Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 27

Sutra 15. Tallakshanaani Vaachyante naanaamatabhedat.

[The characteristics of Bhakti are described variously on account of difference in view-points (according to the different schools)]

Tallakshanaani: its characteristic marks or indications of devotion

Vaachyante: are being described or stated

Naanaamatabhedaat: according to diverse opinions or owing to difference in viewpoints.

In Rig Veda, there is a sruti which says, 

"Ekam Sath, Vipra Bahuda Vadanti"

(Truth is one, Scholars speak about it in different ways)

The one truth that God, formless, attributeless pervades the entire creation and thus each and everyone / everything in creation is but that God, the universal consciousness, is described in innumerable ways in 100+ upanishads followed by various vedanta treatise and commentary.

Similarly, the inner experiences of Bhakti is purely subjective. The mental condition of a devotee is known only to himself. But the devotees conduct themselves in different ways. 

We can recognise the characteristics or marks of devotion. Every change in the heart finds external manifestation in the behavior as well as the appearance of the devotee.

In this and the succeeding nine Sutras, Narada gives a description of Bhakti as given by some writers who have preceded him and shows how his own view is more complete than that of any of his predecessors .

Dear All,

• Each human being is born with his own sanskara, due to his past accumulated karmas.
• Thus, each one's mind, his vasanas, his thoughts work in a different way than the other individual in this world.
• Thus, when a human being enters the path of devotion, his sanskara play a role in shaping up his thoughts, his feelings, his approach to Bhakti.

In the Sivanandalahari, Sri Sankara speaks of Bhakti as the sticking of thoughts to the feet of the Lord permanently. Just as a needle sticks to the magnet, the seed to the Ankola tree, a virtuous wife to her husband or a creeper to a tree. 

In Devi Bhagavatam, supreme love is compared to oil poured from one vessel to another (Tailadharavat). There should not be any break in the regular succession of thoughts about God. 

In Bhagavatam, Maitreya says that Bhakti is a natural settlement of the mind upon the highest truth from which all objects and senses have come out. 

Prahlad prays that the love which the worldly people have for the objects be turned into Bhakti by being directed towards God. 

In the Narada Panchatantra Bhakti is spoken of as service rendered to the Lord of the senses through the senses without being clouded by Upadhis and purified by being directed towards Him. 

Thus there are different views. These views are different on account of the differences in which the divine love is experienced by devotees who are in different stages of development or evolution and also in different moods or states. 

Lakshana means mark or characteristic or sign All devotees unanimously agree in the essential characteristics of devotion. But some give prominence to certain indications; while others to certain other marks. That is all. There cannot be any fundamental difference in the essence. 

When we  enter a sweet shop having varieties of milk sweets, each one with a unique shape, unique name. However, when each one of those sweets are placed on our tongue and we taste it, the sweet essence of all sweets are exactly the same, as the essence is the sweetness of sugar!!

Similarly, there may be different ways in which so many Bhaktas define Bhakti but the inner experience of each Devotee, when he nears the lord and his heart melts in Love for his Lord, is EXACTLY THE SAME and the mystic beauty is that no devotee can exactly describe his subjective experience when he actually experiences it.

All varieties/ differences in the descriptions are only upto the point of merger with Lord. At and upon the merger, no one can ever express his inner experience with limited words and when two such devotees who have merged with Lord ever come face to face, their eye contact reveals only one expression from both of them:

"OUR EXPERIENCE IS THE SAME,  OUR STATE, UPON THAT INNER SUBJECTIVE, INTUITIVE, INTIMATE EXPERIENCE, IS THE SAME".

Here, all the diverse expressions of Bhakti / expositions of devotion, like various streams of river flowing from mountains, reach one common sea, the Prema Sagara, lose their individual identity and merge and exist as LOVE.

Love.