Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 75

Sutra 70. Tanmayaah: (For) They are full of / withHim.

Tanmayaah: full of that; filled with the presence of God, merged or absorbed in Him.

In and around them, they realised the presence of God everywhere and at all times.

Every one of those, mentioned in the last Sutra is filled with the spirit of saints and through that with the spirit of the Lord Himself.

They have emptied themselves so completely that they entirely live in God. 

The lives of God-intoxicated devotees like Prahlad bear witness to this.

Such saints are walking Gods upon the earth, their body has become the true temple of God. 

They know not, but it is their presence which sanctifies the places, glorifies cartoon and lends authority to scriptures, which we read in an earlier Sutra.

People go to Gaya to prostrate at the Bodhi tree, not because the tree is great but because Buddha sat there. Yaya is sanctified because Gautama discovered his immortality at that place.

Actions of Bhaktas like Dhruva, Prahlad, Bharata, Hanuman etc have become standard good and righteous conduct in the society. Similarly the experience of the devotees have imparted moral authority to the scriptures. 

Vedas were sung by Rishis filled with devotion. Gita is a discourse of the Lord himself to guide his devotee Arjuna. Voices of Kabir and Nanak gave authenticity to the scriptures.

When Sanätana Gosvämi met Lord Chaitanya, the Lord told him, "Lord Krishna has saved you from life's deepest hell." Sanätana replied, "I do not know who Krishna is. As far as I am concerned, I have been released from prison only by Your mercy". 

Just as a river falling into the ocean becomes one with the ocean, even so the devotee having offered his body, mind, intellect, egoism and all at the feet of his beloved Lord becomes one with Him.

If such a devotee who is explained as full of Lord in this Sutra is like the river in the example given above and the ocean is Lord,  the devotee, after merging with lord is then the river which has merged with the Ocean. 

The devotee may still appear to be a person, a human being, to the naked eyes of others. All others may still see him as a human being but very few would realize that what they are seeing apparently about such a devotee is not true. Internally, he has become one with the God. Can any river, once it goes and merges with the Ocean, can be ear marked in the ocean and clearly pointed out that this is the river which has merged with the ocean???

It is true that whether it is a Bhakta who has merged with Bhagwan with his love for Bhagwan and exists as LOVE or it is a mumukshu who has expanded and merged with Brahman and exists as BLISS, the transformation is all within. People are often deluded by the fact that such human beings also walk, talk, eat and sleep like other human beings and hence, people fail to realize that such a Bhakta or such a Mumukshu, have actually transcended this world even while living in this world and have merged with God / Brahman and exist as FULL OF GOD / SELF, FULL WITH GOD / SELF, FULL AS GOD / SELF!!!

This is why the place where great devotees reside is a tirtha and why Närada says that they purify established holy places and give authority to the scriptures—because they are tanmayah, "filled with Him". 

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 74

Sutra 69. Teertheekurvanti teerthaani sukarmeekurvanti karmaani sacchastreekurvanti Saastraani.

[They (such devotees) impart sanctity to places of pilgrimage, render actions righteous and good and give spiritual authority to scriptures.]

Teerthaani: holy places.

Teertheekurvanti: make holy places

Karmaani: actions

Sukarmeekurvanti: make meritorious actions

Saastraani: scriptures

Sat-sastreekurvanti: make authoritative; make sacred scripture .

This Sutra is an extension to the previous Sutra where we read that the family / nation / world where such men of realization exist,  stand blessed!!

When, in devotion, a devotee merges with God and exists as a divine being himself, God has a purpose. God gives such devotees, intuition as to how they have to serve mankind.

Swami Sivananda, through that intuition, setup ashram in Hrishikesh, imparted knowledge in the strict Guru Shishya Parampara and there are many many disciples of Sivananda who have themselves risen to greater heights and have in turn served the society.  There are 100s of such  masters. To mention a few - Swami krishnananda, Swami Suryadevananda, Swami Sachidananda, Swami Chidananda, Swami Venkatesananda etc.

Swami Chinmayananda got the intuition to spread Vedanta, especially Bhagavad Gita throughout the world and started the Gita Yagna, series of lectures on Gita single handedly and today we have the Chinmaya Kendras throughout the world, imparting regular Gita Jnana Yagna and other important vedantha lessons.

On the contrary, Sri Ramana did not go around like other few Saints, he remained more or less near Arunachala, spoke very less and that was his intuitive path. Even in that silence, in the Sage's Aura, there were disciples who got Realization, notable amongst them is Sri Muruganar. 

The  list is endless. 

So, the essence is that when a devotee merges with Bhagawan, Bhagawan gives him intuition and sends him to this world to serve  mankind in some unique way. So, in God's mission, it is but obvious that wherever such a saint goes, that place has to be sanctified, whatever he speaks, it has to be the voice of God, whatever he writes, it is God's own scripture!!!!

Such noble devotees turn ordinary bathing places into sacred places of purification, ordinary acts into pious deeds and words of instructions into holy texts.

Their presence adds holiness to the place where they live. Their thoughts are dynamic. Their thoughts transform their environments infusing peace and joy into them.

We do not know of any one who has become a saint by reading Shakespeare, Herbert Spencer, Milton, Goldsmith or Shelly, but there are thousands who have adopted a new divine life by studying Gita, Upanishads and other such treatise. 

Each time these books are studied by a man, they receive a greater power to transform the hearts of the reader.

When we study the works of Sankara, Vivekananda and of those who came a little later like Swami Sivananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi etc., we are able to read / experience a sense of beauty of their own Self Sacrifice, of their selflessness and compelling aroma of their constant love for their mankind.

