Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! What should we do to receive God's grace?

 

There is no way other than devotion. Your wealth, scholarship, authority and

physical personality cannot please God. It is only your devotion that He looks

into.

 

Don't you know Guha in the Ramayana? What scholarship had he to please Rama?

Nothing. He was not even educated. You also must have heard of Sabari, an ardent

devotee of Lord Rama. How rich was she to be close to Rama? Nothing. She was in

rags at that time, the poorest of the poor. What made that bird, Jatayu receive

the special blessings of Rama so as to deserve performance of the last rites at

the divine hands of Rama? Even Rama's father, Dasaratha, was not as fortunate as

this bird Jatayu, because he died when Rama was in the forest, far away from

Ayodhya. How about Hanuman, a monkey? By implicit faith in and total surrender

to Rama he could be successful not only in the task assigned to him, but also

came to be worshipped by the devotees of the Lord and his worship has been

continuing since the days of the Ramavatara.

 

The Mahabharata clearly portrays Draupadi, the queen of the Pandavas as Lord

Krishna's devotee of the highest order, always, in times of success or failure,

pleasure or pain, calm or turmoil, anywhere, either on the throne in Hastinapura

or in the forest. The Pandavas are known for their deep devotion and abounding

love for Krishna. They are the best examples of equanimity and total surrender

to God such that Krishna identified Himself completely with them by saying that

Dharmaja was His head, Arjuna His heart, Bhima His shoulders, and the two

youngest brothers Nakula and Sahadeva equal to His two feet. This is true

devotion. This is the ideal stature of a devotee.

 

In the Bhagavata you come across the Gopis (the cowherd girls who were rustic,

innocent, and unlettered) whose madhurabhakti, total attachment to God, was

backed by unconditional love and surrender. Their devotion was noble, pure,

nectarine, and exemplary. They saw Krishna in bushes, thorns, leaves, branches,

and flowers. Is theirs not tadatmyabhava, total identification? Isn't theirs the

advaitabhava, non-dualistic state? They could not bear the pangs of separation

from Krishna even for a split second. This is the level of their devotion.

 

Have you not heard about Tyagaraja, the South Indian saint-singer and composer,

who had put the question: 'nidhi cala sukhama ramuni sannidhi seva sukhama '. Is

it wealth that gives you happiness or proximity to God? Ramadas, Surdas, Kabir,

Tulasidas, Jayadev, Tukaram, Mira, and others were the very personifications of

devotion. They are remembered to this day. By reading about them, you will not

only be the recipient of God's grace but even have a claim on God's grace. You

know, the moment you marry, your wife will have a claim on your property. This

is due to the mangalasutra, the sacred knot tied at the time of the wedding.

Similarly, devotion is bhaktisutra - the knot of devotion, which empowers the

devotee to claim from God His grace. Therefore, for everything, devotion is most

important. For most people, it is the proper and noble approach to Divinity.