Sutra 57. Uttarasmaaduttarasmaat Poorvapoorvaa sreyaaya bhavati.
[Each preceding one (kind of devotion) is more conducive to
the highest good than the one succeeding it.]
Uttarasmaaduttarasmaat: than each succeeding
one
Poorva poorva: each
preceding one
Sreyaaya: for the
better, for the sake of the highest good
Bhavati: is,
works.
The first kind of devotion is better and more fruitful than the second and
the second is better and more fruitful than the third in both the divisions.
The first of these conditions produces higher spiritual
good than the second, and the second is superior to the third.
Rajasic Bhakti, the second one, practised in order to obtain power and
wealth is better than Tamasic Bhakti, the third one, which involves divine help to cause harm to others.
The first one, Sattvic Bhakti, as compared to the second one, Rajasic, is still higher, for it only aspires to know God.
Sattva is harmony, peace, light. It is the highest state.
A devotee should carefully watch his mind
and note which of these conditions prevails in his mind. He should strive to
increase Sattva by Satsangh, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, worship, etc.
What are the qualities of the
person who has transcended the three gunas (guna-atitah)? How does he behave,
and how does he truly achieve it?
The qualities of a
person who transcends the gunas
The Bhagavadgita answers these questions
also.
When a person overcomes the three gunas, he neither likes nor dislikes
purity, light, passion and delusion, which are the predominant modalities that
arise from the gunas namely sattva, rajas and tamas respectively.
He does not
detest them when they are present nor desires them when they are absent
(14.22).
He remains indifferent, undisturbed by the gunas, knowing that it is
the gunas which are acting in all beings but not the Self which is present in
them (13.23).
Therefore, he remains alike in pleasure and pain, stable and
equal towards a lump of earth or gold, the pleasant and the unpleasant,
criticism or praise, honor or dishonor, and friend or foe. Since he rises above
the gunas, he does not take sides in any dispute, show any favor or preference
for the dualities of life and renounces the ambition and the initiative to
perform tasks (14.24-25).
In the second classification, Artha is 1st, Jignasu is 2nd and Arthaarthi is 3rd one.
Artha Bhakti
(Bhakti of affliction) is higher. Here affliction does not refer to any misery
due to worldly evil, but to distress due to the conscious separation from God.
The devotion practised by the seeker of truth (Jignasu)
is better than that practised by the seeker of wealth (Arthaarthi) and better
and more fruitful than both the types is the devotion of the afflicted and the
distressed (Artha).
An Artha alone makes a passionate, sincere and intense
appeal to the Lord and gets help immediately. He wants relief at once. Draupadi
and Gajendra are the examples .
An Artha wants God and nothing else, because no one else
can give relief to him.
A Jignasu wants knowledge, not God.
The Arthaarthi does
not want even knowledge. He wants wealth. Therefore the Artha is the best of
the whole lot.
The Gopis were extremely miserable on account of
separation from Lord Krishna. They were also Arthas. They prayed and sang. Then
the Lord gave them His presence.
A devotee who has intense Vairagya or dispassion never
rests satisfied with anything less than the supreme God-realisation.
Even after gaining enlightenment, one continues to function in this world. He does not disappear. The world does not disappear. How does a Jnani respond to this world? His experience is that everything is my own Self.
Generally one starts as an artha. A person may pray when he is in distress.
Then as his faith increases he becomes an artharthi.
When his faith further cements he wants to know more about the source of power and about the glory of God. Then he comes a Jignasu.
An artha can directly also become a Jignasu, when there is intense desire to know God. Dhruva was first an artharthi, but he then repented and become a Jignasu later.
We ask God pressured by our vasanas. But God knows what is best for us and he gives, so they pray to God with this attitude. Therefore they are able to move forward in the spiritual path though they may be initially seekers of wealth or asking to remove distress.
Now about the Devotee of the highest level- Jnani.
In the seventh chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan has said that a Jnani bhakta is very dear to me. He is my own Self.
How does a Jnani bhakta live in this world? What are his characteristics?
Those are given in these verses.
Bhagavan says a Jnani does not have enmity towards anyone. अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च | He has attitude of friendship towards all. He has deep compassion for every being. He does not want to see anyone in pain or sorrow. A compassionate person will strive to make others free of sorrow. He does not go into judgement. He will not say ‘it is your prarabdha to suffer’. He has compassion for everyone.
निर्ममो - He is free from the sense of possessiveness. He is free from mamatva, not even to his own body. This body does not belong to us which we call it as ours. He does not have feeling of mamatva towards anything or anyone.
निरहङ्कारः He does not have false sense of I – ego.
समदु:खसुखः क्षमी - He remains unperturbed in favourable and unfavorable situations. Even after enlightenment there will be situations of sukha and dukha, the world will keep changing. There can be a difficult situation which could have given sorrow to an ordinary person but a jnani remains unperturbed.
His supreme bliss is in his own Self. There is no dependence on anything or anyone. The more we are dependent on objects, people, situations there is more sorrow. सर्वं परवशं दुःखं, सर्वं आत्मवशं सुखम्| Dependence is sorrow and Independence is Joy. We can be more happy by being spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, physically independent.
Love.
