Naradabhakthi suthras 17 till end of part1

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Suthra 17. kaTha Adhishu ithi gargah

 

The sage Garga thinks that

devotion is hearing and telling others about the Lord and the stories of Him.

This refers to all verbal expressions such as chants, prayers, study, and

exposition of divine qualities and stories, Harikatha, namasankirthana etc. In the Gita the Lord

says about His devotees, `macchitthA madhgathaprANAh boDhayanthah parasparam

kaThayanthi cha mAm nithyam thushyanthi cha ramanthi cha,' they minds are

engrossed in the Lord, their lives dedicated to Him, talk to each other about

he Lord and exchange the stories of Him revel

and rejoice in Him. In Srimadbhagavatham Parikshith, asking Suka to tell

him the story of Krishna in detail, says that

none else but a butcher will be reluctant to listen again and again to the

recital of the glorious attributes of the Lord.

 

 

Narada himself was the

illustration of this as he always goes around singing the glory of the Lord. So

were Valmiki, Vyasa and Tulsidas who composed epics of Bhakthi and Meer, Andal, and the azvars and

Jayadeva who composed lyrics about the Lord. Bhishma said at the end of Mahabharatha

war that to sing the name of the Lord is the best of the dharmas. The Lord

Himself in Gita, `yajnAnAm japayajno asmi.'(BG.10-25)

 

Suthra18-Athmarathi aviroDhena ithi

sAndilyah

 

Sage Sandilya holds that reveling in the self without any

thoughts to the contrary is bhakthi.

 

The expression of bhakthi must be

accompanied with incessant thought of the Lord. Physical and verbal

manifestations if not accompanied by

spiritual background that give rise to the joy of experiencing the Lord within

as the inner self , and the self of all, will result in blind devotion which

results in fanaticism and bigotry. In Srimadbhagavatham the Lord says that He

does not accept the worship of one who has no feeling towards his fellow creatures and other than Himself because all are the

creations of the Lord. So without prejudice to other religions or sects one

should love all as the Lord is in all beings.

 

 

 

 

Suthra 19-nAradhasthu thadharpitha

akhilAchArathA thadhvismaraNe paramvyAkulatha

ithi

 

But Narada is of the opinion that

bhakthi consists in all these activities with complete surrender to Him and

extreme anguish in not remembering Him. Complete self surrender is the prime characteristic of bhakthi and

every action done in this spirit is the expression of bhakthi. Worship, chants

and singing His glory and constant remembrance of Him are the expressions of

deep seated ardour and sincerity. All this done with the attitude of surrender

constitute bhakthi. All activities secular or sacred should be offered at His feet

and any lapse of memory of Him creates extreme anguish in the mind of the

devotee. there are several verses and slokas of Azvars and the saints to show

this. The illustration of this is best seen in the love of the gopis for Krishna which is elaborated in the subsequent suthras.

 

Suthra20-asthu evam evam

 

Narada

establishes his view saying that let this be exactly as described above. This

is in-keeping with the literary style of suthras where the author arrives at the conclusion after discussing

the acceptability or otherwise of the views stated. This suthra clinches the

argument by validating the views said above that the cardinal essence of

devotion is the deep sincerity combined with ardent faith as claimed in the

upanishats and the Gita.

 

Suthra 21-yaThA vrajagopikAnAm

 

Such

indeed was the devotion of the gopikas of vraja.

 

Narada

has said in the previous suthra that there are examples of this kind of bhakthi

`asthu evam evam,' and now he is showing the examples of it.

 

Sri

Ramakrishna has said that the devotion of the gopis was the devotion of love,

constant unmixed and unflinching. They loved Krishna more than anyone else and

proved as the examples of the bhakthiyoga which Krishna was going to preach in the battlefield in his

discourse of the Bhagavatgita, `mayyeva mana Adhathsva mayi buddhim nivesaya,'

by thinking of him alone all the time. Swami Vivekananda said that rasalila is

the acme of the religion of love, to which individuality vanishes and

there is communion. This is

understood by the unenlightened as being erotic. Even Parikshit was no exception

to this misconception and raised the doubt that how could these women who

thought about Krishna only as their lover

attain the divine communion with him. Suka pointed out that the single pointed

concentration on the Lord in whatever capacity is enough to attain Him. Krishna

himself clarifies this doubt in Srimad bhagavatham by saying that the desire of those, who

approach him to satisfy the baser instincts, become like roasted seeds which

never shoot up again,(Bh.10-22-28) In the 11th skandha Krishna remarks that the

gopis attained that state which even the yogis find difficult to reach by their

sheer love.(Bh.11-12-13). Swami Vivekananda has said that to understand the

love of gopis it is first essential to make yourself pure as it could not be

understood with impure minds. It is to be remembered that the one who told the

story was Suka who was a self-realised

master and those who gathered to hear him were the sages who have

renounced the world.

 

Suthra 22- thathrApi na

mAhAthmyajnAnavismrthi apavAdhaH

 

Even if

the love was human it could not be construed that they were not aware of the

divinity of Krishna.

 

The

gopis were fully aware of the fact that Krishna

was not human but the supreme purusha. They have witnessed his super human

exploits and never thought of him as a mere human being.

 

Brahadaranyaka

Upanishad declares that everyone and everything is loved only because one loves

oneself. `na vA are pathyuh kAmAya pathih priyo

bhavathi----Athmanansthu kAmAya sarvam priyam bhavathi `(Brhd.2-4-5)

 

The Lord is the inner self of the individual self and hence compared

with the love of Him everything else

becomes secondary. This was the state of the gopis that they left everything

and everyone and rushed to Krishna , the

supreme self. This was the love of Meera in more recent times.

 

Suthra-23- Thadviheenam

jArANAm iva

 

Had they been lacking in this knowledge of divinity of Krishna it would have been the love for a paramour.

 

This distinguishes between the earthly love and the divine. Even in the

worldly sense a pure love should not be of the body but of the soul. A devotee

loves all because he sees the Lord in all. Love is divine when there is no

expectation or possessiveness. When you feel love for a person it is due to a

momentary removal of a screen that veils the divinity in them which is in

contact with the divinity within you. Detachment alone can give rise to real

love, which does not require the presence or even any communication with the

loved one.

 

Love in its ultimate state is the

love of God .You do not see Him or speak to Him but you feel that He is

very close and that He can hear you and see you and knows your innermost

thoughts. All other kinds of love is only a semblance of that love which is

Bhakthi.

 

This idea is set out in the next

suthra where Narada says that such worldly love which is of sensual nature is

selfish and does not please the one who

is loved.

 

Suthra 24-nAsthyeva thasmin that sukha sukhithvam

 

The

happiness of a selfish love does not consists in the happiness of the one who

is loved.

 

The

real love is when one does not care for his own happiness but willing to suffer

to make the loved one happy. The gopis did not love Krishna

for selfish motives and were ready to give up all for making him happy This

suthra brings out yet another distinguishing feature of bhakthi which consists

in selfless love forgetting oneself in serving the Lord.

 

End of part 1 of Naradabhakthisuthra.