View source for Narada Bhakti Sutras Lecture 40 Su.54-57 on 30-April-2019

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== Opening Invocation ==
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :

Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.

= Chapter 4: The Nature of Supreme Devotion and Its Classifications =

== The Characteristics of Supreme Devotion (Parama Bhakti) ==
We are discussing the fourth chapter, specifically the 54th sutra that we covered last time. I want to bring to your notice the key characteristics of supreme devotion:

'''Guṇa-rahitam, kāmanā-rahitam, pratikṣaṇa vardhamānam, avichinnam, sūkṣma-dharam, anubhava-rūpam.'''

=== Guṇa-rahitam (Beyond the Three Guṇas) ===
Guṇa refers to the three guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas). Anything that we do is made up of these three guṇas. This Prakṛti, what we call the material cause of the entire universe, divided itself into two categories: the subject and the object.

The subject means each one of us. The object means everything we deal with. For example, consider a table made of sattva (purity). How I look at this - that is called the sattva way. Pure thought is how we look at it - that's called sattva. The desire when we look at it - that is called the rajas way. When I don't take notice at all, that is why accidents happen. This is the tamas way.

What does guṇa do? One meaning of guṇa is rope. What does a rope do? It binds. But this is prema (divine love). What does prema do? It releases us. So kāma (desire) binds us, while prema releases. That's why it is called guṇa-rahita.

=== Kāmanā-rahitam (Free from Desires) ===
The supreme devotee has no desires at all. The first-class devotee is so beautifully described in Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta. If God says, "I don't like you," then the devotee says, "That is your headache. Whether you like me or not is entirely yours. But I like you."

This is how Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa tested Swami Vivekananda. You know that story? For one month, whenever Narendra came - before that, it was "Narendra, Narendra, everything Narendra." When Narendra would come, all other devotees would disappear. His whole mind would be concentrated on him only. But suddenly, the moment he would see Narendra coming, he would turn the other way.

Before, Narendra used to come and sit there. Thākur never talked with him, never asked him anything - whether he had eaten or anything. One month passed. After thirty days, Thākur asked him, "I don't talk with you. I show my dislike to you. Why do you keep coming?"

Narendra said, "If you don't like me, if you don't want to see me, if you don't want to talk to me, that is your headache. I like to see you. I like to hear you. That's why I come." This is called kāmanā-rahita bhakti.

== The Example of Unselfish Devotion ==
There is a beautiful example in Śrī Unādi Kavi's poetry. In his Upananda-mālā, he writes this big poem:

"O Lord, if you want, you can make me be born in any lowly life - even as an insect. One thing only don't decline: don't take away my love for you. Other than that, do whatever you like."

Suppose God comes and says, "I will not give you mokṣa." The devotee responds, "That's absolutely fine. I am very happy." Why? If you attain mokṣa, what happens? You will be very happy. But what are you doing now? You are already very happy!

A true devotee doesn't worship God desiring liberation, because he is getting liberation here and now. He says to God, "I don't care whether you give liberation or not. Whether you like me or not, whether you put me to torture or not, I will not care about these things. Do not deprive me of my devotion. That is the only thing that I want. Let me be a human being, an insect, anything. It doesn't matter."

This is the highest devotion - that is called kāmanā-rahita.

=== Pratikṣaṇa Vardhamānam (Growing Every Moment) ===
Every minute this devotion grows. We give an example: rain falls on the mountain and becomes small, trickling drops of water. As it comes down, what happens? It goes on flowing and flowing and flowing, and it becomes almost like a torrent - very powerful. But ultimately, where does it end? In the ocean (sāgara).

That is why a river (nadī) is called the wife, and the ocean (sāgara) is called the husband. Every woman desires to be united with her husband. Every devotee wants to be united with God.

So our trickling devotion grows bigger and bigger. It goes on increasing. There will be no decrease. Whereas every other type of desire goes on decreasing - the more you enjoy, the less it becomes.

=== Avichinnam (Unbroken Continuity) ===
You don't see a break in a river. It is always one continuous flow. Similarly, devotion flows continuously without interruption.

=== Sūkṣma-dharam (Increasingly Subtle) ===
The more devotion comes, the deeper it goes. It becomes difficult to understand, much more difficult to express. Ultimately, it is inexpressible.

=== Anubhava-rūpam (Of the Nature of Direct Experience) ===
This is a very important word. It is of the nature of anubhava (direct experience). How do we know that a person is devotional? The proof is: "I am seeing God."

