Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 74

Sutra 69. Teertheekurvanti teerthaani sukarmeekurvanti karmaani sacchastreekurvanti Saastraani.

[They (such devotees) impart sanctity to places of pilgrimage, render actions righteous and good and give spiritual authority to scriptures.]

Teerthaani: holy places.

Teertheekurvanti: make holy places

Karmaani: actions

Sukarmeekurvanti: make meritorious actions

Saastraani: scriptures

Sat-sastreekurvanti: make authoritative; make sacred scripture .

This Sutra is an extension to the previous Sutra where we read that the family / nation / world where such men of realization exist,  stand blessed!!

When, in devotion, a devotee merges with God and exists as a divine being himself, God has a purpose. God gives such devotees, intuition as to how they have to serve mankind.

Swami Sivananda, through that intuition, setup ashram in Hrishikesh, imparted knowledge in the strict Guru Shishya Parampara and there are many many disciples of Sivananda who have themselves risen to greater heights and have in turn served the society.  There are 100s of such  masters. To mention a few - Swami krishnananda, Swami Suryadevananda, Swami Sachidananda, Swami Chidananda, Swami Venkatesananda etc.

Swami Chinmayananda got the intuition to spread Vedanta, especially Bhagavad Gita throughout the world and started the Gita Yagna, series of lectures on Gita single handedly and today we have the Chinmaya Kendras throughout the world, imparting regular Gita Jnana Yagna and other important vedantha lessons.

On the contrary, Sri Ramana did not go around like other few Saints, he remained more or less near Arunachala, spoke very less and that was his intuitive path. Even in that silence, in the Sage's Aura, there were disciples who got Realization, notable amongst them is Sri Muruganar. 

The  list is endless. 

So, the essence is that when a devotee merges with Bhagawan, Bhagawan gives him intuition and sends him to this world to serve  mankind in some unique way. So, in God's mission, it is but obvious that wherever such a saint goes, that place has to be sanctified, whatever he speaks, it has to be the voice of God, whatever he writes, it is God's own scripture!!!!

Such noble devotees turn ordinary bathing places into sacred places of purification, ordinary acts into pious deeds and words of instructions into holy texts.

Their presence adds holiness to the place where they live. Their thoughts are dynamic. Their thoughts transform their environments infusing peace and joy into them.

We do not know of any one who has become a saint by reading Shakespeare, Herbert Spencer, Milton, Goldsmith or Shelly, but there are thousands who have adopted a new divine life by studying Gita, Upanishads and other such treatise. 

Each time these books are studied by a man, they receive a greater power to transform the hearts of the reader.

When we study the works of Sankara, Vivekananda and of those who came a little later like Swami Sivananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi etc., we are able to read / experience a sense of beauty of their own Self Sacrifice, of their selflessness and compelling aroma of their constant love for their mankind.

One such life can inspire the whole world to strive for  such an ideal existence. 

It is these noble men of Realization who move about serving humanity and joyously sharing the ecstasy of their love, their experience that add a secret glory to all actions. They lend a compelling authority to the scriptural texts.

Goddess Ganga was propitiated by the austere penance of King Bhagiratha. She appeared before Bhagiratha and said, “All the sinners of this world will wash their sins and purify themselves by immersing their sinful bodies in my holy waters. Where shall I wash the immense store of sins they deposit in my watery body ?”

Bhagiratha replied, “O sacred Mother ! Holy saints will bathe in Ganges and purge you of all your sins, because Lord Vishnu, the dispeller of all sins, dwells in their heart.”

Intoxicated with Love, the people move about in the world. The maddening throb of their ecstatic love, the serenity of their purified presence sanctifies all the places wherever they go, wherever they stay, wherever they talk / serve the humanity.

Bodhgaya, Jerusalem and Mecca have all been regarded sacred only on account of their being respectively associated with Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.

  

It is the Saint that constitutes the real Tirtha.

That which enables a man to cross over an obstacle, such as a boat in a river, is a Tirtha.

The stones on which they sat, the paths on which they have trodden, the villages through which they have passed, the lakes in which they have taken baths, the trees under which they have taken their food are sanctified. 

Their names are even now associated with these places and objects. Guru Nanak’s name is linked with Panchasahab near Taxila. His fingers are shown in the Kund. 

Bodhi Tree in Gaya is associated with Lord Buddha. 

There are numerous such places which are sanctified by the presence of such yogis.

Love.