Narada Bhakti Sutra

Championing the path of devotion to the Highest, Sage Narada prescribes the way it is to be done in this life  ” Pursue and cultivate Love alone.” When we are in tune with ourselves, we are in tune with the Universe. We begin to see that all things in Creation are expressions of the same Love.

अभिमानदंभादिकं  त्याज्यं  || (नारद  भक्ति  सूत्र - ६४)  

Abhimandambhadikam tyajyam || (Narada Bhakti Sutra- 64)

 

Narada extols the methods of practice of cultivating and developing Love. He tells us to give up pride and vanity, cast aside hypocrisy and jealousy. These negative urges are great obstacles on the spiritual path. These mental habits bring agitations and dissipates our energy. The heart then no longer has the energy to grow and evolve. It's easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible. But it is difficult to love fellow human beings with all their imperfections and defects. Remember, only when we love can we come to know someone. There is no wisdom without love. Unless we learn to love God's creation, we can neither truly love nor truly know God.

We must be able to see the thread that holds all the flowers together in a garland. Once we learn to see the Maker and all things made, as the Maker himself, then, this holistic perception leads us to ultimate perfection.

Bulleh Shah, a sufi poet, in his famous poem in Punjabi says, ”Je rab mildaa nahathiyaan dotiyaan .... ve Mian Bulleyan rab unhaanu mildaa atade dildaa sacchiyaan acchiyaannu”.

Roughly translated "If bathing and washing were ways to reach God then surely frogs and fish are closest to Him .... but Bulle Mian says it is the one with a clean mind and pure heart who realises God."

His poetry highlights his mystical spiritual voyage through the four stages of Sufism: Shariat (Path), Tariqat (Observance), Haqiqat (Truth) and Marfat (Union).

Dirt if any is the one inside. The rest we can simply wash off. The type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with water is the stain of hatred, envy, greed, anger that  contaminates the mind. The body can be purified through bathing, abstinence, fasting, but only love can purify the mind. Only a pure and clean mind is capable of realizing the fulfillment of devotion, such a devotion with no sense of distinction between the Lord and oneself.

”प्रेम  कार्यं , प्रेमैव  कार्यं ” || (नारद  भक्ति  सूत्र - ६६ )

”prema kaaryam, premaiva kaaryam” || (naarada bhakti sutra- 66)  

Love is to be accomplished, Love alone is to be accomplished. 

Are you in a relationship ?

There comes a time of reconciliation/agreement in the minds of spiritual aspirants, with the highest Reality, which we call Universal Truth, Nature or God.  A reconciliation that any and all prosperity or adversity, all good and all bad events in the world, happen due to the Will of the Lord.  This agreement with the Order of Nature or the Will of God comes about easily due to the influence of ‘Satsangh’ or in the company of Saints.

A similar idea is expressed in the Old Testament as, “God hath given, and God hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Guru Nanak says,"जो प्रभु कीनो सो भल मानो" All that is good to thee is good to me. He says it was on account of the Saints that he was able to have a continuous, unceasing vision of the Lord.

This vision of the Lord expresses through the Saints and this Love of God binds them together. Many Saints implore spiritual seekers to renounce those relationships that come in the way of God-devotion and engage in the only real relationship possible, which is with the Lord. 

Sant Tulsidas reiterates this point in his famous poem,जाके प्रिय न राम वैदेही, as a response to Mirabai's letter addressed to him. Mirabai had difficult situations in her family. She was troubled at home, her husband had died and her brother-in-law was giving her every imaginable trouble. She wrote to Tusidasji asking what she should do.  Tulsidasji gives certain illustrations to prove his point. He tells how for the sake of God, Bharata left his mother, Prahlad left his father, Vibhishana left his brother, the ‘vrajvanitas’/ Gopis left their husbands. In spite of the derelictions of duties they have earned praise and respect of the world.

Sant Tukaram too in his famous Abhanga expresses similar sentiments, ".... प्रह्लादे जनक विभीषणे बन्धु | राज्य माता निन्धु भरते केली || तुका म्हणे सर्व धर्म हरिचे पाय | आणीक उपाय दुखमूल ||"

Narsi Mehta in his poem (in Gujarati) says, "नारायणानु नाम जे लेता वारे तेने तजीये रे | मनसा वाचा कर्मणा करीने लक्ष्मी वरने भजिये रे || कुलने तजिये, कुटुम्बने तजिये, तजिये मा ने बाप रे | ....." He says it matters little whether it is the father or mother or anyone who stands in the way of God devotion, they should all be rejected.   

Thus the Saints urge seekers to shift our attention from being world (people) dependent to becoming God dependent. Instead of engaging/seeking permanency in the impermanence of the world, we must seek to develop Love for the Lord. Seek to be in a relationship with The One, who with attributes, form, etc or that, which without attributes, form, etc is The Eternal Truth.

Bhakti - Supreme Love Divine

Devarishi Narada declares his idea on devotion after stating the different opinions of various Sages in the 3rd section of the first chapter of Narada Bhakti Sutra thus: 

नारदस्तु तदर्पिताखिलचरत तद्विस्मरणे परंव्याकुलतेति |

 

According to Narada ‘total dedication of all actions at the altar of the Lord, and at all moments of forgetfulness of the Lord, excruciating pangs’ is Supreme Love-Divine. To surrender all activities unto the feet of the Lord, to remember Him at all times and to feel desperate when one notices even a few moments had gone by in forgetfulness of the Lord is Supreme Devotion says Sage Narada.

मोक्षकारणसामग्र्यां  भक्तिरेवगरीयसी  | 

स्वस्वरूपानुसन्धानं  भक्तिरित्याभिधीयते || (विवेकचूडामणि :३१ )

Among the instruments and conditions necessary for liberation bhakti alone is supreme. A constant attempt to live upto one’s own Real Nature is called single pointed devotion, says Adi Shankara in Vivekachudamani.

Love alone is the path and by love alone can we reach Love. A life without love is of no account.  Lets not ask ourself what kind of love we should seek, spiritual or material, eastern or western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions.  It is what it is, pure and simple.

We can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, temple or church. But if we are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for Him: in the heart of a true lover/devotee.

One of the devotees (gopies) in Brindavan told Uddhava, “We can practice yoga only where there is a sense of separation. Here to us there is nothing but total merger with our Shyamsunder (Dark beauty Krishna).”  This was the depth of perfect devotion that the Gopies had for their Lord Krishna. These loving Gopies were not sentimental lovers of Krishna as generally believed. They knew His Eternal nature as the ‘Sarvatman’, the Self in all. Thus in the giddiness of Love, the Gopies never once gave up a moment of their constant recognition of Krishna’s true nature as the ‘Supreme Self’.

The result of their faithful and deep devotion was that Lord Krishna, Himself, once confessed to them that He was indebted to them for the pure Love they showered on Him. He requested them to release Him of this huge indebtedness so that He may be saved from His obligations which he would not be able to clear even if He served them for eons. (Bhagavatam)

Truly when we step into the zone of love, language as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.