If somebody comes and says, "You prove to me that you are seeing God," maybe you are hallucinating. But the devotee is quite happy with his hallucination. Which one do you prefer - being unhappy without hallucination, or being happy with hallucination? Only a fool would choose unhappiness.

We want to become "hallucinated" in fact, but we are unable to become so. It is not easy to become "hallucinated." Why? Because whatever we do, we want to control it. But hallucination means you are not controlling it - the hallucination is controlling you.

So we want to be controlled by God. Until that time, we always want to control God. But God always wants to control us because we are His children and He knows what's best for us. But we want to run away from Him.

When the delusion breaks, then we see that the only substance, the only reality, is God. When we see God, then we want to fall into Him. This is called śaraṇāgati (surrender). You know what śaraṇāgati is? To be controlled by God. Surrender completely and let Him do what He wants to do.

== The Nature of Supreme Devotional Experience ==

=== Seeing Only God Everywhere ===
There is a humorous incident about Saint Teresa of Avila (there are two Teresas - Saint Teresa of Lisieux, France, and Saint Teresa of Avila, Spain). She received a commission from God to reform the church because the monks and nuns were all enjoying life like princes and princesses in the nunnery.

The Lord said to Saint Teresa of Avila, "Teresa, go and repair my church." So she went. But there was so much opposition because the monks and nuns didn't want to give up their comfortable lifestyle.

So one day she got frustrated and complained to Jesus Christ: "Lord, how come you told me to do something? I am trying my level best, and you are creating so many obstacles."

He laughed and said, "That is how I treat my friends."

She replied, "Now I know why you have so few friends!"

This is the way God treats His devotees. Who is going to become a devotee if every devotee expects to get something from God? A true devotee doesn't expect anything. Yet unnecessarily, it seems God is creating so many problems in their life - ill health, annoyance with food, and many other things.

=== The Example of Nāgamahāśaya ===
When a devotee attains supreme devotion, whatever he sees, he sees only God. Suppose a tiger comes - what does he see? God in the form of a tiger.

Nāgamahāśaya had a very tender heart. Just look at this incident: he would not allow any laborer to work in the sun. He would say, "How can I allow you to work in this heat for my comfort?" That's why no laborer was willing to work for him. They wanted to work, but he wouldn't allow them to work uncomfortably.

Every five minutes he would say, "Please come down from there," and he would start fanning them, giving them sweets and refreshments. Even when he had to borrow money to provide these things. He never used to sit in a horse carriage, and when he sat in a boat, he would not allow the boatman to row - he would row himself. This was the type of person he was.

One day, a devotee went there and saw small insects like ants. They had been living there for generations. Nāgamahāśaya was not there at the time. So this devotee saw them and killed thousands of these ants, throwing the rest away in the forest (it was all forest land).

When Nāgamahāśaya returned and found that this fellow had killed thousands of his "tenants," he cried, "Oh God, what did you do? For generations together they have been living here - it is their home!" He started beating his head, and the devotee felt he should commit suicide seeing Nāgamahāśaya beating himself.

He went to where the devotee had thrown the ants and brought them back, promising, "From today, nobody will disturb you."

== The Sutra: Tadeva Avalokayati ==
'''Tat eva avalokayati''' - Once a person has attained this kind of supreme devotion, he sees only That (God) everywhere.

When a person obtains that prema, he is possessed by that prema. He is mad with that prema. Then prema and Īśvara (God) are one and the same. Can you separate an object from your love for that object? When you think of something you love, you have to remember the object. When that object is remembered, your relationship comes into view.

Like a mother - whenever the mother looks at the child, it's pure love. Even when the mother is beating the child, it is only pure love. If she is beating the child, it's not for her pleasure but for the child's good. She doesn't want to beat the child; she beats only for the welfare of her own child.

Similarly, even if God may seem to be making our life problematic, He is only doing it for our good.

'''Tat eva śṛṇoti''' - Whatever he hears is nothing but about God. God is Veda. That is why He says, "Vedo'ham" (I am the Veda). In the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā itself: "Vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham" - I am the knower of the Vedas and also the creator of the Vedas.

Creator means "I myself." Can you understand what this is? Here is a poet who writes poetry. What is that poetry? Where has it come from? From the poet. So part of him is expressing itself in the form of his knowledge. The poem is nothing but a part of the poet's knowledge that has come out. So it is God Himself.

