Thursday, April 21, 2016

VARIETIES AND SHADES OF BHAKTHI



                                                    
Extreme love and devotion to God is called Bhakthi! The devotee is never divorced from God.  He lives in God, sleeps with God and eats with God! The best examples of pure and astonishing devotees who lived for God are the Azwars and Nayanmars of south India and the sants and saints of the North, According to the Bhagavatha purana, there are nine kinds of devotion. The devotee can get his fulfillment by   following any one of the nine ways. The nine kinds of devotion are 1 Sravanam –hearing the stories of the glory of the Lord 2 Keertanam—singing His glory 3 smaranam—remembering his name 4 padasevanam—serving his lotus feet 5  archanam—worshipping Him 6  Vandanam – bowing down to Him  7 dasyam – servant-master relationship 8 Sakhyam--- as a friend and finally 9 atma nivedanam—total , utter surrender.
       According to Sri Ramakrishna, love or bhakthi is of three varieties. Unselfish or Samartha, mutual or samanjasa and sadhrana  or the ordinary. The best and the highest is unselfish love. The lover is more concerned about the well being of his beloved rather than his own suffering. In mutual love the lover  is particular about the happiness of his beloved but has an eye on his own happiness. In the third, selfish love,  the person cares only for his personal happiness  regardless of the welfare of his beloved. Selfish love is the worst and the lowest! According to the three gunas or qualities, sathva, rajas and thamas,  bhakthi differs in its practice. Humility is the stamp of sathva bhakti’. Ostentation characterizes rajas and brute force is the quality of tamas. The satwic devotee is simple, secret in devotion, eats plain food and is not luxurious The rajasic  bhaktha has distinctive sectarian marks on his body and beads round his neck  interspersed with some golden ones .He is particular of outward observances, wears silk and celebrates worship with pomp and splendor. Fiery faith is the distinctive quality of the thamasic  devotee.“ He applies force to God like a robber seizing things by force.”
        In violent form of devotion, the devotee dances like a madman with raised hands and shouting the name of God. In this age, the violent form seems to be suitable.”The citadel of God must be taken by storm” says Sri Ramakrishna! In Vaidhi bhakthi the devotee practices scriptural mandates like japa, fasting, pilgrimages and other observances. Practice of this for a longer period elevates the bhaktha to the higher level of Raga Bhakthi. One should be free from all worldly attachments to realize Him. It is impossible to attain God without Raga bhakthi Another type of devotion is Prema or Para Bhakthi or Ecstatic Love after realizing God! This prema is like a string in the hands of the bhaktha holding the Lord under his control! While ‘ bhava’—speechless absorption in God is similar to an unripe mango, ecstatic Love or Prema is like the ripe fruit! The bhaktha considers God as his ‘ dearest and nearest relative.’ it is like the love of the Gopis to Lord Krishna! They considered Krishna as the Lord of the Gopis , not as the Lord of the universe!
         The distinctive qualities of Prema Bhakthi are total oblivion of the external world and forgetfulness of one’s own body! There is a quality of supreme possessiveness,like ‘ I am the devotee and my God is wholly mine’ Yasoda felt  that none could look after her Gopala better! She was averse to consider her Gopala as the Lord of the Universe. It is the fortune of a very few to attain ecstatic Love. They are endued with extraordinary powers entrusted with ‘divine commission.’ Ecstatic Love is present in a few naturally even from their childhood as in the case of Prahlada. Such people weep and long for God even from their childhood! They are called ‘ nithya siddhas’ or perfect men from their very birth! The love of divine incarnations does not follow the scriptural rules. It is a spring emanating from the soul. They reach the Absolute in their Samadhi and come down from that height retaining their self  and loving the lord.

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