Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 59

Sutra 53. Prakaasate kvaapi paatre.

[But (that love or devotion) manifests itself in a fit receptacle (in a qualified person only) at some place or time.]

Kvaapi: some; at any place and time, where everything is favorable to its (That love) appearance, fit

Paatre: receptacle in a fit recipient

Prakaasate: is manifested, is revealed.

What then association with the saints will avail, if the devotion or love is inexpressible in words and consequently incommunicable from person to person? To this the answer is that the operation of devotion or love is telepathic and not through any grosser medium.

To some who are deserving, it can be revealed. Rays of divine love radiate through the eyes of a saint at every pore of his body.

“Kwapi”: somewhere, at some time. The extreme rarity of such individuals is here indicated. Out of many millions one will be fit to receive the Lord’s grace.

The current of Prem or spiritual aura passes by itself from the teacher to the fit disciple. There is telepathic transference or communication between the teacher and disciple. The disciple should be a fit subject to receive the light. The seed will sprout only in a well prepared ground. 

Swami Rama elaborates on the subject Guru's grace (which is most befitting to this Sutra) and writes:-

The guru is a tradition, a stream of knowledge.

Guru is not a person, but Guru can be represented in a person. One who has developed his or her own spiritual awareness to a very high level can guide others, and is considered to be Guru. 

Only one who is finely attuned to the inner guide can inspire the awakening of the inner guide in another. Guru is not a physical being. If a Guru begins thinking this power is her or his own, then they are no longer a guide. The Guru is a tradition, a stream of knowledge.

Guru is that force moving  a soul toward enlightenment.

To be on a spiritual path with a Guru is not an easy thing. It is not pleasant. The Guru tests the disciples, puts them in the most difficult situations, and creates obstacles for them. All the tests, difficulties and obstacles are meant to train and expand the consciousness of the disciple.

That is the sole work of the Guru. The Guru wants nothing from the disciple. Guru is that force moving a soul toward enlightenment. The guru's actions are from pure compassion. As the sun shines and lives far above, the Guru gives spiritual love and remains unattached.

Grace is the impulse or the impetus of  the energy to dispel darkness.

Grace is the impulse or the impetus of the energy to dispel darkness. There is the grace of the scriptures, from the wisdom that has passed down from others. 

There is the grace of the teacher, who imparts that wisdom and helps bring it to life in the student. There is the grace of God, or pure consciousness, that is alive and ever present in everyone's life. 

Integral to these three graces is the grace of oneself, having the will to undertake a purposeful journey in life, to do the spiritual work of life, and to prepare oneself.

How do we get this grace? It comes of its own when a seeker has made maximum effort. When all efforts have been made, and all efforts have been exhausted, then grace comes.

A Sanskrit word for grace is shaktipata. Shakti means energy and pata means bestowing. Shaktipata means "bestowing the energy" or lighting the lamp. 

Sometimes shaktipata is translated as "descent of power." A power comes from above, of its own, to a vessel that is cleaned, purified and is prepared to receive it. 

When the instructions from the Guru have been completed, the seeker has become strong in selflessness and surrender, and the samskaras have been burned, grace comes.

In my own life, since I was a small child I was raised and guided by my Master. I had done all that He asked of me. Grace had not come and I grew frustrated. So one day I went to my Master and said, "You have not done shaktipata for me. That means either You don't have shakti or You don't intend to do it."

I told him, "For so long now I have been closing my eyes in meditation and I end up with nothing but a headache. My time has been wasted and I find little joy in life."

He didn't say anything, so in my exasperation I continued talking.

"I worked hard and sincerely," I said to him. "You said it would take fourteen years, but this is my seventeenth year of practice. Whatever You have asked me to do I have done. But today You give me shaktipata or I will commit suicide."

Finally he said to me, "Are you sure? Are you really following all the practices I have taught you? Is this the fruit of my teaching, that you are committing suicide?"

Then he waited a moment and said, "When do you want to commit suicide?"

"Right now," I said. "I am talking to You before I commit suicide. You are no longer my master now. I have given up everything. I am of no use to the world, I am of no use to You."

I got up to go to the Ganges, which was near, and was prepared to drown myself.

My Master said, "You know how to swim, so when you jump in the Ganges, naturally you will start swimming. You'd better find some way so that you will start drowning and not come up. Perhaps you should tie some weight to yourself."

"What has happened to You?" I asked him. "You used to love me so much."