Everything is made up of alphabets. That is why in the chakra system, at different points, alphabets are written, and the whole body is nothing but made of alphabets. This is called mātṛkā-nyāsa.

'''Tat eva bhāṣayati''' - Whatever he speaks, except God's name, nothing comes out of his mouth. When he speaks, it is only about God.

'''Tat eva chintayati''' - Now there is a relationship. What we talk about doesn't suddenly come from the sky. What we have been thinking about for a long time eventually comes out of our mouth.

== The Classification of Devotion (Gauṇī Bhakti) ==

=== Three Types Based on Guṇas ===
Now, earlier sutras 51 to 55 were about para-bhakti (supreme devotion). But we are not in that supreme state - that is only the ideal. Our state is called gauṇī or vaidhī bhakti.

Vaidhī means vidhi - we have to do this, we should not do that. This vaidhī bhakti can be divided into three categories based on the three guṇas:

'''Tāmasika Bhakti:''' Here is a tāmasika devotee with tremendous faith in God, but he says to God: "I am your child, and you don't want to give me my share of property? I am going to sue you!"

Rāmprasād composed songs in this spirit: "Mother, if you disclaim that I am your son, I will take you to court, and your husband Śiva will be my witness."

'''Rājasika Bhakti:''' The rājasika devotee does a lot of tapas, celebrates festivals with first-class food, wears wonderful rudrakṣa beads (some made of gold), has beautiful earrings, and displays wonderful pictures of gods and goddesses. Whatever he does, the whole world has to know about it.

'''Sāttvika Bhakti:''' The sāttvika devotee lives in a dilapidated house - somewhere needing repair, somewhere leaking, rain falling through the roof. The whole night he repeats the name of God. In the morning, when people come, they see him sleeping. They think, "Poor man, maybe he had some stomach ache or problem and couldn't sleep at night." Nobody knows what he actually does. This is called sāttvika devotion.

=== Three Types Based on Desires (Artha-ādi-bheda) ===
This directly references the Bhagavad Gītā's classification: '''Caturvidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino'rjuna | ārto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī ca bharatarṣabha ||'''

The four types are: Ārta, Jijñāsu, Arthārthī, and Jñānī. Here, Jñānī is identified with para-bhakti (the realized soul who has become one with God). We are discussing only the first three: Ārta, Arthārthī, and Jijñāsu.

'''Jijñāsu Bhakta (Third Class):''' These are people who want to become scholars about God only - scriptural knowledge, commentaries, etc. They want to write books and preach God's name. This is noble because they're not talking about anything except God, but compared to ārta-bhakti, this is inferior.

'''Arthārthī Bhakta (Second Class):''' This devotee has some selfishness. "I want some siddhis (spiritual powers). Give me a little bit of power." Like Dhruva, who wanted a kingdom. He has devotion for God, but he'll also be satisfied if given something else. This siddhi-desire has to eventually go.

'''Ārta Bhakta (First Class):''' Ārta means distress, but what is the distress here? "I have not seen God. I don't want anything but God. Until I get God, I won't be happy." His mind is burning with spiritual longing. He doesn't see anything in this world that can really satisfy him - only God can satisfy. Such a devotee is called ārta-bhakta. He is not in worldly distress but in spiritual distress. He wants only God, and that burning will not subside until God appears.

Examples: Draupadī was in distress (ārta), Gajendra was in distress (ārta), and Dhruva was an example of arthārthī.

=== The Hierarchy of Devotion ===
'''Uttarasmāt uttarasmāt pūrvaḥ pūrvaḥ śreyāya bhavati''' - "The earlier is superior to the later."

This means:

* Sāttvika bhakti is better than rājasika bhakti
* Rājasika bhakti is better than tāmasika bhakti
* Ārta bhakti is superior to arthārthī bhakti
* Arthārthī bhakti is superior to jijñāsu bhakti

The important thing is guṇa-rahitam. Here, guṇa means binding - guṇa means rope. Even this bhakti in the guṇa stage will bind you, but sāttvika bhakti binds you to God, not to the world. It breaks the bondage of the world and binds you forever with God. That is the most important point.

So compared to having no bhakti at all, even jijñāsu bhakti is great. But arthārthī bhakti is superior to jijñāsu, and ārta bhakti is superior to arthārthī bhakti.

== Closing Prayer ==
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :

Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.
[[Category:Narada Bhakti Sutras]]