Bhakti and Jnanam

[Guest guest]

Bhakti and Jnanam

 

Look at this rather uncommon prayer:

 

O Siva! the stage-manager of Karma brought me, in all the roles, out of the

curtain of the wombs of manifold mothers and made me dance manifoldly in your

presence. "Alas! innocent man! you are tired: rest now from this dance" – if

you, O Lord, but give me the gift of just these words, I shall have, even with

that, gained my life's object.

 

*****

 

I bear not any impediment to the hearing of your exploits: I bear not dropping

away from the worship of your feet. Assign to me a liberation that will not

exclude these: if this is not possible, Mother, let me not have that great

calamity of salvation.

(Nilakantha Dikshitar in his Anandasagarastava)

 

*****

 

To the non-believer, God and images are nothing but a blind belief in stone

and metal. For the unenlightened believer, they are centres of divine power out

of which grace and guidance flows. For the truly realised Jnanis, images are

live manifestations of divinity.

Here are two incidents in this connection contributed by two devotees:

 

Once during a puja session, I noticed that it took longer than usual to pull

back the curtain which had been drawn to enable Acharyal offer naivedya to the

Lord in private as per tradition. Later, when I had the darshan of His

Holiness, I was curious to find out what caused the unusual delay in opening the

curtain during the puja. Straightaway, I posed my question to Acharyal. He

said, "The naidvedya was very hot. How could I offer it to the Lord? So, I had

to wait for some time for it to cool down before I offered it to Him."

Acharyal's devotion to God was unparalleled. To see Him perform puja was a

bewitching sight. He never thought of the idols as mere images of God. He

always felt the living presence of God in them. Naturally, He did not wish to

offer a naivedya that was hot and would hurt the Lord.

*****

Some years ago, when I accompanied Acharyal from Narasimhavanam to the

Sharadamba temple I learnt a great deal. Acharyal prostrated before Amba and

sat down. I could clearly see His lips moving. Next He was silent and nodded

His head slightly. He paused a while as if He was listening and then continued

to move His lips. People who saw Him would have bee left with no doubt that He

was engaged in actual conversation with Amba. After some time, I saw in the

place of Sharadamba's deity, a beautiful live form of Lord Narasimha. It

appeared as if the sacred man-lion had made its actual manifestation. I was in

no state of meditation as my eyes were quite open. I repositioned myself and

again had the same vision. I did move myself to two or three positions but the

results were the same. It was only later that I learnt that Acharyal's

ishta-devataa is Lord Narasimha. Perhaps this replacement of Amba by Lord

Narasimha, as far as I was concerned, was to make known Acharyal's

ishta-devata to me.

(Excerpted from the book: Exalting Elucidations)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

advaitin, V Subrahmanian

<subrahmanian_v> wrote:

>

> Bhakti and Jnanam

>

> *****

>

> To the non-believer, God and images are nothing but a blind

belief in stone and metal. For the unenlightened believer, they are

centres of divine power out of which grace and guidance flows. For

the truly realised Jnanis, images are live manifestations of

divinity.

>

 

Namste:

 

Can some one elaborate on giitaa (9.11) in association with the

above statement?

 

avajaananti maaM muuDhaa maanushhii.n tanumaashritam.h .

paraM bhaavamajaananto mama bhuutamaheshvaram.h .. (9.11)..

 

To me this is like a cautionary statement (yellow signal light) to

all who have embraced bhakti maarga and teaches us not be attached

to the muurti pujaa.

 

Explanation from knowledgeable members is invited.

 

Thank you and warm regards,

 

Dr. Yadu