WAVE 4: ESSENTIALS OF BHAKTI:
AN ADVANCED LESSON FOR THE
FAITHFUL
Page 4
There
is a misguided feeling among parents of modern children growing in the western
world that stories about wolves, rabbits and piggies
are the only right things for the children. Maybe it is so. But the Hindu
mythological stories have a peculiar fascination for children below 8 and it is
during that time all these stories should be narrated to them. It is that time
they would believe them. At 18 it would be too late, but if they had heard
about them for the first time before they were 8, and had been believing them,
they would start asking the right questions at 18; at 28 they would probably develop
a little interest in understanding the significance of these stories and at 38
they may start having some faith and giving them a benefit of doubt. And it is
at 48 they would start understanding them and cherishing them, if nothing else,
for the noble values that they uphold.
We may hope that at 58, they would themselves start telling these
stories to their grandchildren with a total commitment! Whether one likes it or
not, this is how Hindu tradition in
Leaving
mythology aside, we have during historical time numberless devotees of the Lord
on the Indian soil and every one of them has lived an exemplary life of
devotion. Bhakti itself came to be defined by their
actions and pronouncements. No treatise on Bhakti need to be
studied. One has only to read the biographies of a Thiagaraja,
an Appar, a Mira, a Ramadoss,
a Kabir, a Vedanta Desika,
a Prabhupada, a Ramana or a
Ramakrishna and scores of several other towering giants
of Spirituality. Every one of their lives would show how devotion is always
followed by the descent of the Grace of God on the devotee. That does not mean,
however, that the devotee does not suffer in his material life.
In
any theory of Grace it is the surrender to God’s Will and humility that matter.
And we have to surrender by our own free will. Man has the free will to obey or disobey God. The so-called fatalist
view in religion is only a fragmentary part of Hinduism.
But somehow it has been bloated to a large extent and Hinduism has been accused
both from its own votaries and from outside that it emphasizes fate. No.
Because of the vAsanAs
we have brought along with us in the journey through several lives, we are born
with a particular parentage, in a particular environment and a particular sex.
Our fate is reflected mainly in our tendencies that we have created for
ourselves through our past actions. When someone says, ‘I cannot resist having
coffee at this particular time’, he simply means ‘I have taken coffee at this
particular time of day every day for several years in the past and so my system
is tuned to having it at this time’. An elaboration of this concept, generalised to our past, through several of our lives, is
the vAsanA
theory. Fate does not influence
anything except our tendencies. Everything else is our making in this life of
ours. We
have total free will to surrender to God or not. But if we surrender to Him with
all our heart and soul, He promises that He will take of our Yoga, security, and kshema, well-being. Whosoever
offers to Me with love, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or
even water, says the Lord, I shall partake of his offering and bless him. So we
have only to purify the feeling behind every act of worship of ours in order to
win His Grace. And the Lord continues, whatever you do, you dedicate it to Me. Whatever you do
in your daily life, in your annual life, in your special life, in your official
life, in your private life, in your social life, in your internal mental life,
dedicate everything to Me and I will do the Magic of purifying them, says the
Lord.
If
that feeling of bhakti is so important, why
can’t God Himself give me that feeling? – this
is a standard question that strikes many of us
who listen to all this. God certainly grants that bhakti. But we have to receive it. If our minds are closed,
we may not receive it even when it pours. He keeps on pouring His love
but very often we do not look to Him for that Love. Actually He waits and waits
until we take the first step towards Him out of our own free will. Why should
He submit Himself to this ‘agony’ of waiting for His children to become His
devotees is one of the mysteries of God. In His ‘agony’ He grabs you even when
you take a simple step towards Him. He assumes that you have already, in the
words of Thiagaraja, cried to Him:
kAlaharaNa mela rA, ....
dina dina munu tirigi tirigi
dikku leku saraNu jochi
tanuvu danamu deyari
....
meaning,
‘I have wandered day in and day out, finding refuge nowhere; I have sought your
feet and surrendered myself, body and its possessions, as your own; ... why
this delay in blessing me?’ So He grabs us, even though we have just mildly
turned towards Him, like a blotting paper which the fountain pen has just
touched with its tip! He consumes us with His love.
But even when we have become His devotees,
we want only petty things from Him and sometimes He keeps giving us the petty
things we want, so that in due time we
would want what He wants to give us all. All our temples, gods and goddesses
and the innumerable ways by which we may propitiate the divine in these places
of worship, as well as the uncountable methods of offering our private prayers,
with or without the ritualistic mantras – all of them have that one objective,
that we should ultimately want to go back to where we came from, that is, merge
in Him and His glory.
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© V. Krishnamurthy