TOWARDS the end of 1990s, I began to visit Sivananda Ashram of Divine Life Society at Rishikesh. I often got a chance to interact with resident smnyasins there on teachings of Swami Sivananda Saraswati. During one such visit, I met Swami Devbhaktananda, who used to work at the printing press of the Ashram. He followed the footsteps of his guru Swami Sivananda and used to distribute many Ashram publication texts free of cost. I was also fortunate to receive the Narada Bhakti Sutra along with many more books of Swami Sivananda Saraswati as prasada from him.
This slim, small, copy of the Narada Bhakti Sutra with coffee-coloured cover page was translated by Swami Sivananda Saraswati himself. For me, all the books of Swamiji carry his vibrations. I feel as if his compassion still flows through his writings. His words are alive with energy even though he left his mortal body long ago. The Narada Bhakti Sutra began to speak to me through Swami Sivanandaji's little booklet.
Coincidentally, I had begun to revive my Sanskrit studies and was keen on reading texts in simple Sanskrit. In this regard also, the Narada Bhakti Sutra served my purpose as it is one of the easiest texts for a Sanskrit language learner from linguistic point of view. I was happy to read it as I could understand the sutras without looking at the English translation given below.
The second sutra - sa tvasmin paramapreamsvarupa (Bhakti is of the form of supreme love) - connected me to the whole text in a deeper way. I began to understand that bhakti is not merely worshipping the image of God in a temple, or fasting or conducting rituals. Bhakti is all about expanding the boundaries of loving space in our life.
In our routine existence, we consider love to be something that we shower over those who are related to us by blood relations, friendship, marriage, attachment, etc. Narada shows us that bhakti is a capacity to love everyone and everything in the creation without any human-made restrictions of caste, class, gender, species, genus and so on and so forth.
At first glance, the Narada Bhakti Sutra appears to be didactic and religious in spirit but another look at it reveals many more facets of the text that relate to personal experience of that supreme love by which the bhakti is defined. There are two streams of thought that go hand in hand in the text. First line of thought indicates bhakti, the Supreme Love as a progressive path towards a goal. The second line of thought conveys bhakti as a path which is simultaneously the goal as well. I understand that for those of us who are clearly emotionally inclined, it is easy to choose the second line of thought where bhakti is the goal in itself. Such people should just tune in to the love that flows from their heart and should just channel it in an egalitarian manner to all.
However, those of us who are intellectually inclined will find it very difficult to exercise unconditional love. For them, the first line of thought will work better. They can consciously choose bhakti, the path of love as a progressive path towards fulfilment and joy in life. For them, the rules of truth, non-violence, non-duality along with the rituals of ekadasdha-bhakti (the elevenfold bhakti) as prescribed by Sage Narada could be helpful techniques.
Bhakti: The Loving Devotion.
BHAKTI (loving devotion) is an intense inclination to relate with the unseen and the intangible in the universe. It is a rendezvous with all-embracing living energy. Bhakti creates a link with the inner self on one hand and with the supreme mystical force on the other. For a believer, devotion serves as a psychological aid to unfold and realize the full potential in life and to cross over the conflict situations in a non-belligerent manner. It has its origin in human race's desire and capacity for love.
Devotion as deep love for the Highest has been wrapped in religious accoutrements thereby making it incomprehensible to the atheist and the agnostic. I have chosen to reread the Narada Bhakti Sutra in the modern scenario in which it appears to be very naive and old-fashioned to imagine a god sitting in heaven and looking benignly at each one of us. Perhaps, it is rather easy to believe in a cosmic principle which has Supreme Power and therefore could be omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. The Narada Bhakti Sutra is a very basic religious text on bhakti, the loving devotion. This text has its relevance in present situation because it suggests exceedingly simple techniques to develop and mediate human emotional energy in the direction where it can experience the Supreme Principle (described as God in this text).
Classical Form of Bhakti
Classical bhakti, as an act of devotion and worship of God, is an expression of individual bond with the Supreme Reality. Classical bhakti emerged in a religious context and is embedded in a discursive field imbued with religious and mythological trappings. However, bhakti can also mean a way of being. Bhakti is erroneously perceived as a religion-specific act or path due to the religious paraphernalia associated with it. Hence it is frowned upon and rejected as a superstition by those who do not believe in any specific religion. Nevertheless, for a theist, bhakti serves as a necessary anchor that helps one to sail smoothly through his/her life.
In Hinduism, bhakti has gradually evolved into a complete philosophical system over the centuries. In the Vedas, the idea of bhakti as devotion is not so well pronounced. The Vedic priest repeatedly asks the question, कस्मै देवाय हविषा विधेम? - kasmai devaya havisa vidhema? (To which god, shall we offer our oblations?). Among the Upanisads, the Svetasvatara Upanisad is the first to mention bhakti:
यस्य देवे परा भक्तिर्यथा देवे तथा गुरौ। तस्यैते कथिता
ह्यर्थः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मनः प्रकाशन्ते महात्मन इति ।।
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