Madhwa's Teachings- Discourse on Bhakti by Vidvan Vidyasimhacharya-CDs

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Madhwa's Teachings.

 

 

 

 

11-11-08

 

 

Bhakti

 

A renowned singer from south, an ardent devotee of Lord Venkatesha,

had kept busy visiting various places in the country for concerts. The

travels and busy schedule kept the singer away from visiting Tirumala

for a long time.

 

The prolonged absence, however, failed to push the desire to the back

of the singer's mind finally allowing it to slip into the vast zone of

forgetfulness; instead, it gradually intensified it as the years

rolled by. All the while the singer continued to believe that the

Lord's summons was in the waiting and when, after a long wait, the

Lord's summon did come and when the singer was in His presence, water

of its own welled up in the eyes of the singer, who, however, did not

attempt to stop the tears but, allowed them to take their natural

course oblivious to every one around and the singer's own celebrity

status. Forgetting every thing, the singer offered dumb obeisance to

the Lord with tears flowing down the cheeks and bhakti flowing through

the singer's whole being. Blessed are those, who offer such obeisance

to the Lord, bathed in bhakti.

 

Bhakti is an inexplicable feeling that gushes out from within, of its

own; a feeling that subdues ego and sublimates the mind. It is an

emotion and yet, it is not, for it is not a product of the mind but,

comes from the depth, from the core of one's inner being. Bhakti is

pure and divine; it is with the soul and issues out at the command of

God, the Dweller, within the soul.

 

Bhakti plays the most important role in the process of evolution of

the human soul. It happens to be the last rung of the ladder to the

Land of Permanent Bliss. Knowledge about the omnipotent, omnipresent

and omniscient God, His creation, hierarchy of other deities in the

divine dispensation and His own will in running the creation with all

its complexities leads one to bhakti; more the knowledge, more intense

the bhakti; the most intense bhakti is a precondition for Bhagawan's

prasada, which leads one to moksha.

 

Bhakti is a subject very difficult to explain; only a great sage can

enlighten on it. Yet, the writer has attempted to explain what, with a

very, very limited capacity one could comprehend of bhakti from the

pathas and discourses given by his gurus- Pandit. Krishnacharya

Pachchhapur, Pandit Ashwatthamacharya Mahuli, Pandit Shrinivasacharya

Nagarhalli, Pandit Rangacharya Madanpalli and Kulapati

Vidyasimhacharya. The description has many shortfalls, which are of

course those of the writer.

 

Bhakti is a very vast subject. Vidvan. Vidyasimhacharya dealt with the

subject of bhakti in one of his discourses, some time ago, when he

said that he would require about thirty hours to explain it and that

too partially. Elaborating the all embracing definition provided by

Shri. Madhwacharya, bhakti, he said, is a characteristic of satvika

soul and it has been existing from time immemorial. It increases in

intensity as one acquires more and more knowledge of God. The most

intense bhakti qualifies one for Bhagawan's prasada for attainment of

salvation, he said, explaining the different stages of bhakti. It was

a very enlightening discourse and the same has been uploaded on

link,http://www.4shared.com/dir/1616661/51e85fe4/sharing.html, for the

benefit of the readers.

 

Dear readers, all of us have experienced outbursts of bhakti at some

point of time or other; it might have been in a certain temple, or

when our guru gave us mantropadesha, or he patted on our back for

rendition of some Vedic sooktas or stotras with remarks that we must

have recited them in our previous life or when he just referred to us

as satvika souls. Essentially, it is an indication of our being

satvika souls.

 

Let us therefore unconditionally surrender to God and plead from our

hearts to bless us with more knowledge of Him and bhakti. Let us pray

to Him to turn our bhakti into conviction, which, along with spiritual

progress, lends a touch of divinity to our life; for such a conviction

brings a silent and indefinable beauty into faces made of the

commonest human clay.

 

A CD containing another discourse on bhakti by Vidvan Vidyasimhacharya

has just been released. Interested readers may please purchase it from

the Satyadhyana Vidyapeetha Mumbai or the Uttaradi Mutt, Bangalore.

 

With kind regards,

 

Ramachandra.Tammannacharya.Gutti.

 

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