Sadhana Panchakam - Post 25

  

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.