srimadbhagavatham-skandha3-chapter29

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Chapter29-

 

Bhakthi can be of three kinds, sathvik, raajasik and thaamasik. When one who worships Him with a sense of duty and does it as an offering to the Lord without any other motive but to be free f4om the bondage of karma, that bhakthi is saathvik. Worshipping for the sake of fulfilling the desires and with a separatist attitude is raajasik. The worship that involves violence, arrogance or jealousy is thaamasik. Superior to these three kinds of bhakthi is the one without reason or purpose. Kapila says,

madhguNa SruthimaathreNa mayi sarva guhaaSaye

mano gathiH avicChinna yaThaa gangaambhasaH ambuDhou.

 

That is, the moment the devotee hears about he attributes and nature of the Lord, who is residing in everyone as the inner self, the thoughts flows to Him without interruption like the water of the river Ganges towards the ocean. This is the devotion of a guNaatheetha a outlined in the Gita.

 

Then Kapila describes some devotional disciplines such as ,

 

1. The duties of life is to be performed without attachment and as an offering to the Lord.

2. Ritualistic devotion should not involve himsa.

3.Image worship or singing the glory of the Lord.

4 Treating all beings as ensouled by the Lord.

5.Reverence to the devout and saintly

6 Kindness to the less fortunate.

7. Freindship towards equals

8.Other spiritual disciplines like self control, sense control, hearing about spiritual matters and sing the glory of the Lord etc.

9. Should be straight forward and detached without ego.

 

Image worship is only symbolic and should be done with the view that the Lord transcends the form and should not be ostentatious. Kapila says, " the one who does not consider Me as the inner self of all beings , and sees Me everywhere, his worship is equivalent to perform a sacrifice in the ashes instead of fire.'

 

The very purpose of worship is acquiring equipoise of mind which is defeated when one has hatred towards other beings, proud, has separatist attitude and shows enmity to others. The Lord is not pleased by the worship even if one uses various materials, with elaborate rituals if he does not respect other beings not knowing that the Lord is everywhere. Therefore with a charitable disposition towards all and with undifferentiating view towards all one should worship Him.. The last state of evolution in bhakthi is mayyarpitha manaH pumsaH mayi sannyastha karmanah, the mind engrossed in the Lord and offering all acts to Him.

 

Then Kapila traces the different states of spiritual evolution. First comes the ajeeva, the inanimate ,then jeevah, animate, praaNabhrthah, those with life, sachitthaa, sentient, indhruiyavrtthayaH, those with sense experience, those with sense of touch, with sense of touch and taste, those with senses of smell added, so on till the beings with all the five senses active. Of these, the lowest order are those with many legs, then those with four legs and then the two legged , that is, humans. Of the humans, the best among the four varnas are Brahmins, superior to them are those who know the Vedas, higher are those who not konly learnt the Vedas but also know the purport of the Vedas. Among those the one who had all his doubts resolved is better and better than him is the one established in karmayoga. One who has cast off all attachment is higher than all these and the one who has his mind engrossed in the Lord is the highest in evolution.