Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 47

Dear All,

We are continuing with the previous Sutra which glorified the purpose of Sravanam and Kirtanam and said,

[(Bhakti develops) from listening to and singing of the attributes and glories of the Lord, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in the world.]

In this post, we will deal with Singing or Kirtanam, having covered Sravanam or Listening, in yesterday's post.

KIRTANAM

He who does the Kirtan and Japa of Lord’s names derives the merit of all austerities, of all sacrifices of baths in all sacred waters and of study of the Vedas.

Just as the sun removes the darkness of mountain caves, just as the powerful wind makes a heavy cloud to vanish, even so, the Kirtan and Japa of the divine name enter the heart and brings all sorrows and miseries to an end.

Therefore the constant practice of Kirtan, hearing and remembrance of the name and glory of God is surely the best and supreme method for the attainment of devotion and God-realisation.

God is the source of all love and to fill our hearts with the sweetness of love (devotion), we must naturally approach Him.

Swami says “Chanting the name of the Lord must be considered as the highest form of sadhana. You can travel anywhere in the light of this name. In this age of Kali Yuga the easiest way to reach the Lord is this chanting of the Lord’s name. There is nothing more sacred than His name.”

Like Sravanam is not complete without knowing about Parakshit's life, Kirtanam cannot be complete without relating it to Meera.

When she was of age, her family got her married to King Bhojraj, who loved her very much. She was a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law but after she finished her household chores, she went back to her Krishna. Her devotion to the Lord was pure,  simple and so complete that none of the hurdles she faced in life affected her. She used to sing all the time, making up the most beautiful and moving lyrics. Her devotion for the Lord was immense and she spent all her time remembering Him through singing, dancing and chanting His name.

Even though Meera-bai moved on in her devotion to reach Atmanivedanam, she did not stop the kirtans. That is why we can consider her to be an exemplar of this step of devotion. Sri Narada Muni is another great devotee who stands for kirtanam.

The benefits of singing devotional songs with love for the Lord are many. They include:

1. Singing calms the mind

Swami often concludes His discourses with the bhajan “Hari Bhajana Bina Sukha Shanti Nahi” which means that without singing the glory of God, without being devoted to Him, one cannot experience joy and peace.

Devotional singing occupies a prominent role in almost every

religious tradition as it has a very calming effect on the mind.

When the mind is focusing on the Lord who is pure and unconditionally loving, it calms down. Therefore, one should train the mind to revel in the glory and majesty of God.

2. Purifes the mind and fosters virtues.

Today the mind of man has not only become agitated but also

mean and wicked. Swami says: “In this Kali Age, the wicked

have to be reformed and reconstructed through love and

compassion. That is why this Avatar has come unarmed. He

has come with the message of love. 

The only weapon which can transform the vile and the vicious is the name of the Lord, uttered with love. The name is redolent with divine glory. So when it is turned over in the mind, it transmutes it into an instrument for liberation from delusion.”

3. Purifies the atmosphere

The recitation of the names of the Lord will purify the atmosphere as a result of the sacred sound waves being transmitted into the atmosphere. 

4. Draws divine grace

Remembrance of God becomes constant and steady through Kirtanam. This speeds us on the path of winning the Lord’s grace. Swami says: “The tongue is the post and bhajan is the rope, you can bring God near you and tie Him up so that His grace becomes yours.” 

Those who listened to the Feb Talk in Sai Sadan by the Author (by the Lord, through an instrument called Sathya, for, what can this tongue speak, what can this voice sing, what can this body act, without HIS GRACE?)  on Purpose of Bhajan singing may recall the stages in spiritual evolution through Bhajan singing / kirtan were dealt as under, taking a message of Sai which was played in the beginning.

1. Music  melts the heart (first melts the ego in heart and later, melts the heart itself in Love for God).

2. Music takes the devotee nearer to the Lord.

3. With Music / Kirtanam, you can please the Lord.

4. With Music, you can find the Lord and 

5. You can merge with Lord and exist as one with the Lord.

Those who were there in Sadan when Samarpan Bhajans were being learnt together, may recall this Bhajan which we learnt together.

