Bhakti as a Social Force

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Bhakti as a Social Force

 

Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.

(Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya)

 

 

The very heart of Sanatana Dharma consists of experiencing a direct

and intimate realization of God in devotion (bhakti). Without such

an experience, Sanatana Dharma is rendered devoid of all meaning and

purpose. To love God is to embrace Dharma. And to embrace Dharma

thoroughly and without reservation is what it means to be a Hindu.

 

One of the most unfortunate and most damaging stereotypes that many

present-day Hindus have about Sanatana Dharma is that a) deep

spirituality and b) practical action in the world simply do not mix.

In the minds of such people, serious spiritual practice and practical

social action are mutually exclusive paths, of which we can only

choose one. Such a defeatist scenario is in actuality the very

opposite of the realty of Sanatana Dharma. Indeed, holding this

incorrect opinion that one cannot be both spiritual and also engaged

in the world is in itself just another sad manifestation of the self-

denigrating syndrome that we see so prevalent among nominal Hindus

today.

 

When we look at both the history and the teachings of Sanatana Dharma

specifically, and of all religions generally, we see that the reality

is the opposite of these gross, and very much modern, Western-

inspired, stereotypes. The myth of the other-worldly mystic having

been rendered incapable of engaging the world around him in a

practical and activist manner is an exaggerated stereotype arising

more from the speculative minds of spiritually unaware speculators of

religion than from anything corresponding to reality. Rather than

being socially debilitating, spirituality has always proven itself to

be the most powerful motivator for highly practical and effective

action in the world.

 

Bhakti, or single minded devotional meditation upon Bhagavan (God),

is not a hindrance to practical social and political action in the

world. On the contrary, bhakti has been, by its very inherent

nature, a powerful and dynamic social force in the past. Bhakti is

an unparalleled motivating force that has induced revolutionary and

progressive change. It will also serve as the driving spiritual

force that will revive and strengthen Dharma well into the 21st

Century.

 

If we examine the very long history of Sanatana Dharma, we see that

it was almost exclusively deeply spiritually-realized people who were

always the most practical and successful men (and women) of action.

Valmiki, for example, was originally a bandit who then later became a

dedicated Rama-bhakta and ascetic sage. It was only after this

personal spiritual transformation affected him to the core of his

being that he then found himself empowered to compose the enormous

literary masterpiece known as the Ramayana in its 24,000 Sanskrit

verses. Indeed, the entire corpus of Sanskrit shastras (scriptures)

were written by hundreds of spiritually-inspired saints, whose very

motivation for writing about philosophy, religion, politics, Yoga,

mathematics, sciences, medicine, etc., etc. was their own radically

personal self-transformative experience of the presence of God within

them. Without the committed scholarship of such spiritually-inspired

sages, Hinduism and India would today have been entirely devoid of an

intellectual and cultural history! It was the empowerment provided

to these sages by God that equipped them to realize unparalleled feat

of scholarly and literary accomplishment in this world.

 

After the ascendance of Buddhism and Jainism in Hindu India, it was

again God-realized men of action who - far from retreating from the

world and living in their sadhana huts - led dynamic movements that

saved Sanatana Dharma from imminent extinction. The great sage Sri

Shankara Acharya was known as Dig-vijaya ( " Conqueror of All

Directions " ) because he quite literally conquered the four corners of

India, peacefully reestablishing Vaidika Siddhanta (the Vedic Truth)

as the preeminent philosophical system on earth, and the only

legitimate path for knowing Brahman (God). Shankara was shy in his

assertion that Sanatana Dharma was the most legitimate and direct way

of knowing God, and each and every other system was substandard in

comparison. He is known to have engaged in hundreds of debates with

the avaidika (non-Hindu) Buddhists, soundly defeating them with the

superiority of Vedic teachings, and converting their followers en

masse to Sanatana Dharma. Hardly an otherworldly dreamer was he!

 

The great Vedantist philosopher Ramanuja Acharya, similarly, was a

radical bhakta (practitioner of Bhakti-yoga) who nonetheless wrote

some of the most philosophically profound masterpieces India has ever

produced, while simultaneously traversing the length of breadth of

Bharata (India) to reestablish the path of bhakti as the greatest

expression of Vedanta philosophy. Ramanuja created a revolution in

people's understanding and appreciation of the ancient bhakti

tradition, reviving bhakti in the four corners of India, and changing

the course of Indian and world history.

 

Like Shankara centuries before him, the Vaisnava Vedantist Sri Madhva

Acharya traveled widely, actively converting thousands of Buddhists

and Jains to Sanatana Dharma, and reestablishing Vaidika Dharma in

South India. He also urged the kings of South India to physically

expel thousands of avaidika Jain leaders from their kingdoms,

converting many important kings to the fold of Sanatana Dharma.

 

Tulasidas, Surdas, Mirabhai, Chaitanya, Sahajananda Svami

(Swaminarayana), and a thousand other God-intoxicated revolutionaries

fearlessly revived the people's faith Sanatana Dharma during the

Islamic holocaust in northern India. Without the practical

leadership and hard work of these many bhakti-inspired saints,

Sanatana Dharma would most likely have been annihilated by the

Abrahamic purveyors of genocide hundreds of years ago.

