Narada Bhakti Sutra [1:3]

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That devotion is 'amrita swaroopa' (Lord, the Infinite

Nature of the Infinite Bliss of the Infinite Nectar).

 

Upanishads say, "The knower of the Brahman verily

becomes Brahman".

 

When a devotee turns his attention towards the

Supreme, (s)he comes to live no more in the realm of

the finite things but becomes one with the Lord(amrita

swaroopa, Infinite Nature of the Infinite Bliss).

 

Not knowing the real source of peace and happiness,

man seeks them in the midst of sense-objects. But, in

his/her devotion when (s)he comes to turn the entire

devotion towards the Higher and the Nobler, towards

the Self, (s)he experiences the Immortal, the

Infinite, as intimately as (s)he experienced earlier,

the world and its changes.

 

Bhagavan Himself says in Bhagavat:

"The mind that constantly contemplates upon the

sense-objects irresistably comes to revel in their

finite joys, and the mind that learns to constantly

remember Me, comes to dissolve into Me and revel in

Me".

 

The constant experience of the Changeless Infinitude

and the consequent equipoise lived by a true devotee

is the State-of-Immortality.

 

In Upanishadic statement,

"the knower of the Brahman verily becomes Brahman",

the 'knowing' is the state of fully awakening to the

divine nature of Pure Consciousnes, the Atman.

 

Bhakti is a supremely blissful experience--an

unadulterated and unalloyed state of absolute felicity

and beautitude.

 

Worldly pleasures

and

celestial joys

 

pale into insignificance in comparison with the

Ananda, designated as Brahman itself in Upanishads.

 

All other pleasures are partial reflections or

manifestations of Divine Bliss through a temporary

predominance of the sattvika mode of the mind, and all

craving for earthly or heavenly joys is only an

unconscious groping in the dark to gain Spiritual

Bliss which is the birthright of each soul.

 

The exteremly sweet nature of the spiritual experience

is recognised by the Vedic Rsi when he prays 'May I

attain to that beloved mansion of His, where those men

that are devoted to God are happy, where flows the

perennial fountain of nectar, just by the mighty

striding feet of Visnu, in His Supreme Abode,'

Rg1.154.5. The Atman that is realized is characterized

a honey, which is itself Amrta.

One of the beautiful names by which Nammalvar

addressed God is 'Aravamuda' which means 'Nectar

endless'. The word 'Alvar', which the Srivaisnavites

use is to denote godmen enjoying the highest

realization, means those who are immersed in Bliss.

 

---

Ramakrishna Mission's Narada Bhakti Sutras and Swami

Chinmayananda's

discourses on Narada Bhakti Sutra are used. The books

can be purchased

from the Missions.

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Raghava

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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