[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Definition of Bakthi (Bhakti - Yoga)

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

This is a wonderful exposition of Bhakti which is nothing but

"love-oriented devotion" to the Lord. Bhagavatam says, "Yena kenapi

upayena manah Krishne Pravesayet". ( By any means, one should make

his mind enter into Krishna). The rest of it will take care of

itself. It is just like when once you enter the queue leading to the

Guruvayoor temple, you are automatically usheredto the presence of the

Lord. But entering the queue is in your hands. There are people

living within the precincts of Guruvayoor, but have not visited the

temple even once. At the same time, there are those who come from

thousands of miles away just to have a glimpse of the Lord. Only the

really blessed ones can even think of the Lord. This is the

difference between an ordinary guy and a real Bhakta.

 

Regards

K.V. Gopalakrishna.

 

 

 

Murali Ambala Kolliyil wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bhakti greater than

Karma and Yoga

Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a

search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of

the madness of extreme love of God brings us eternal freedom. "Bhakti",

says Narada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense

love of God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes

satisfied for ever.This love cannot be reduced to any earthly

benefit", because so long as worldly desires last that kind of love

does not come; "Bhakti is greater than Karma, greater than Yoga,

because these are intended for an object in view, while Bhakti is its

own fruition, its own means and its own end."

 

 

 

 

Bhakti has been the one constant theme of our sages.

Apart from the special writers on bhakti such as Shandilya or Narada,

the great commentators on the Vyasa Sutras, evidently advocates of

knowledge (Jnana), have also something very suggestive to say about

love. Even when the commentator is anxious to explain many, if not all,

of the texts so as to make them impart a sort of dry knowledge, the Sutras,

in the chapter on worship especially, do not lend themselves to be

easily manipulated in that fashion.

 

 

Bhakti and Jnana

lead to the same goal

There is not really so much difference between

knowledge (Jnana) and love (Bhakti) as people sometimes imagine. We

shall see, as we go on, that in the end they converge and meet at the

same point. So also is it with Raja-Yoga, which when pursued as a means

to attain liberation, and not (as unfortunately it frequently becomes

in the hands of charlatans and mystery-mongers) as an instrument to

hoodwink the unwary, leads us also to the same goal.

 

 

Advantages and

disadvantages

The one great advantage of bhakti is that it is the

easiest and the most natural way to reach the great divine end in view;

its great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes

degenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or

Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been almost exclusively

recruited from these worshippers on the lower planes of Bhakti. That

singleness of attachment (Nishtha) to a loved object, without which no

genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of the denunciation

of everything else. All the weak and undeveloped minds in every

religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e.

by hating every other ideal. Herein is the explanation of why the same

man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to

his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees

or hears anything of any other ideal. This kind of love is somewhat

like the canine instinct of guarding the master's property from

intruders; only the instinct of the dog is better than the reason of

man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an enemy in whatever

dress he may come before it. Again, the fanatic loses all power of

judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of such absorbing

interest that to him it is no question at all of what a man says --

whether it is right or wrong; but the one thing he is always

particularly careful to know is who says it. The same man who is kind,

good, honest, and loving to people of his own opinion, will not

hesitate to do the vilest deeds when they are directed against persons

beyond the pale of his own religious brotherhood.

 

 

Gauni and Para Bhakti

But this danger exists only in that stage of Bhakti

which is called the preparatory (Gauni). When Bhakti has become

ripe and has passed into that form which is called supreme

(Para), no more is there any fear of these hideous manifestations of

fanaticism; that soul which is overpowered by this higher form of

bhakti is too near the God of Love to become an instrument for the

diffusion of hatred.

 

 

Noblest when Bhakti

is in harmony with Jnana and Karma

It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the

building up of our characters in this life; yet we know that that

character is of the noblest type in which all these three -- knowledge

and love and Yoga -- are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary

for a bird to fly: the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering.

Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga

is the tail that keeps up the balance. For those who cannot pursue all

these three forms of worship together in harmony, and take up,

therefore, Bhakti alone as their way, it is necessary always to

remember that forms and ceremonials, though absolutely necessary for

the progressing soul, have no other value than taking us on to that

state in which we feel the most intense love of God.

 

 

Jnana and Bhakti

lead to one another

There is a little difference in opinion between the

teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both admit the power of

Bhakti. The Jnanis hold Bhakti to be an instrument of liberation, the

Bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing to be

attained. To my mind this is a distinction without much difference. In

fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument, really means a lower form of

worship, and the higher form becomes inseparable from the lower form of

realization at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great stress upon his

own peculiar method of worship, forgetting that with perfect love true

knowledge is bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect

knowledge true love is inseparable.

