Devotion/devotee and life

[Guest guest]

This is an interesting posting from another list that I thought was relevant to

the appeal by Saji and the wonderful responses by group members; it is long but

hope you will take the time to read through. I got permission from the author to

post this to our group.

Om Namo Narayanaya.

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Devotion and Devotee

 

Love for higher is called devotion, while love for the lower is called

lust. One rises in devotion while the other falls in love or lust.

What constitutes ‘higher’? That which provides an inspiration, that

which integrates the mind and intellect, that which makes the mind calm

and quite, and that which energizes an individual is called the higher

goal. Higher the goal, higher the energy that one can tap from the goal

itself. An inspired action can follow from the one who has high goal

provided his mind is fully dedicated or devoted to the action. A puny

man with a stick in his and handful of salt in the other could inspire

the whole nation and shake the whole British Empire only because of his

complete surrenderance to the highest goal.

 

Love demands sacrifice. ‘I love you, but…’ that but does not come when

there is pure love. This is shown beautifully in Ramanand Sagar’s

Ramayana Series where Bharata goes to forest to bring Rama back to

Ayodhya. He goes to the forest with notion that his devotion to Rama is

greater than Rama’s commitment to Dharma, and Rama has to oblige to

return to Ayodhya. Janaka points out that devotion is greater than

dharma provided one surrenders to his Lord. In surrenderance, there is

no demand of ‘what I want’ other than fulfilling only whatever the Lord

wants – ‘thy will be done not mine’ should be the understanding. Iswara

arpaNa will be transformed as Iswara aajna or daiva iccha – His will or

His desire.

 

Role of a Devotee:

 

Life involves playing many roles and transacting with duality. From

morning until night and from birth to death one is constantly playing

roles. I am a son, brother, husband, father, employee, citizen, etc.

All these are roles that I play. When I encounter my father, I am a son;

when I encounter my daughter, I am a father; when I encounter my wife I

am a husband; and when I encounter my office I am an employee, etc. Thus

with each encounter I play a different role. All roles are temporal

roles since I am not a father all the time. I am a father only when I

encounter my daughter, and husband only when I encounter my wife and

likewise the other roles. In each role, I have to play my role as best

as I can to make the drama of life as beautiful as possible. Life is a

drama and one has to play the roles as long as one lives. Playing the

game of life is not a problem, provided I know how to play. In the

role-playing, I do face the problems in those roles; and that is part of

the play. As a father, I may face a problem but as a husband or

employee, I have no problems. The father role has a problem but those

problems have nothing to do with other roles. If I am good actor

playing different roles, each role is played independent of other roles.

Unfortunately, our problem is we do not know how to act in the drama of

life. When father-role has a problem in the father-daughter set-up, I am

carried away with that problem affecting my play in the other roles.

Then playing all the roles becomes a problem. However, roles will have

a problems and that is the nature of the roles and the nature of the

drama of life itself. There should not be any problem if the roles have

a problem; otherwise, the drama will be dull. However, if the problem

of a role is taken as my problem, then I have a real problem. This is

our number one problem.

 

Just as I am playing the role of father when I encounter my daughter,

and role as a husband when I encounter my wife, I play the role of

devotee when I go the temple. Once out of the temple, I am back to

other roles. Thus, unfortunately, the role of devotee is also taken as

a temporal role like any other role. My relationship with the Lord has

become like any other relationships – that means I have not understood

what Lord means. I have not recognized that Lord is everywhere and in

every ‘set-up’. Therefore a devotee’s role is not a temporal role,

since Lord and I are present in every set-up that I am involved

(antarbahischa tat sarvam vyaapta naaraayana sthitaH – Narayana is

inside as well as outside – there is no place where He is not). If I

start recognizing this fact, then my role as a devotee and my

relationship to the Lord become a fundamental relationship, independent

of time and space. I cannot but be a devotee all the time, since I

cannot but encounter the Lord all the time, and in all encounters.

 

If we examine this carefully, we have to play two roles all the time,

one a temporal role depending on the set-up and the other a devotee role

in any set-up. Hence, I am father plus a devotee, a husband plus a

devotee, a son plus a devotee, an employee plus a devotee, a seeker plus

a devotee. My devotee’s role remains constant while the other roles

keep changing with the changing set-up. First thing to do is to

recognize this fact and have constant awareness that Lord is there

everywhere, and I cannot afford not to be a devotee all the time. We

cannot even afford to ignore this relationship, since unlike other

relationships this is a fundamental relationship in all relationships.

When I love my daughter, I automatically am conscious of her presence

when she is there and am ready to sacrifice for her happiness. The love

flows in all my dealings with her. Similarly when I have the devotion

(love for the higher is devotion) for the Lord, I have to begin to

recognize His presence wherever he is and offer with love whatever I

can. Only way to win over the Lord is by devotion. This is beautifully

depicted in the story of ‘Shree Krishna Tulaabhaaram’ in Bhagavatam.

