage)

- GaunaBhakti ( called as VaidhaBhakti by Ramakrishna)

ie preparatory stage of discipline

- MukhyaBhakti (called as RaganugaBhakti by Ramakrishna)

ie advanced stage resulting from the practice

of that preparatory stage

- ParaBhakti (a mature stage)

 

ParaBhakti (mature divine Love) may be viewed again subjectively

and objectively.

- the transcendental aspect of it is an uncharacterizable,

incommunicable, and ineffable experience of unsurpassed

bliss and illumination, always equated with Self-realization, or

God-realization. It is also called Liberation-in-Life,or Perfect

Gnosis.

 

- the marks that may be observed in a person who possesses this

perfect realization, when that realization expresses thru his/her

moods, thoughts, words, and deeds, are called the objective aspects

of ParaBhakti.

 

The first chapter containing 24 solemn and lucid aphorisms describe

various aspects of ParaBhakti.

 

In the second chapter, this ParaBhakti is extolled as superior to all

spiritual disciplines, and all who are aspiring after liberation are

exhorted to seek after that and that alone.

 

While ParaBhakti is of the nature of the actual realization of the

goal itself, or the full maturation of the whole endeavour,

AparaBhakti is a stage prior to the attainment of that maturation;

and therefore it involves effort and gradual achievement; it is a

process.

 

The most advanced stage of AparaBhakti, called MukhyaBhakti or

EkantaBhakti, supervenes upon the fulfilment of the duties enjoined

on the novitiate in the disciplinary Path of devotion, as a result of

Divine grace which then naturally flows into the devotee's heart.

This stage prepares the mind of the devotee fully and perfectly for

the final realization; and God then blesses him with divine

illumination instantenaously.

 

The third chapter sets forth at length with much psychological

insight the moral rules and spiritual discipline of Vaidhabhakti

which the aspirant ought to practice with meticulous care,

unflagging zeal, and unbroken continuity.

 

The fourth chapter characterizes the behaviour of the aspirant,

who, as a result of the above discipline, has come to have

Raga-Bhakti in which God-realization is immediate and inevitable.

 

The closing chapter, which is the fifth, depicts how the Mukhya-Bhakta

lives in the world, how (s)he satisfies all beings, what blessings

society derives from him(her), and how God reveals Himself to him as

his most Beloved Self and how the Mukhya-bhakti transforms itself

into ParaBhakti.

>From the above synopisis the logical sequence underlying the aphorisms

is evident. The Divine sage Narada declares to the entire humanity

through his auspious gospel, with the anxiety of a great saviour, the

existence of Immortal Divine Bliss as the birthright of all.

 

- From "Aphorisms on the gospel of divine love" or

"Narada Bhakti Sutras" by Swami Tyagisananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math

 

With Love,

Raghava