Aao Aao Sai Pyaare, 
Kirtan Karoon Mein Sai Tumhare

Tumho Mere Nayano Ke Taare, 
Darshan Do Jivan Ke Sahare

Aao Aao Sai Pyaare

Come O lord, with the sunrise, sea of devotees are waiting for your glimpse in Parthi, come floating, come gliding, Uthishta Uthishta Parti Isa.

(In the depth of meditation, as the3 devotee waits for the darshan, he  is  actually and intensely praying to the Lord to walk into his life, fill his life with Sai's Prema( pyaare). I have gone astray in this life and several life so far, now no more, Come O Deena Bandhava, O Prana Sakha, COME, COME, never to leave me ever)

Kirtan Karoon mein Sai Tumhare

You have been hailed as "Sama Gana Lola, Sangeetha Lola, Bhajana Priyaya etc.. from time immemorial, To prove all these words, here we are, ready to fill our heart of Love through singing your Glory and in the process, please You as well. We are  singing  your Kirtan, Come, O Lord, (In the depth of heart, pleasing You is known as realizing the SELF through this simple sadhana of Namasmarana, as SELF is the source of all Bliss, Ananda), Come o Paramananda Ananda Govinda Shyam!

So, as though the line at the surface level seems to be luring the Lord who is Sangeeta Priya, lover of Music, it is actually the call / craving of the devotee to fill himself in God's Divine Love through this most sacred sadhana of Kirtanam so that the God in side, the very Atman is realized and the devotee exists no more as a mere physical entity but as SAT-CHIT-ANANDA!!!. 

Tum ho mere nayanon ke taare

You are the light of my eye, You are the source of illumination, not only to my eye, but to the inner eye of wisdom for all, to the whole creation, O Koti Surya Sama Teja Swarupa, Come, O Lord.

(When the devotee, existing as Love=God, His ( God's) eyes are his eyes, he starts seeing/ experience ing the creation as it is actually created by the Lord, Pure and blemish less and it is in this sense, that the God exists now as the illumination of his eyes, Nayanon ke taare)

Darshan do Jeevan ke Sahare

Grant me Thy divine darshan, not for today, not for a week, not for a year, not for a decade but, O Lord, come, stay in my heart forever as the very Atman... or...., in other words, Awaken my soul so that I can get Your divine darshan as the very SELF in the cave of my heart, THAT DARSHAN WHICH IS ETERNAL.

To whom else the devotee can cry out to grant this ATMA DARSHAN but the lord Himself who is the ONLY ONE UNTO WHOM THE DEVOTEE CAN SEEK REFUGE TO GRANT HIM MUKHTI. 

So, " Jivan ke Sahare"  comes from within here!!

O men in this Kali Yuga, is Kirtan not taking you to the ultimate Mukti itself, if taken with such sincerity, such Love, as given above?? 

Why delay??

Sai Naam Ka Loot Hai, 
Loot Sake To Loot

(varna) Anth Samay Pachtayega, 
Jab Tan Se Pran Jaye Choot!!

O man, The Glory of Sai Naam is available to you to take in, chant, absorb and realize, make use of it NOW,

For,

Otherwise, (if you are lost in this world and forget His divine name / glory), you will be left with remorse / sorrow when the Lord of death calls you to him and you have lost this janma, without taking the Brahmastra of Sai Nama to realize the very goal of your life (to realize God).

Let each day begin with a call from Lord, "O  Bhakta, it is NOW or NEVER".

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 46

Sutra 37. Lokeapi Bhagavat guna Sravana keertanaat.

[(Bhakti develops) from listening to and singing of the attributes and glories of the Lord, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in the world.]

Loke: in society, while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in the world

api : also, even

Bhagavad- guna-Sravana-kirtanaat: from listening to and singing of the attributes and glories of the Lord.