I went to the Ganges and with a rope I tied some big rocks to myself. When I was ready to jump, my Master came and called, "Wait. Sit here for one minute. I will give you what you want."

I did not know if he meant it, but I thought I could wait at least a minute. I sat in my meditation posture and my Master came and touched me on the forehead. I remained in that position for nine hours and did not have a single worldly thought. The experience was indescribable. When I returned to normal consciousness I thought no time had passed.

"Sir," I said to my Master, "please forgive me."

With that touch my life was transformed. I lost fear and selfishness. I started understanding life properly. I wondered if this experience came about because of my effort or my Master's.

His answer was simply, "Grace."

"A human being," he explained, "should make all possible sincere efforts. When he has become exhausted and cries out in despair, in the highest state of devotional emotion, he will attain ecstasy. That is the grace of God. Grace is the fruit that you receive from your faithful and sincere efforts."

Grace is only possible with a disciple who has gone through a long period of discipline, austerity and spiritual practices. 

When a student has done these practices and followed the teacher's instructions with all faithfulness, truthfulness and sincerity, then the subtlest obstacle is removed by the Master. 

The experience of enlightenment comes from the sincere effort of both Master and disciple. When you have done your duties skillfully and wholeheartedly, you reap the fruits gracefully. Grace dawns when action ends. Shaktipata is the grace of God transmitted through the Master.

Guru is the disciple's guide through life, through the mysterious terrain of the spiritual heart and into and beyond the realm of death.

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 58

Sutra 51. Anirvachaneeyam Premaswarupam.

[The nature of love towards God is inexpressible in words.]

Anirvachaneeyam: (is) incapable of being described precisely, not capable of being expressed in words.

Premaswarupam : the nature of love.

Sutra 52. Mookaaswaadanavat.

[Just as the taste of a dumb-man.]

Mooka-aswaadanavat : Like the taste of a dumb-man, like the dumb-man’s experience of a tasty thing.

The intrinsic nature of divine love defies precise definition or description. Bhakti or divine love is a realization so profound that it is not possible to describe it adequately and exactly.

Love is a feeling felt within the heart. When one is underneath the water he cannot speak. Similarly when one is drowned in the ocean of divine love, he is unable to speak.

  

If a dumb person is given a sweet and he is asked to eat it and then describe how it was, what would he explain?? He may at best make some sounds and some gesture which will never be able to explain his experience of the real experience when the sweet went inside him. 

In a commentary on the experience of SELF, chinmayananda pens a line in his vivekachudamani book thus:-

"When I reach there, I do not exist, when I come back, I cannot express".

When I reach there - When one transcends the "I" , the smaller I, his body, mind and intellect, his vasanas, his ego and reaches / experiences the bigger "I" or the true experience of God's Love (in devotion) or the Pure  SELF / ATMAN (in the path of Jnana),

I do not exist- Already explained above, the smaller "I", the identity of oneself as this jiva is not there at all, while one experiences the love for God / SELF.

Therefore, 

When I come back (or come down to this world with my mind active) - When I come down to this world, when I am back with my identity as this limited Jiva with this limited / perishable body, mind, intellect in this perishable world,

I cannot express - What the real I or the bigger I or my inner SELF experienced after transcending the smaller I or this limited identity of Jiva, that experience, how can I express with this limited identity, when, upon reaching THERE, this limited I or this jiva was not present there at all?????

In the above explanation, the bigger I is the Aham (Aham Brahmasmi) whereas the smaller I is Ahankar (the ego).

Possibly, no other expression can actually express the impossibility of expressing the inner experience of one's Love for God / One's glimpse of SELF within.

The inner experience of and as the very nature of Love, can never be expressed by the limited existence as a human being with limited mind with limited words out of the limited dictionary of any limited language!!!

It is like the one who has traveled to moon, upon returning to his city, tries to put in his experience while being at the moon through words, fumbles, lacks expression and then ultimately says, "No way that I can actually express my experience when I was actually at the moon. For knowing what it is to be at moon, you yourself have to reach there and experience, no one can give the experience through limited expressions on the earth".

Again, the author can go on and on, but all his expressions again would be limited, when it comes to actual experience of God's Love.

When a blessed devotee walks out of the interview room after being with Swami for some time, it is a sight to be seen, where, all other devotees in the hall embrace him, try to gather a small portion of vibhuthi from his hands which Swami would have given him, touch his hands as they might have come into contact with Swami's lotus feet, when the vibhuti in his hand is almost finished, even shamelessly lick his hand to take in the last piece of vibhuti left over in his hands, load him with a volley of questions on his experience inside  the interview room with the Lord of Lords.