 

The biographies of many hundreds of Rajarshis - or courageous and

implacable God-realized kings - are recorded in the Puranas. Such

philosopher-kings were often known as Chakravartins, due to the fact

that they ruled their kingdoms while wielding the figurative " Wheel

of Dharma " . Such Chakravartins and Rajarshis were at once the

personifications of both Dharmic spirituality and martial nobility.

Such rulers exhibited qualities that represented the very best of

both the spiritual and the practical worlds. They were philosopher-

kings, ascetic-warriors, saintly-rulers, and martial-yogis. These

spiritual men-of-action were capable of delivering a profound and

moving discourse on Dharma one day, and then leading an army of

multiple phalanxes into bloody battle to defend Dharma the next.

These Chakravartins were saints-of-action! They are also perfect

models of the qualities that we so desperately need in Hindu leaders

today.

 

The Dharmic world is waiting with fervent yearning for the arrival of

such Chakravartins today, who will be able to save Sanatana Dharma

with the intensity of their devotion, and the powerful authority of

their sovereign will.

 

How many untold thousands of true brahmana (intellectuals/priests)

leaders like Chanakya have helped to preserve Sanatana Dharma and

served as brave guardians of Dharmic culture? How many saints have

served as trusted advisors to kings and empires throughout the

history of India, helping to steer the great " ship of state " toward

to the path of Dharma?

 

How many unlimited numbers of fearless yogis, gurus, acharyas, and

saints have worked endlessly to keep Sanatana Dharma alive in the

face of terrible challenges, conquests, persecutions, and betrayals

from within the likes of which so many of today's " Hindu activists "

living in the lap of comfort in Twenty-first Century America, New

Delhi, and Mumbai, can only pretend to comprehend, but can never hope

to imitate?

 

Did Swami Vivekananda ignore the real world, or did he fearlessly

engage the world, traveling thousands of miles from the only home he

knew in order to share the light of Sanatana Dharma with an uncaring

world? What of such contemporary spiritual soldiers as Sri

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, or Sri Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, or

Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Sri Vamadeva Shastri), or Sri Shastri

Pandurang Athawale? It has only been due to the hard work of such

sages as these that Sanatana Dharma has been preserved for as long as

it has.

 

Sanatana Dharma will be saved by the emergence of many more such

saints and leaders in the immediate future - and such saintly leaders

will arise, not from the stars above, but from the ranks of the Hindu

community itself. Ours is not a messianic, faith-based religion.

Unlike the Abrahamic sects, spiritually-inspired Hindus do not sit in

prayer huts and wait for messiahs, saviors, or avataras (the next of

whom will not be arriving for another 420,000 years!). We don't hide

in prayer closets as the world burns around us hoping only for our

own salvation. Again, this is only a childish stereotype of the

religious Hindu. Rather, Hindus are a very practical and innovative

people. When times are dire, God-inspired leadership always arises

from within the Hindu community.

 

My message to the Hindu community is this: if you want to see an

empowered and fearless Hindu leadership arise to lead Dharma into the

Twenty-First Century, then YOU must become the leaders you seek. And

you must do so, not out of a craving for money, fame, or power, but

as a devotional offering of your life humbly surrendered at the

divine feet of Bhagavan. True Hindu leadership can only arise from

within the Hindu community itself.

 

It will only be God-empowered Hindu leaders, fueled by the blissful

rays of bhakti, fearless in the face of opposition, and dedicated to

giving their lives for the greater benefit of the Hindu People and

the Dharma Nation, who will be capable of leading Sanatana Dharma and

of securing its future in the years to come. Indeed, IT IS ONLY

BECAUSE THEY ARE GOD-EMPOWERED that such leaders will be ready,

equipped, and able to storm into the world unafraid and confident in

their ability to compel positive change upon society, politics, and

culture. It is only the power of bhakti that can fuel such

dedication and fearlessness.

 

Bhakti can be the only motivational force strong enough to ensure the

degree of self-sacrifice necessary to create true leadership. It is

not enough to identify yourself as a " Hindu activist " merely because

you find Sanatana Dharma interesting, inspiring, a neat culture that

shouldn't disappear, or just because you somehow think it's your

ethnic heritage. Such trivial concerns are not enough to promote

effective action. The only way a Hindu leader will be truly

effective is if he/she has had a direct vision of God in his/her

heart so powerful that they see it as their own personal service to

Bhavagan to teach others how to love Him. Any lesser motivation only

leads to the invisible chains of ego. Only when we have leaders who

are on fire with devotion (bhakti) to God will Dharma be saved.

 

Throughout the history of Sanatana Dharma, bhakti has served as a

powerful social force, and has consequently served to change the

course of human history. Bhakti will once again serve as a social

force today as we face a world that is yearning for truth, for

goodness, and for meaningful relief from the manifold sufferings

produced by the failed offerings of the cold, secular world we have

created. The life-enhancing power of bhakti, coupled with honest and

fearless leadership, will bring about nothing less that the Dharma

Revolution that we need in our age. I urge you to be Chakravartins.