As Vishnu, the Lord said, 

Naham vasami vaikunthe / Yoginam hridaye nacha

Madh bhakta yatra gayanthi / Tatra tishtami Narada

["I may not always be found in heaven (Vaikuntha), or even in the hearts of great yogis. Wherever My devotees are singing My Name, Narada, there you will find Me without fail."]

As Sathya Sai, the Lord reiterated the same when He said,

"Wherever my glory is sung, I install myself there"

Sravanam (Listening) & Kirtanam (Singing) are the first 2 stages in the Navavida Bhakti given in Srimad bhagavatam and the same are given in this sutra by the same Vyaasa.

SRAVANAM

There cannot be a story more appropriate than the story of Raja Parikshit, when it comes to Sravanam

Once when Maharaj Parikshit went into the forest for hunting,  he became very tired and thirsty. He entered the hermitage of sage Shamika Rishi who was meditating at that time.

The king again and again requested for water but the rishi deep in meditation did not hear him. This enraged the king and he completely lost his intelligence.

In his anger, the king picked up a dead snake and placed it on the shoulder of the sage.

The rishi’s son Shringi came to know about this incident and angrily cursed the king. He cursed that on the seventh day from that day, a snake-bird would bite Parikshit Maharaj.

When Shamika Rishi came to know about the curse, he chastised his son.

When king Parikshit received the news of his death, he accepted this curse as good news.

Maharaj Parikshit was a great devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna. He had full faith in the protection of the Lord. 

He did not try to make any arrangements to protect himself. Instead he immediately gave up his royal duties and went to the banks of the Ganges.

He knew that one who engages in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Supreme Lord gets liberated from the cycle of birth and death. He desired to associate with great saintly devotees who could speak to him about Krishna.

By the arrangement of the Lord, many great saintly devotees also came to the banks of the river Ganges. The great sage Sukhdev Goswami, the son of Vyasa appeared on the scene. Maharaj Parikshit accepted him as his spiritual master and requested him to narrate the transcendental, glorious pastimes of the Lord.

Being very pleased by the submissive and devotional attitude of the king, Sukhdev Goswami then narrated the nectarean pastimes of the Lord and His various expansions. These are recalled in the book Srimad Bhagavatam.

Maharaj Parikshit was completely absorbed in hearing about the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. Anyone who regularly hears Hari Katha becomes eligible to get liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

After hearing the katha for seven days and nights without sleeping, eating or drinking, Parikshit Maharaj fixed his mind on the Lord and meditated on Him. The snake-bird Takshaka bit the king. The body of the kind immediately burst into flames and burned to ashes due to the fire of the snake-bird’s poison.

(O Sai Bhaktas, Parikshit could transcend all limitations of his body in 7 days of listening to Lord's glory , he transcended the fear of death and could merge with the Lord even before the snake actually went to bite him and here,  in this Kali Yuga, Swami has spoken to us for 70 years, from October 1940 when He taught us Manasa Bhajore Guru Charanam, up to 2010/11,

Should we not transcend all limitations of this world and reach Him and merge with Him, even while our body continues to carry on its required  duties?)

We will move to Kirtanam in the next post.

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 45

Sutra 36. Avyaavrita Bhajanaat.

[By uninterrupted worship (success is attained in the practice of devotion)]

Avyavrita-bhajanaat : by uninterrupted worship.

This Sutra explains the foregoing one. In the previous Sutra it is said that devotion to God may be developed by abandoning objects of desire and attachment to objects. But how can one overcome this attraction ? This answer is given in this Sutra .

The attraction or temptation of worldly desires may be overcome by uninterrupted worship of God .

  

Lord Krishna says in Gita, “0 Ariuna ! he who constantly thinks of Me, without any other thought,

I am easily reached by that Yogi, who is thus ceaselessly attached to Me.” VIII-14.

You can make a rope out of sand, you can press oil out of sand, you can churn out butter from water but no one can cross over this formidable Samsara or ocean of births and deaths without ceaseless Bhajana or worship of the Lord.

