Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 3

One reason for studying Narada’s Bhakti Sutra is just that, i.e, we need it as an essential sadhana . Secondly, bhakti, properly understood, is not simply intense tapasya as it is depicted in puranic stories.

In the study of Narada’s Bhakti Sutra, we will see inseparability of bhakti and jnana . We will see the deeper and more profound meaning of bhakti ; more than devotion to God or divine love. At its highest level, bhakti is enlightenment!

It is important to understand that bhakti is not a gradual process that progresses from desire (kama, which is romantic love or sexual attraction) to emotional love (prema) to bhakti. Although, all three have some element of love, they are all completely different from one another. 

A good way to understand any absence of a continuum among the three is to consider the metaphor of a seed (kama) giving rise to a tree (prema) and the tree bearing a fruit (bhakti). 

Although the tree arises from the seed, and the fruit from the tree, the tree and the seed are very different and so are the tree and the fruit. Tree is not a bigger form of the seed and the fruit is not an intens e form of tree. 

Similarly, bhakti is not an intense form of conventional or emotion based love and emotional love is not physical love or sexual attraction. Physical love is rooted in the physiology of the body like desire for food and water. Emotional love, as between a husband and a wife or between parent and child is located in the mind.

Bhakti, in its highest form, referred to as “parama prema” (supreme love), transcends love; it is limitless and infinite love. No matter how intense the conventional love is, it’s not bhakti . 

Continued....