Sutra 55. Tatpraapya tadevaavalokayati tadeva srinoti tadeva bhaashayati tadeva chintayati.
[Having once
attained that, (the devotee) sees only his object of devotion, hears only about Him, speaks only
about Him, thinks only of Him.]
Tat: that, love, devotion, inner experience, object of
love
Praapya : having attained
Tat: that
Eva: alone
Avalokayati: sees
Srinoti: hears
Bhaashayati: speaks
Chintayati: ponders over.
The process undergone by a
devotee to reach the state given in this sutra was the subject dealt in a talk
given in a Sai centre in Muscat in Feb 2018.
Initially, the devotee
approaches God and develops Godly thoughts, worships God and is drawn towards
God.
But like the 2 railway track
on which a train moves, on one hand the devotee thinks of God and on the other
hand, the devotee is fully into the world of objects, relations, attachments,
hatred, desires etc.
It is only when the devotee is
more and more drawn towards God and Godly thoughts expand and takes him over,
the railway track example is no more valid and he then is like a stream of
water rushing along the mountains to reach the river / ocean to merge in the
river / ocean.
The state was explained with
the Bhajan “Sada Nirantara Hari Gun Gao” where, the lamp of Love is lit in the
devotee’s heart (Man Mandir Mein Deep Jalao) and the light expands to the
extent that as though the entire creation, all beings, everything is enveloped
by that light of Love.
Imagine for a minute that the love for God is so strong in
your heart that the lamp of Love within your heart has expanded to such infinite
level that there is nothing else which is not enveloped in the light of love.
You can then say, there is no
world, there is no creation except that love
Or
You can say that the entire
world is covered by that love (Isa Vasyam Idam Sarvam) and hence, though I recognize
the world, I move about in this world, I can no more see and experience any other thing in the
world except that Love.
The devotee then has neither friends, nor enemies, no country,
no nationality, no caste, no special states. The whole world is his home. The
whole world is the body of the Lord. He is dumb to any talk other than the
praises of the Lord. His ears are deaf for anything other than the Leelas of
the Lord. His mind is ever absorbed in the Lord and oblivious to the world.
A Gopi expresses her
experience thus: “In whichever direction I look, I find the landscape full of
Shyama, dark blue. The water of the Jumna is dark. The bowers and groves are
dark. The letters of the Vedas are dark.”
He sees only the Lord in
everything. The devotee looks only at the Lord. He hears only the Lord. He
thinks only of the Lord. How then can he be conscious of the external universe.
Now, the author brings in a Bhajan which gives the expression
of this sutra in the most suitable way possible. In fact, he wanted to conclude
the Feb talk with this Bhajan which he could not, due to shortage of time.
Narada says in this Sutra,
“Having once
attained that, (the devotee) sees only his object of devotion, hears only about
Him, speaks only about Him, thinks only of Him”.
And here is a bhajan which echos exactly the same
expression.
SAI AUM SAI AUM SAI
AUM
TAN MAN PRAN MEIN
SAI AUM
SHAYAN SWAPAN MEIN
SAI AUM
GAGAN PAVAN MEIN
SAI AUM
NAYAN NAYAN MEIN SAI AUM
JANAM MARAN MEIN
SAI AUM
Author had posted the interpretation of this
bhajan in Sai baba news yahoo group on 1.5.2006, which is reproduced below.
Later on, if any Vedanta theme is to be taken,
then the author shall give the inner meaning of the same bhajan in the context
of upanishadic truth, which he gave to few sadhakas. In that, the entire dimension of this bhajan totally changes.
Now for the interpretation given in 2006.
The Lyrics, along with the interpreted meaning
during the meditation process of a devotee is given below
Sai Aum
Sai Aum Sai Aum
(Aum is the first primal sound, the pranava
mantra. So to say, Sai is first, Sai is first and foremost of
everything)
Tan Man Praan mein Sai Aum
(Sai is filled in my physical self, my mental
self, my very life
breath is Sai)
Shayan
Swapan mein Sai Aum
(With Sai as my everything, how can he not pervade my entire dream when I
went to sleep?)
Gagan Pavan mein Sai Aum
(Sai was in the sky, Sai was felt in the
breezy Air) How did it happen??, did any
one post a sky high portrait of Sai so that He was seen in the sky?? No.)
(Sai was seen, felt everywhere, because I filled
my eyes with Sai, my eyes refused to see anything but Sai. )
(Author adds few lines now, while writing this post today, on this
particular line - Eye is the main organ which sees, which takes in the objects
of perception and transfers the same to one’s thoughts, one’s senses, one’s intellect, one’s very existence.
Now, SAI is in my nayan means
what?? My own egoistic perceptions, my own egoistic thoughts, my own
preferences of what to see, how to see, with what feelings to see etc. has been
replaced by How SAI sees this creation which is His own!!!
So, if i were to see with my eyes, but in the way SAI would
see and not in the way, i had been seeing
all my previous births and this birth until now, then, how the sight, with
SAI in me, as if SAI is seeing this
creation, would be??????)
Janam
maran mein Sai Aum
(With Sai as my everything, if i were to Die and
take another birth to burn my vasanas, my karma, then again, Sai is the only Prana sakaha who accompanies, who is there even in my death and in my next birth (and in all my births until He takes me along with Him in one birth
so that this cycle of janam maran gets over and I merge with Him, never to be
born again)
Now, let us connect the absorption of this
bhajan as given above with the Sutra lines.
“Having once attained that, (the devotee)
sees only his object of devotion, hears only about Him, speaks only about Him,
thinks only of Him”
Only HIM, only HIM,
only HIM
SAI AUM SAI AUM SAI
AUM
Love.
