Bhakti Yoga
By Ratan Lal Basu
Copyright 2011 Ratan Lal Basu
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
Contents
Bhakti Yoga is the highest stage of spiritualism. True bhakti or devotion flourishes only after one achieves wisdom. Any other Yoga at its highest stage leads to wisdom which generates true faith and pure selfless devotion (para-bhakti) for the Supreme.
Bhakti, in the true sense, means saturation of the mind with the devotion and love for God, surrendering everything else to the feet of God and dissolution of ones ‘aham’ (ego, i.e. existence as a specific individual). Unlike mundane love bhakti is not instinctive blind emotionalism or outburst of passion. To quote from “Bhakti Yoga” of Swami Shivanada: [http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/bhaktiyoga.htm]
“It would be a gross mistake if you consider Bhakti as merely a stage of emotionalism, while it is actually a thorough discipline and training of one's will and the mind, a sure means to intuitive realization of God Almighty through intense love and affection for Him.”
I’ll explain why bhakti without wisdom degenerates into rajasic self seeking (sakama bhakti) or tamasic ritualism, idolatry and communal parochialism.
First I shall delineate various aspects of Bhakti Yoga as elaborated in Hindu sacred texts like Bhagavata Purana, Gita and Vishnu Purana. There are various forms of bhakti cult like saivism, vaisnavism, sakta-cult, sufi cult etc. the basic idea and goal of all are the same i.e. to achieve union with the Supreme. So it is not necessary to go into the detail of the rituals of every form of bhakti-cult.
The true devotee may accept worship of God in various forms of emotional attachment. These are called ‘Bhavas’. According to the Hindu religious texts and there are five Bhavas: Shanta, Dasya, Sakhya, Batsalya and Madhura.
Shanta: this Bhava implies devotion to God with a placid and peaceful mind. The devotee is free from the outburst of emotion. This serenity of worship is possible only at the highest level of yogic achievement. According to the great Indian Epic Mahabharata, Bhishma was a Shanta worshipper. He, in fact, was born with wisdom (for the legend of Bhishma see my book “Mahabharata, the Great Indian Epic: Economic and Political Ideas”, notes, Smashword free e-Book).
Dasya: This form implies devotion to God as his servant. In the great Indian Epic Ramayana, Hanuman (Bajrangbali/Paban-nandan) was a dasa devotee of Rama, the incarnate of the Supreme God Vishnu. Hanuman was born with wisdom. In Arabic, Muhammad means servant. Hazrat Muhammad had attained wisdom at the age of forty after leading a long pious life and became a detached and selfless devotee of Allah, the Supreme God.
Sakhya: In this form of devotion the devotee worships God as his friend. Arjuna in Mahabharata was a worshipper of Lord Krishna in this form. Arjuna was not an ordinary person. He was a committed warrior and was entrusted by God with the task of eradicating the evil forces by his archery prowess. At the beginning of great Mahabharata war, he learnt the Gospels of wisdom (Gita) from the mouth of Lord Krishna and earned wisdom.
Vatsalya: In this Bhava, the devotee worships God as his child with all motherly love and affection. Yosoda, the foster mother of Lord Krishna, had worshipped God in this form. Yashoda, too, was not an ordinary woman. She was born with divine power to bring up Krishna as his mother Devaki was in the prison of her demon brother Kangsa.
Madhura: To worship God through love. Here the devotee considers God as her lover and surrenders herself to God. Remember that this love is not ordinary sex-love. This is transcendental love and is not comprehensible by ordinary human beings. In this form of devotion even a male devotee turns into a female and offers her love to God. Radha, the beloved of Krishna, is the best example of such a devotee. Radha, in fact, is considered to be an incarnate of goddess Lakshmi and she is but a legendary figure. Of real human beings, examples of such devotees are Chaitanyadev, Jaydev and Mirabai. They all had acquired true wisdom to become devotee of the Madhura form. Jesus Christ was the direct creation of God and he was born wise. His Gospels in the Holy Bible propagate this form of worship.
According to Hindu religious texts Bhakti may assume six forms, viz. Sravana (hearing of God's lilas), Kirtana (singing of His glories), Smarana (remembrance of His name and presence), Padasevana (service of His feet), Archana (worship of God) and Vandana (prostration to God).
The meanings of these six forms are described below.
Sravana: The term means listening to the greatness of God and His wonderful manifestations. In the wider sense it also includes reading books and watching films describing the glories of God. In fact, films have the most powerful effect on mind in this regard. In recent times great T.V. serials like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Om Namah Shivaya, Jai Hanuman etc. have played great role in inspiring the devotees.
Continuous reading of and listening to the gospels of the Holy Koran helps an ordinary Muslim to become a true and selfless devotee of Allah.
In fact, this is the best form for an ordinary person. Continuous contact with the glories of God gradually instills the mind with higher feelings and worldly desires appear unimportant and the mind gradually becomes free from the vices like greed, lust, hatred, jealousy, pride, egotism etc. Moreover, the probability of rajasic and tamasic degeneration is the least in this form of devotion.
Kirtana: This is the method of disseminating glories of God through songs, percussions and dances. kirtana is sung in different ragas which have powerful purifying impact on the mind. It is the experience of most of the persons that poetry is of greater impact on mind than prose and song is more powerful than both prose and poetry. So, people are most deeply affected if glories of God are sung out. Kirtana is the essential part of the Sikh religion.
Smarana: This is a higher form of worship when the mind of the devotee is saturated with divine feelings and he always remembers God and His glories. This is, in fact, continuous mediation of God.
Padasevana: This means serving of God’s feet. This form, however, is never possible for mortal human beings, as they would never have the opportunity to get close to the feet of God who is invisible to a human being. In Hindu mythology, goddess Parvati and Lashmi worships respectively Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu in this form of worship.
