Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 64

Sutra 58. Anyasmaat saulabhyam bhaktau.

[The practice of devotion is easier than other methods (in the attainment of salvation].

Bhaktau: in devotion, with respect to divine love

Anyasmaat: than others, than any other

Saulabhyam: easy recognizability, the nature of being easily obtained.

Bhakti is easier than any other way of approach to God.

Karma, Yoga, Jnana are the three other paths. Bhakti is the direct approach to the ideal through the heart. Love is natural to everybody.

The practice of devotion is the easiest of all forms of spiritual practice.

Karma, Yoga, Jnana are the three other paths. It is only a help to knowledge and devotion. It purifies the heart of the aspirants. Vedic rites can be performed only by wealthy people.

KARMA YOGA

In the path of action, it is most important to get rid of Ego and avoid the sense of doer-ship. Also, it has to have the backdrop of devotion where one has to surrender his actions and fruits of his actions to God. This is easier said than done.

RAJA YOGA

Yoga is beset with difficulties and dangers. The Yogi gets powers and misuses and gets downfall. It is very difficult to practice  Pratyahara, Pranayama, etc.

JNANA YOGA

The pursuit of knowledge is dry for some, while that of devotion is sweet and enjoyable. Jnana Yoga demands vast study, sharp and subtle intellect, bold understanding and gigantic will.

Also, even when one enters this path, one has to acquire 4 qualifications - Viveka (discrimination), Vairagya (Dispassion), Shad-sampath (6 virtues), with all these three qualifications culminating in Mumukshatva (intense craving for liberation).

Again, these are not easy. It is Author’s experience that amongst those who started attending his spiritual sessions, while the initial sessions like Purpose of Human Birth, Surrender, Karma etc. were found interesting by them, as they had nothing to acquire and they had only everything to listen. But when it came to the session on these 4 qualifications, many of them left and never turned back again for more sessions.

BHAKTI/ DEVOTION

Bhakti can be practised under all conditions and by all alike, irrespective of age and sex.

Learning, austere penance, study of the Vedas, brilliant intellect are not needed for the attainment of Bhakti or devotion. What is wanted is constant and living remembrance of God, coupled with faith. That is the reason why the path of Bhakti is (Saulabhyam) available for everyone .

Bhakti is the easiest path because in Devotion, one does not have to acquire any qualifications, one does not have to indulge in intense austerities, one does not have to sit and meditate on something abstract.

A human being is nothing but Love, inside out. In devotion, one has to channelize one’s love from worldly object to God supreme and pray to God sincerely, wherever one is.

It is but manifesting of one’s inherent quality of Love and directing it towards the supreme merciful God who responds instantly to the call of a sincere Bhakta.

Speaking of devotion, Swami says,

“With the help of an analogy, we will be able to realise whether God is serving man or man is serving God. We imagine that man, Manava, is offering everything that he has for the sake of the realisation of God, Madhava. It is not difficult for man to follow the path and try to realise Madhava. 

Every discipline and every action which leads man to God is not difficult to be implemented. For instance, a Vedic Brahmin takes the holy water of the Ganges in the palm of his hand and offers the same water back to the sacred river. The truth is that he is not offering his property or his father's property or his grandfather's property but he is offering the holy water that he has drawn from the sacred river back to the river. 

Similarly, when we look at the objects offered by man to God, they are all created, preserved and bestowed upon man by God Himself. Man is not offering anything of his own, except when he is offering his devotion arising from his heart. God takes care of that devotee who completely surrenders himself with single-minded devotion at the lotus feet of the Lord. 

If one is intoxicated with divine love and forgets all worldly responsibilities, God will take upon Himself all the responsibilities of that devotee.”

(Divine discourse -May 1972)

Love.

PS:- 

1) The views expressed in this sutra is Narada's view.

2) This is not to undermine the path followed by Sage Patanjali (Raja Yoga) or Adi Sankara (Jnana yoga) or few other masters who have followed the path of Karma as their predominant path.

3) How ever, from Author's own experience in his sadhana over 45+ years in this birth, he can say authentically that even for progressing in the path of Jnana, background of devotion is required. 

Author was soaked in Bhakti for His Bhagawan Sai from his childhood. His long journey in the path of devotion had reduced the ego element in him, he had started getting more and more inward, his heart was full of ever expansive love for Sai and His creation and when he was ushered into the path of Jnana by none other than Sai, all that had to be experienced was the formless SELF in place of LOVE for God.

With sincere efforts, God showers grace for this replacement of Love with SELF or, LOVE + SELF or SELF that is LOVE.

Author can say very clearly that without the background of Bhakti for over 4 decades in this birth (and many more decades in many more previous births), it would / might have been very difficult to contemplate on an abstract God that is Atman and to discover that Atman within the heart.

Love.

Narada Bhakti Sutra - Post 63

Sutra 57. Uttarasmaaduttarasmaat Poorvapoorvaa sreyaaya bhavati.

[Each preceding one (kind of devotion) is more conducive to the highest good than the one succeeding it.]

