Usually we “love” those who give us happiness.
That is the condition attached to ordinary, conditional love. Supreme Love is
that which is “unconditional”. It is love for love’s sake. Supreme Love is the
nature of Bhakti.
A conviction that all living beings are forms of
God encourages us to have unconditional love for all people as well as animals
and birds. It redefines God.
Karma Yoga is the predecessor of Bhakti Yoga – service and devotion go
hand in hand. They are like our hands and legs which have to work
together.
In Brahmacharya
Ashrama, we learnt the art of doing Karma
Yoga (Step 3) by dedicating all our actions at the altar of the Lord.
Now, some 30-50 years later, we reap the fruit of Karma Yoga which is Bhakti
or devotion.
Swami
Chidananda Saraswati, ardent disciple of Swami Sivananda, who succeeded Swami
Sivananda in heading the Divine Life Society, writes,
“What
are the marks of this Divine Love? How does it manifest itself in life? First
when you begin to cultivate Divine Love and when you develop Divine Love, in
what way does this make itself seen in the person? In this matter different
schools of thought have different opinions. They say that the marks of such
development in devotion are various and are explained differently according to
the different systems of thought.
Vyasa,
a great sage, says: “Where a person is beginning to develop Divine Love such a
person starts taking great delight in worshipping the Lord.” He finds peculiar
joy in bowing before an altar and expressing his love in various acts of
worship. He may offer some flowers, burn some incense and light a couple of
candles, prostrate or stand and pray. So in various ways the inner love finds
expression.
Another great saint called Gargacharya said:
“The mark of this inner Divine Love as it glows in the heart of a devotee
expresses itself in taking great delight in the great divine activities of the
Lord, in hearing, in reading about them through the various scriptures—the
Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavatam etc., or talking about Him sitting with other
devotees.”
When Gargacharya says that the mark of divine
love is taking the form of delight in listening to the sacred stories of God,
he refers to this great wealth of scriptural lore which is the wonderful
spiritual heritage of the Indian people.
A third sage Sandilya, says, “Delight in
worship, delight in divine Lilas,
they all may be marks of pure and true love. I accept them provided they
do not interfere with taking delight in the inner self, rejoicing in the inner
self, the spiritual essence of your being.”
So according to Sandilya, this rejoicing in the
inner self is, above all, the mark of divine love.
Is there any contradiction in the statement of
the three sages? Or can we reconcile these two statements? For, it seems that
Self is a concept that is impersonal, nameless and formless, whereas Bhakti is
understood to be specifically a path of relating oneself in love to a personal
God, a divine personality with a name and a form.
This is true, nevertheless there is no
contradiction in it; or in the classical path of devotion, the devotee when
centering his love upon a particular aspect of the divine personality,
simultaneously is aware that this Divine Being whom he is worshipping is the
Supreme Universal Self, not confined to this ideal form which the devotee sees
before him and which he wants to worship.
The Divine Being is not merely in this form, but
He is also the unlimited, the eternal, universal Reality and He is immanent in
this creation.
He pervades everywhere, therefore, He is not
confined to this form which he adores. And, what is more, this Being whom he
worships in this particular form is also the indwelling Reality within his own
spiritual being. He is the God within whom I adore and worship and meditate
upon, and He existed when nothing was—when there was no creation, no projected
creation of name and form.
So behind this emotional approach to God there
is a basis of deep spiritual insight, of clear spiritual understanding. It is
not something that is the outcome of superstition, or lack of knowledge.
A true devotee knows that the specific form
which he adores is not the ultimate, that there is beyond it the principle
which is the Infinite, all-pervading primal Principle, universal Consciousness.
And it is that universal Consciousness that has taken form in order to assist
him in directing his love in focusing his attention, and that Being is also his
innermost Self.
When the devotee worships Lord Krishna, Lord
Rama or Lord Siva, he knows that Siva, Rama or Krishna is his own inner
Self.
Therefore, he worships Him and adores Him in a
picture or a deity installed in a temple and also meditates upon Him closing
his eyes, withdrawing his mind from the external and driving deep within
himself.
And he knows “Thou art the all-pervading
Reality, immanent in this creation, pervading this entire universe, present in
every speck of space, in every atom of matter. How shall I describe Thy glory.”
This is the true nature of devotion, or Bhakti.
Therefore Sandilya is right in saying it must
not interfere in the delight in the Self.”
Love.