An alternative is to worship the feet of idols but this may occasionally degenerate into idolatry. In the wider sense the devotee may consider the entire universe as hid Lord and serve human beings and other living beings considering this to be padasevana of the Lord.
Archana: This is the common form of worship or puza, which may be done before an idol, or a symbol like Lingam, Salgram-shila etc. Worship of this form could also be done mentally in the absence of any symbol or image of God. This form occasionally degenerates into mechanistic ritualism and idolatry.
Vandana: In this type of devotion the devotee prays to God by prostrating before the idol or symbol of God. This condition of prostration is sometimes called sastanga (sa+astanga: ‘sa’ means with, ‘astanga’ means eight limbs) pranam as eight limbs touch the ground while prostrating.
Bhakti for common people without true wisdom springs from fear or desire and in most of the cases it degenerates into rajasic desires or tamasic ritualism, esoteric cults, idolatry, fantasy and outburst of repressed baser passions. Most of us are ignorant (our knowledge from books, general educational institutions and professional works are not true knowledge). We are slaves of the six basic vices (lust, anger, greed, pride, obsession and jealousy) and this ripus (basic vices) force us to convert everything to facilitate their manifestation. Bhakti for ordinary people is no exception. It becomes a vehicle of the ripus under the guise of worship of God. Ordinary ignorant people are of two kinds: dominated by rajasa mode and dominated by tamasa mode. Bhakti turns into rajasic for the former and tamasic for the latter.
Rajasic degeneration: Bhakti turns into a ‘Apara Bhakti’ i.e. means to fulfill one’s greed. God is worshipped with pomp with the expectation of pleasing Him and in exchange for his devotion and worship the devotee expects to get blessings of God in terms of material gains – wealth, political power etc.
Gorgeous temples of deities are erected to please the deities and get material benefits in exchange.
Religious business: Shrewd people deceive gullible simple devotees to collect immense wealth by in the forms of donations and pronamis with the false promise that in exchange the deity would fulfill their material desires. In this way various religious organizations have accumulated huge wealth. Sometimes political parties also take advantage of innocent bhaktas to amass political power. Religious communities give the pseudo guru or religious leader to amass man power to be utilized for fulfilling his desires of wealth , political power and social status and to fight his opponents. In this way communal hatred is generated.
Sometimes innocent people pray to God for cure from disease or good academic performance and jobs for children.
Tamasic degeneration: Obsession with obscure rituals, idolatry, questionable esoteric cults, fantasies, creation of social nuisance and sound pollution through religious festivals and kirtanas using high volume microphone, obstructing traffic etc.
With the progress of society various rules have been created to maintain social order. This has resulted in repression of many of our passions and desires which go against the rules of the orderly modern society. Religious bhakti is converted into perverted form to get these sub-conscious desires fulfilled. Erotic stories and images of the deities are created to fulfill perverted desires. Incestuous rituals are practiced in secret in the name of religion. There are many books on such esoteric incestuous religious practices. Addiction to alcoholic drinks and noxious drugs are indulged in under the guise of bhakti cult. Bhakti at times becomes the means to fulfill innocent unfulfilled desires. Many childless married women worship ‘Bala-Gopala’ (child Krishna) in the batsalya form with tamasic obsession. There are innumerable examples of such tamasic degeneration of false bhakti.
Tamasic worship of a specific deity leads to religious sectarianism, strong belief that the devotees deity is the best and generates hatred for those who worship other deities or practice other forms of religion.
So, bhakti, the highest form of spiritual practice, may be dangerous for an ignorant person. True bhakti is possible for only those who have attained wisdom. RaJ Yoga, Gnan Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Tantra and Karma Yoga lead to such wisdom at their highest stages of achievement.
Path-1: Through Tantra, HathaYoga and Raj Yoga the Yogi acquires true wisdom. He realizes that the mundane desires are meaningless and his mind becomes free from the basic vices. Wisdom leads to true Faith in the Supreme and this feeling generates bhakti in the true sense of the term.
Path-2: Karma Yoga and Science: Devoted association with scientific experiments and learning about scientific discoveries lead to faith in and devotion to the Supreme. There is no conflict between Spiritualism and Science. To the true spiritualist a devoted scientist is simply discovering the laws created by God. He can discover but cannot create laws of his own. A true scientist goes on with his research simply from the desire to acquire knowledge of the laws of nature (laws of God to the spiritualist) without any desire for wealth, good job or fame. He goes on discovering and realizes that laws ofnature are infinite. Even if he is alive for trillions of years he would be able to discover only an insignificant fraction of the laws of nature.
More he discovers, more he gets bewildered at the mystery of the universe. Ultimately he feels at his heart the existence of an unknown power that has created all these infinite laws. He feels at the root of the power the existence of the Supreme. The great scientist Albert Einstein had acquired faith and wisdom through scientific research.
Read any books on quantum mechanics, relativity, genetics, biology, astronomy, botany, organic chemistry etc. you would be astonished at the vast mystery of this universe and you would realize how insignificant we humans are. Innumerable planets like our earth and starts like our sun are destroyed and created every moment. Even devoted study of science makes our minds philosophical and averse to trifles of day to day life. Ones we are averse to the crude desires, the door to true wisdom opens up for us.
Thus true scientific research or study of science is another way to acquire wisdom. But mechanistic study or scientific research with narrow and parochial mind would never lead to such wisdom. Neither pseudo-spiritualism nor pseudo-science would lead one to anywhere.
###
The Author
The author of this booklet is a Ph.D. in economics and professionally an economist but his passion for knowledge compels him at times to eschew the arena of economics and venture into other fields of knowledge, philosophy and religion are important among them. Dr. Basu may be contacted at rlbasu@rediffmail.com.