It is not 99% but 100% of the times that all the devotees who get the interview (or the inner view) experience, when they come out, they can at best stay in the ecstasy (of Mira upon finding Krishna within). 

Such a  devotee just is able to barely see other devotees who are surrounding him, he is just unable to speak a word even and all that can be seen are those tears of ecstasy (tears that stand as a testimony of his experiencing the Lord's love) rolling down his cheeks and he quietly rushes to his west Prashanti room, preferring to be left alone to cherish what he got a few minutes before, for which even the Rishis in the Himalayas have been meditating and waiting for decades or even centuries!!!

What more can be said with limited words, on the experience of God / His Love??

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 57

SAH TARATI- HE CROSSES.

Who crosses the ocean of Samsara???

The answer is given in the previous 4 Sutras which we will refresh here:

He crosses the ocean of Samsara or Maya, Who:-

Ø  Gives up attachment to sense objects;

Ø  Serves the great devotees;

Ø  renounces all sense of possession in himself;

Ø  keeps himself in a solitary place;

Ø  plucks the bondage with the world by its roots;

Ø  beyond the clutches of the (three) Gunas;

Ø  renounces all his anxieties in acquiring & maintaining;

Ø  relinquishes the fruits of his actions;

Ø  renounces all egocentric actions;

Ø  is free from play of opposites (Nir-dvando Bhavati);

Ø  renounces even the vedas;

Ø  gains a pure unbroken flow of devotion;

AND

Does he stop there?? No. What does he do?

SA LOKAAMSTAARAYATI.

Author recalls a line repeated by one of his best ever friend / his brother who flew from Muscat to US, who used to add a line to the Kathopanishad line (quoted by Vivekananda very often) and say,

“Arise, Awake, Stop not till the goal is reached and …. Having reached, help / take others with you to reach there”.

One who has crossed this maya and has become one with God / SELF, when such a person happens to look at this world of beings, he is able to know that all these beings are verily the same SELF / GOD but they are innocently / ignorantly unaware of this grand truth and are caught up in the clutches of Maya.

The state of such men has been given by Sankara in vivekachudamani when he writes,

“Those who have only an apparent dispassion and are trying to cross the ocean of worldly existence are caught by their throats by the shark of desire which violently dragging them along, drowns them in the middle of the ocean.”

(verse 79)

Speaking of such shark, Chinmaya, in his own unmatched style and expression, writes, such beings who are drowned into the worldly existence, live a life as though they are in the belly of shark (the shark of samsara) which has already swallowed them. Poor beings, unaware that they are already dead and swallowed by the shark, still, in their ignorance, they walk about, talk, eat and live their life, suited and booted, within the belly of the shark.

Now, when the God realized being, (SAH TARATI) sees these beings, He is clearly able to see their pathetic life within the belly of the shark of samsara though they do not miss any chance to announce to the world through their actions, if not through word, “Here I am, suited and booted, working in a great company, having great family, having 3 residential properties back home, driving a 4 wheeler here, have sufficient bank balance and FDs”.

The realized master can only smile with compassion on seeing them in this false identity, innocent of their life within the belly of shark.

Thus, the expression "SA LOKAAMSTAARAYATI" or "Helps others to cross", is not a deliberate, planned series of actions by the realized seer to help others to cross, but it is a natural act of LOVE, seeing them caught up in this samsara whereas being aware  fully that they are ever born free, they are verily God themselves.

All that he does in helping them to cross the ocean of Samsara is to extend his hands and tell them in LOVE,

“O great souls, O embodiments of divinity, look, you need not struggle in this ocean of samsara, not knowing how to swim and reach the shore, I have struggled myself , learnt swimming and have crossed this ocean, it is just the Love within, not any special quality exhibited by me, but that LOVE, which is the essential nature of all, you and me, which makes me offer my hands, come, hold my hands and rest assured, I will do my best to take you to the shore (the gate way of liberation) and then you can / you need to  walk yourself to reach your home, the goal, Moksha”

Love

Note - Out of millions and trillions of beings singing merrily inside the belly of shark, only 1 or 2 or 3 really believe that they are not in a place where they have to be, believe that here is a person who can help us reach our home somehow by getting out of this shark’s belly and ultimately, offer themselves to the realized seer to help them out!! This is Samsara, Maya, which is most powerful, apparently even more powerful than the creator, the God Himself.