One such life can inspire the whole world to strive for  such an ideal existence. 

It is these noble men of Realization who move about serving humanity and joyously sharing the ecstasy of their love, their experience that add a secret glory to all actions. They lend a compelling authority to the scriptural texts.

Goddess Ganga was propitiated by the austere penance of King Bhagiratha. She appeared before Bhagiratha and said, “All the sinners of this world will wash their sins and purify themselves by immersing their sinful bodies in my holy waters. Where shall I wash the immense store of sins they deposit in my watery body ?”

Bhagiratha replied, “O sacred Mother ! Holy saints will bathe in Ganges and purge you of all your sins, because Lord Vishnu, the dispeller of all sins, dwells in their heart.”

Intoxicated with Love, the people move about in the world. The maddening throb of their ecstatic love, the serenity of their purified presence sanctifies all the places wherever they go, wherever they stay, wherever they talk / serve the humanity.

Bodhgaya, Jerusalem and Mecca have all been regarded sacred only on account of their being respectively associated with Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.

  

It is the Saint that constitutes the real Tirtha.

That which enables a man to cross over an obstacle, such as a boat in a river, is a Tirtha.

The stones on which they sat, the paths on which they have trodden, the villages through which they have passed, the lakes in which they have taken baths, the trees under which they have taken their food are sanctified. 

Their names are even now associated with these places and objects. Guru Nanak’s name is linked with Panchasahab near Taxila. His fingers are shown in the Kund. 

Bodhi Tree in Gaya is associated with Lord Buddha. 

There are numerous such places which are sanctified by the presence of such yogis.

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 73

Sutra 68. Kanthaavarodharomaanchaasrubhih parasparam lapamaanaah Paavayanti kulaani prithiveem cha.

[Conversing with one another with a choking voice, with hairs standing on end, with tears flowing from their eyes, they purify their families as well as the earth (the land which gave birth to them).]

Kanthaa-varodha- romaanchaasrubhih: with choking of voice, hairs standing on end and tears (flowing from the eyes);

Parasparam: with one another; amongst themselves

Lapamaanaah: conversing 

Kulaani: families; clans

Prithiveem: the earth

Cha: and

paava- yanti: purifying .

In Gita, X-9 Lord Krishna says "Having their minds fixed

upon Me and their life directed to Me, enlightening one another, and constantly talking about Me, My devotees become satisfied and delighted."

Talking of Bhakti to one another in faltering tone attended with thrill and tears of joy, they sanctify their race and the wide earth.

The spirits of the ancestors of the devotees feel gratified and purified by the devotion of their descendents.

When there is a congregational prayer, when devotees meet together and do Kirtan and common meditation, they generate a spiritual current or force which inspires and purifies the hearts of many. The whole atmosphere of that place gets purified and is surcharged with currents of Divine Love.

The scriptures say, “Holy is the family and blessed the mother, nay, the earth itself is fortunate through him whose mind is absorbed in the Supreme Brahman, the ocean of infinite knowledge and bliss.”

Lord Hari said, “I do not dwell exclusively in Vaikunth nor in the hearts of Yogis, but, O Narada, I am verily present in my full splendour, where my devotees sing of Me.”

Choking of voice, hairs standing on end and tears flowing from the eyes are external marks of the internal emotion. They express intensity of feeling. This feeling is Prem or divine love. He who has such a Prem can have direct communion with the Lord.

The above state was described in an earlier post with visualising a situation when a devotee has a close darshan / sparshan / sambhashan with / of Sai or when a devotee comes out of the interview room after being with Swami.

All these choking of voice, tears flowing from the eyes - when one really experiences such things in his devotion, then only one can experience and know from his experience that all these things happen when the devotee has transcended, for that moments / few moments, his individual ego, his individual identity, all thoughts about himself, his family and in fact the whole world.

So, in those few moments, he has, in fact, merged with Lord and existing as pure as Lord. When such extraordinary thing happens, the body spontaneously reposed to such extraordinary state of the devotee and all these things happen to his body about which the devotee is neither aware, nor can he normally explain as to why such things happened!!!!

The greater the Bhakti is, the greater the orbit of the spiritual influence. The greatest of them are the light of whole universe. Even if they live in caves, the spiritual waves generated by their devotion will spread over the entire universe and find an echo in all pure hearts ready to receive them.

“Paavayanti”. The devotees purify. Kulaani, their families, Prithiveem cha, also the world. Wherever they go, they radiate love and joy, they dispel fear and ignorance, they give new life and fresh life to the despondent; they inspire and elevate those who come to them. It is in this way that they purify.

The same truth is echoed by Sankara in Vivekachudamani where, the Guru, on being satisfied that his disciple has realized SELF, showers his blessings on his disciple who has now crossed the duality of Guru and Shishya and says,

श्रीगुरुवाच

धन्योऽसि कृतकृत्योऽसि पावित ते कुलं त्वया ।
यदविद्याबन्धमुक्त्या ब्रह्मीभवितुमिच्छसि ॥ ५0 ॥ 

śrīguruvāca

dhanyo'si kṛtakṛtyo'si pāvita te kulaṃ tvayā |
yadavidyābandhamuktyā brahmībhavitumicchasi 

The Guru replied: Blessed art thou! Thou hast achieved thy life’s end and hast sanctified thy family that thou wishest to attain Brahmanhood by getting free from the bondage of Ignorance! 

( Verse 50)

In the company of such a devotee / God / Self realized being,

in his existence as pure, divine SELF, his family, his village, his state, his country and in fact the whole world stands blessed!!!!

The Aura of such purified soul envelops a huge area and purifies all those beings who come within/ who are enveloped by that Aura.

Love.