Satyabhaama wanted to win over Krishna by offering equivalent weight of

gold. However, she did not realize that there is no way Krishna who

supports the whole universe can be weighed by any amount of gold. On

the other hand, Rukmini wins over him with just a leaf of tulasi offered

with devotion. Krishna says:

 

patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktyaa prayacchati|

tadam bhaktupahRitam ashnaame priyataatmanaH||

Whoever offers me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water desiring nothing

but with full devotion, I will accept it very gladly.

 

Hence, ‘yat karoti yad ashnaati .. tat kurushve madarpanam’ whatever you

do and whatever you eat .. offer it to me’ can happens once I recognize

that I have to play the role of the devotee all the time. But fact of

the matter is, whatever I do or eat, it is automatically offered to him

– since I have only choice in action but not in the results and He is

the one who takes the action and return the results. He is already

receiving the action whether I offer it to him or not. Similarly, he is

the one who as vaiswaanara staying inside and digesting all that food

that I eat. When he is already receiving everything anyway, why does He

ask us to offer them with devotion?

 

When one offers with devotion, two things happen. First, we are

recognizing the fact that He is everywhere and everything belongs to

Him. So what we are offering is not ours but His only. Then, what we

are offering is only our notions that it is ours. We are essentially

offering our ahankaara and mamakaara, the notions that ‘I am the doer

and I am the enjoyer’, which bind us down to our karma.

 

Second thing is in terms of our role-playing. We discussed that we are

playing two roles, a husband plus a devotee, father plus a devotee, etc.

Husband plus a devotee becomes a devoted husband. Father plus a

devotee becomes a devoted father. Similarly a devoted employee, a

devoted citizen, etc. Every action becomes a devoted action, with Him

present. When one performs one’s best, then it becomes a devoted action.

Then the action itself becomes a prayer to the Lord. Thus, not only I

recognize His presence everywhere, I become a full time devotee, and the

actions and the role that I play become devoted actions and devoted

role. Then karma becomes karma yoga. Every action becomes a yagna, or

for yagna, since yagna also means the Lord. ‘yagno yagnapatiH yagvaa

yagnaago yagnavaahanaH’ says in Vishnu sahasra naamaavali. Hence, do

the actions in the spirit of yagna also implies do the action for

parameswara preetyartham – perform the action to please the Lord. Even

while chanting the Vishnu sahasra naamaavali, we chant – Shree mahaa

Vishnu preetyartham – for the pleasure of mahaavishnu only we are

chanting this and not for our personal gains. Whatever that comes

unasked is received with reverence as ‘prasaadam’.

 

How do I become a full time devotee? Swami Dayanandaji used to tell a

story. There was young boy who was hired as cook by a gentleman. Since

the boy was very much interested in music, he used to hum and sing as he

was cooking. Since he was a good cook, the gentleman did not mind his

singing. When a visitor came and heard the singing, he asked the

gentleman – “who is singing in the kitchen?” The gentleman responded,

“Oh! That is my cook. He likes to sing”. The visitor said, “He is good,

why don’t you let him learn music?”. The gentleman agreed and arranged

for music lessons for the cook. Because of his interest, the boy

practiced a lot and slowly graduated from that teacher and then the next

teacher and so on until he became an expert in music. He became a

professional singer much sought after for music programs. Ones he had a

program in the same town where the gentleman is living, and he visited

him to pay his respects. Since he knows the gentleman’s tastes, he went

into the kitchen to cook something for him. When a visitor asked who is

cooking in the kitchen, the gentleman responded, “Oh! That is the famous

musician who cooking in the kitchen”. The visitor was very much

surprised why the famous musician is cooking in the gentleman’s kitchen.

 

 

Before it was a cook that was singing – now the great musician is

cooking. Whatever he does now, it is that great musician that is doing.

The transformation is complete. A cook is transformed into a great

musician – How? It is only by saadhana, that involves a single pointed

effort withdrawing from all other dissipative pursuits.

 

ananyaashchitayanto maam ye janaaH paryupaasate|

teshhaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemam vahaamyaham||

without any other thought in mind who thinks of me all the time and

worships me, desiring nothing, I will take care of him completely.

 

Thus, doing daily prayer and performing the panca mahaa yagnas,

meditating on the glories of the Lord are essentially the process to

transform oneself into a full time devotee. Krishna emphasizes that

‘abyaasa and viaragya’ i.e. constant practice and detachment from all

other dissipative pursuits, are the two essential tools for one’s

growth.

 

Therefore, bhakti manifests at the action level as karmayoga. I cannot

but offer everything to him. Once I recognize that everything actually

belongs to him, what is there left for me to offer. ‘tvadiiyam vastu

govinda tubhyameva samarpaye’, Oh| Lord this is all yours and I am

offering it to you what belongs to you’. What I am offering then is

only my notions that they are mine. Krishna understands our language

and takes only our devotion and returns back what He thinks we need for

our growth.

 

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Kuntimaddi Sadananda from the

Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/

 

 

 

 

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