 Uttarasmaaduttarasmaat: than each succeeding one

 Poorva poorva: each preceding one

 Sreyaaya: for the better, for the sake of the highest good

 Bhavati: is, works.

The first kind of devotion  is better and more fruitful than the second and the second is better and more fruitful than the third in both the divisions.

In the first classification, the first is Sattvic, the second one is Rajasic and the third one is Tamasic.

The first of these conditions produces higher spiritual good than the second, and the second is superior to the third.

Rajasic Bhakti, the second one, practised in order to obtain power and wealth is better than Tamasic Bhakti, the third one, which involves divine help to cause harm to others. 

The first one, Sattvic Bhakti, as compared to the second one, Rajasic, is still higher, for it only aspires to know God.

Sattva is harmony, peace, light. It is the highest state. 

A devotee should carefully watch his mind and note which of these conditions prevails in his mind. He should strive to increase Sattva by Satsangh, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, worship, etc.

The qualities of a person who transcends the gunas

What are the qualities of the person who has transcended the three gunas (guna-atitah)? How does he behave, and how does he truly achieve it? 

The Bhagavadgita answers these questions also. 

When a person overcomes the three gunas, he neither likes nor dislikes purity, light, passion and delusion, which are the predominant modalities that arise from the gunas namely sattva, rajas and tamas respectively. 

He does not detest them when they are present nor desires them when they are absent (14.22). 

He remains indifferent, undisturbed by the gunas, knowing that it is the gunas which are acting in all beings but not the Self which is present in them (13.23). 

Therefore, he remains alike in pleasure and pain, stable and equal towards a lump of earth or gold, the pleasant and the unpleasant, criticism or praise, honor or dishonor, and friend or foe. Since he rises above the gunas, he does not take sides in any dispute, show any favor or preference for the dualities of life and renounces the ambition and the initiative to perform tasks (14.24-25).

In the second classification, Artha is 1st, Jignasu is 2nd and Arthaarthi is 3rd one.

Artha Bhakti (Bhakti of affliction) is higher. Here affliction does not refer to any misery due to worldly evil, but to distress due to the conscious separation from God. 

The devotion practised by the seeker of truth (Jignasu) is better than that practised by the seeker of wealth (Arthaarthi) and better and more fruitful than both the types is the devotion of the afflicted and the distressed (Artha). 

An Artha alone makes a passionate, sincere and intense appeal to the Lord and gets help immediately. He wants relief at once. Draupadi and Gajendra are the examples .

An Artha wants God and nothing else, because no one else can give relief to him. 

A Jignasu wants knowledge, not God. 

The Arthaarthi does not want even knowledge. He wants wealth. Therefore the Artha is the best of the whole lot.

The Gopis were extremely miserable on account of separation from Lord Krishna. They were also Arthas. They prayed and sang. Then the Lord gave them His presence.

A devotee who has intense Vairagya or dispassion never rests satisfied with anything less than the supreme God-realisation.

Generally one starts as an artha. A person may pray when he is in distress. 

Then as his faith increases he becomes an artharthi. 

When his faith further cements he wants to know more about the source of power and about the glory of God. Then he comes a Jignasu. 

An artha can directly also become a Jignasu, when there is intense desire to know God. Dhruva was first an artharthi, but he then repented and become a Jignasu later.

We ask God pressured by our vasanas. But God knows what is best for us and he gives, so they pray to God with this attitude. Therefore they are able to move forward in the spiritual path though they may be initially seekers of wealth or asking to remove distress.

Now about the Devotee of the highest level-  Jnani.

In the seventh chapter of Bhagavad  Gita, Bhagavan has said that a Jnani bhakta is very dear to me. He is my own Self.

How does a Jnani bhakta live in this world? What are his characteristics? 

Those are given in these verses.

Even after gaining enlightenment, one continues to function in this world. He does not disappear. The world does not disappear. How does a Jnani respond to this world? His experience is that everything is my own Self.

Bhagavan says a Jnani does not have enmity towards anyone. अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च | He has attitude of friendship towards all. He has deep compassion for every being. He does not want to see anyone in pain or sorrow. A compassionate person will strive to make others free of sorrow. He does not go into judgement. He will not say ‘it is your prarabdha to suffer’. He has compassion for everyone.

निर्ममो - He is free from the sense of possessiveness. He is free from mamatva, not even to his own body. This body does not belong to us which we call it as ours. He does not have feeling of mamatva towards anything or anyone.

निरहङ्कारः He does not have false sense of I – ego.

समदु:खसुखः क्षमी - He remains unperturbed in favourable and unfavorable situations. Even after enlightenment there will be situations of sukha and dukha, the world will keep changing. There can be a difficult situation which could have given sorrow to an ordinary person but a jnani remains unperturbed.

His supreme bliss is in his own Self. There is no dependence on anything or anyone. The more we are dependent on objects, people, situations there is more sorrow. सर्वं परवशं दुःखं, सर्वं आत्मवशं सुखम्| Dependence is sorrow and Independence is Joy. We can be more happy by being spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, physically independent.

Love.