Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 61

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.

Just as a river loses its individuality when it joins the ocean, the devotee loses his egoism or individuality when he becomes one with the Lord.  Then he sees himself and all the rest of the world as the Lord Himself, as an inseparable part of that universal 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.)

Nayan Nayan mein Sai Aum

(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.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 60

Sutra 54. Gunarahitam kaamanaarahitam pratikashana vardhamaanam avichchinnam Sookshmamataram anubhavaroopam.

[It (divine love) is devoid of all attributes, devoid of all desires, expanding every moment, continuous, most subtle and of the nature of inner experience.]

Gunarahitam: devoid of all attributes

Kaamanaarahitam: bereft of desire

Pratikshana-vardhamaanam: expanding every moment

Avichchinnam: of ceaseless flow

Sookshmataram: extremely subtle

Anubhavaroopam: of the form of feeling, of the nature of inner experiences.

Let us now focus on each of the above descriptions / highlights on divine love, given by Devarishi in this sutra.

Attribute-less

Attributes reside in matter and describe one or other aspect of relativity, while divine love is beyond matter and relativity. 

We can grasp with the mind and describe in language an object only through its properties. 

Whereas, Devotion is devoid of these and so it cannot be described in words .

Desire-less

Bhakti practiced in order to get away from ills or to attain certain desire is not genuine Bhakti. 

It is impossible for the ordinary human mind to have any conception of this exalted divine love. It is different from the grosser love for things of this world.

All of us go to Parthi and whether it used be the time when Swami was there in form or it is now, after 2011, invariably we end up (most of us), praying for some or the other material fulfillments, whether it is marriage / career / health or any other such thing related to this material world.

God waits for those few devotees who would seek nothing else but the God Himself.  Seeking God in true sense is again not only limiting to physical proximity / interview etc. only but real seeking is real craving to find God within oneself, for such presence of God within us that He would come, Install Himself within us and will never ever leave thereafter!!!

Expanding every moment

Divine love is infinite. Worldly love is often cut short. It is broken. It decreases or wanes or declines like the waning moon. 

Divine love is not dependent on youth, beauty, wealth or virtue. It is not tainted by self-interest. There is no thought of personal gain here. It is very subtle, very soft, very slender, very remote. It is the fountain of all sweetness. It is unvaried in sweetness. It is constant. It is the hardest of all. It is brimful or full. It is unwavering and sublime. It unites the devotee with the Lord and makes him an embodiment of bliss. 

The divine current of love begins to flow only when one goes beyond the influence of the three Gunas. 

At first there is a glimpse of the Lord. Gradually the devotee becomes identified with the Lord. 

Like the smaller streams rushing towards the ocean, with every inner experience in his love for God, the love for God expands each and every moment to the extent that ultimately, it expands beyond the limitations of this creation and has the entire creation within it.

Ceaseless flow 

The divine love grows in volume and intensity at every moment. It has a ceaseless flow. It is of the form of subtler feeling.

Even Satvic Bhakti is far below the true Bhakti when one loves God for love’s sake . 

Ceaseless flow is explained by Sankara with an example of continuous flow of Oil from one pot to another, in full, without break, not in drops but in whole. 

Extremely Subtle

It is very, very subtle. So the term ‘Sukshmataram’ is used. It always grows and increases. There is always waxing. The play of gunas has no place here. Sensual desires cannot exist when this unbroken love operates. Whatever the mind wants can be had in God. His one attribute ananta (infinite) embraces everything.

Divine Love seeks no return, grows from more to more every moment, knows no break, is subtler than the subtlest and is of the nature pure, inner experience. It is a spontaneous outpouring of the heart.

The last of the subtler thing to leave  a human being is his subtlest identity as a Jiva, which is termed as Avidya or Ignorance in vedantha. 

Once this last subtler identity leaves a man, only then is he able to experience the subtler than the subtlest experience of divine love.

Inner experience

“Anu” is a prefix expressing nearness, participation, conformity. Love or Ananda exists. It is bhava. The individual soul participates in it. His nearness to it, his conforming himself to its nature, his participation of it is indicated by the prefix “Anu”.

There is God’s love. The individual soul participates this love. That is the Anubhava. So divine love is Anubhavarupam.

Ordinary emotions depend on certain external causes and objects and are therefore transitory. The emotion vanishes when the cause or object is removed. One also becomes satisfied in a short time by sense enjoyments. One can never become satiated with devotion or divine love. It can be experienced for all times. Devotion is independent of causes, exactly in the same way our srutis describe Brahman as cause less.

Its content is a perennial fountain of eternal bliss. Therefore it becomes more and more enjoyable as it deepens, strengthens in course of time. 

Love.