Pooja, Seva are also Bhajan or worship. All kinds of service to the Lord in a spirit of devotion is Bhajan. Service of humanity with Divine Bhav is also worship or Bhajan .

Dear All,

Reading the commentary makes us feel nice, O, Uninterrupted worship 24/7, how nice it is !!!

But it seems to be more of a theoretical marvel than reality when we think heart of heart.

Why??

• The Same God who have created us, has created Maya in this creation.

• While He himself is on one end, beckoning us to reach him through learning and practicing such sutras, the glittering attractions in this world is also there on the other side, which is also His creation.

• The experience on worshipping Lord is there in our hours of sincere worship but that is subtle, felt by the heart where, God is not physically available to us 24/7.

• Whereas, when we come out of the experience of worship, the worldly attractions, the husband / wife / children / father / mother / Beloved /   Fiancee /  Career / Wealth / property / Bank Balance /  Fame / Power - All these things are not as abstract as God, they are at a very Gross level. 

• For example, there is no inward prayer / inward journey required to feel the pleasure of physical needs as  the experience is very Gross and too pleasing to the person at physical level itself. 

• So, man gets carried away. It is always that the subtler experience needs more practice, more efforts whereas the Gross experience are all obvious.

• In worldly attainments, Man knows, if I do this, I will get this.

• In devotion / In the path of Wisdom etc., Man is never sure, on doing what, He can achieve uninterrupted devotion, uninterrupted absorption on Truth explained in devotional / Wisdom related treatise.

• SO, THE MOST OR MORE OBVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THE WORLD GAINS WEIGHT OVER THE MORE SUBTLER AND INWARD EXPERIENCE AND THE GOAL IS OFTEN MISSED!!!

What is the solution???

• It is not possible to arrest the mind which goes to the world and bring it aggressively to God worship.

• Only solution is , through sincere practice, SURRENDER the MIND which runs to the world, at the lotus feet of the Lord, giving the ownership of the mind to God Himself.

• It is tough, but it is not impossible.

From where to begin??

• First of all, whether we like it or not, the mind turns toward God, towards spirituality fully only when our previous karmas are cleared to a large extent and we have suffered / enjoyed the fruits of all karmas of our past.

• Instead of accepting defeat and saying, "what to do, it is my karma that I am not able to progress  spiritually", One must make God a partner and invoke His grace, His support, His strength so that one may, in spite of what ever one is undergoing, still focus on God, be clear that ultimately, he / She is born as Human, only to realize that beyond the limitations of his / her human existence, the reality is that they are divine and the purpose of life is only to discover this reality and exist as DIVINE.

• With this clarity, the devotee cries out to Lord.

Mujhe Shakti Do mere Sai Shiva

Mujhe Bhakti Do mere Sai Shiva

(O Lord, in this samsara, with my own  conviction, on my own, with my own  strength, it is too difficult for me to tear apart the gross, visible attractions to enter into the realm of incessant worship and hence, come, give me the strength so that, I may remember You, I may keep You as my partner, my Sakha, my Lord, wherever I go, what ever I do!!)

The Lord turns back, embraces the devotee and whispers, ' Enough, if the above prayer is really sincere, I shall grant you the strength, I shall grace you with uninterrupted devotion and then, you need not sing the last line  Mujha Mukhti do mere Sai shiva,  (the composer of the bhajan may please excuse the author, what he is writing is not to

undermine the strength of the last line but to really bring about the essence), with your utmost sincere devotion towards me, I shall grant you Mukhti without your asking, for, My only job is to grant you Mukhti, provided you are sincere in your Bhakti!!!!

In Sutra 35 the spiritual practice is of a negative character. It is avoidance of evil. But in this Sutra it is an active spiritual practice.

Swami Sivananda roars thus:
"You must be a spiritual hero, an Adhyatmic undaunted soldier. You must not be afraid of obstacles and difficulties. You must surmount them patiently and cross all the hurdles that stand in your spiritual path. Let the inner, spiritual fire and aspiration burn steadily. Plod on. Persevere, and come out victorious."

Love.