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BHAKTI YOGA |
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THE PATH OF DEVOTION |
Bhakti yoga is a real, genuine search after
the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the
madness of exterme love of God brings us eternal freedom. "BHAKTI," say Narada
in his explanation of the bhakti aphorisms, "is intense love of God." "When
a man gets it, he loves all, htes none. He becomes satisfied forever." "This
love cannot be reduced to any earthly benifit," because as worldly desires last, that
kind of love does not come. "Bhakti is greater than Karma, greater than Yoga,"
because these are intended for an object in view, while bhakti is its own fruition,
"is own means and its own end." The best definition of bhakti, however, is given by the king of bhaktas, Prahlada; "That deathless love which the ignorant have for the fleeting objects of the senses-as I keep meditating on thee, may that love not slip: I am poor, I have nothing, So I take this body of mine and place it at your feet. Do not give me up, O Lord." such is the prayer proceeding out of the depths of the bhakta's heart. To him who has experienced it, this eternal sacrifice of the self unto the Beloved Lord is higher by far than all wealth and power, than even all soaring thughts of renown and enjoyment. The peace of the bhakta's calm resignation is a peace that passeth all understanding andd is of all incomparable value. His self surrender is a state of the mind in which it has no interests and naturally knows nothing that is oposed to it. In this states of sublime resignation, everything in the shape of attachment goes away completely, except that one all-absorbing love for Him whom all things live and moves and havetheir being. This attachment of love for God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages. Te devi Bagavat gives us the folloeing definition of the higher love " As oil poured from one vessel to another falls in an unbroken line,so when the mind in an unbroken strream thinks of the mind and heart to the Lord, with an inseparable attachment, is indeed the highest manifestation of man's love for God. It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony-in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man is pure in bod and mind, his coming into a temple and worshipping Shiva is useless. The prayers of those who are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those who are impured and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end. External worship is only symbol of internal worship, but internal worship and purity are the real things. Without them, external worship would of no avail. therefore you must all try to remember this. This is the gist of all worship: to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva. And if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seing Shiva in him, without thiniking of his caste or creed or race or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples. |
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-Swami Vivekanand |
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