 

 

Bhakti according to

Shankara

 

Bearing this in mind, let us try to understand what

the great Vedantic commentators have to say on the subject. In

explaining an Sutra Avrittirasakridupadeshat, Bhagavan Shankara

says, "Thus people say, 'He is devoted to the king, he is devoted to

the Guru.'; they say this of him who follows his Guru, and does so,

having that following as the one end in view. Similarly they say, 'The

loving wife meditates on her loving husband away'; here also a kind of

eager and continuous remembrance is meant." This is devotion according

to Shankara.

 

 

 

Bhakti according to

Ramanuja

"Meditation, again, is a constant remembrance (of the

thing meditated upon), flowing like an unbroken stream of oil poured

from one vessel to another. When this kind of remembering has been

attained (in relation to God), all bondages break. Thus it is spoken of

in the scriptures regarding constant remembering as a means to

liberation. This remembering again is of the same form as seeing,

because it is of the same meaning as in the passage, 'When He who is

far and near is seen, the bonds of the heart are broken, all

doubts vanish, and all effects of work disappear.' He who is near can

be seen, but he who is far can only be remembered. Nevertheless the

scripture says that we have to see Him who is near as well as Him who

is far, thereby indicating to us that the above kind of remembering

is as good as seeing. This remembrance, when exalted, assumes

the same form as seeing. . . . Worship is constant remembering as may

be seen from the essential texts of scriptures. Knowing, which is the

same as repeated worship, has been described as constant remembering. .

.. . Thus the memory, which has attained to the height of what is

as good as direct perception, is spoken of in the Shruti as a means of

liberation. 'This Atman is not to be reached through various sciences,

nor by intellect, nor by much study of the Vedas. Whomsoever this Atman

desires, by him is the Atman attained, unto him this Atman discovers

Himself.' Here, after saying that mere hearing, thinking and meditating

are not the means of attaining this Atman, it is said, 'Whom this Atman

desires, by him the Atman is attained.' The extremely beloved is

desired; by whomsoever this Atman is extremely beloved, he becomes the

most beloved of the Atman. So that this beloved may attain the Atman,

the Lord Himself helps. For it has been said by the Lord: 'Those who

are constantly attached to Me and worship Me with love -- I give that

direction to their will by which they come to Me.' Therefore it is said

that, to whomsoever this remembering, which is of the same form as

direct perception, is very dear, because it is dear to the Object of

such memory perception, he is desired by the Supreme Atman, by him the

Supreme Atman is attained. This constant remembrance is denoted by the

word Bhakti." So says Bhagavan Ramanuja in his commentary on the Sutra

Athato Brahma-jijnasa (Hence follows a dissertation on

Brahman).

 

 

The best definition

of Bhakti, however, is given by ..

 

In commenting on the sutra of Patanjali,

Ishvarapranidhanadva, i.e. "Or by the worship of the Supreme Lord"

-- Bhoja says, "Pranidhana is that sort of Bhakti in which, without

seeking results, such as sense- enjoyments etc., all works are

dedicated to that Teacher of teachers." Bhagavan Vyasa also, when

commenting on the same, defines Pranidhana as "the form of Bhakti by

which the mercy of the Supreme Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him

by granting him his desires". According to Shandilya, "Bhakti is

intense love to God." The best definition is, however, that given by

the king of Bhaktas, Prahlada: yA prItiravivekAnAm

visHyesHvanapAyinI | tvAmanusmarataHa sA me hrudayAnmApasarpathu ||

"That deathless love which the ignorant have for the fleeting objects

of the senses -- as I keep meditating on Thee -- may not that love slip

away from my heart!" Love! For whom? For the Supreme Lord

Ishvara. Love for any other being, however great cannot be Bhakti; for,

as Ramanuja says in his Shri Bhashya, quoting an ancient

Acharya, i.e. a great teacher: AbrahmasthambaparyantAH

jagadantharvyavasTHtAH | prANinaH karmajanithasansAravashavarthinaH

|| yathasthatho na the DhyAneDhyaninAmupakArakAH |

AviDhyAntargathAssarve the hi sansArgocharAH || "From

Brahma to a clump of grass, all things that live in the world are

slaves of birth and death caused by Karma; therefore they cannot be

helpful as objects of meditation, because they are all in ignorance and

subject to change." In commenting on the word Anurakti used by

Shandilya, the commentator Svapneshvara says that it means Anu, after,

and Rakti, attachment; i.e. the attachment which comes after the

knowledge of the nature and glory of God; else a blind attachment to

any one, e.g. to wife or children, would be Bhakti. We plainly see,

therefore, that Bhakti is a series or succession of mental efforts at

religious realization beginning with ordinary worship and ending in a

supreme intensity of love for Ishvara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krishna... Guruvayoorappa...

Murali

Bangui.

Tel: +236 06 99 99.

 

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