Sutra 51
Anirvachaneeyam
premasvarupam.
Intrinsic
nature of love is indescribable.
Sutra 52
Mookaasvaadanavat.
Like
the experience of taste by a dumb person.
Though we can talk about love for God at great length and
describe it in various words, yet that only describes the result of what
happens in love and how to acquire it. The true experience of what it is really
like or its true nature is beyond the capability of words and that is referred
to in the Sutra 51 as anirvachaneeyam or indescribable. The intrinsic
nature of parama prema bhakthi defies precise definition or description. It is an experience so profound that one
cannot describe it exactly and adequately.
In Sutra 52 sage Narada quotes an
example to illustrate it. A dumb person,
even though incapable of talking, can experience the joy of something nice like
a sugar candy without being able to speak about it. Similarly, the experience
of uninterrupted love of Para Bhakthi cannot be described by words. Only
one will know it when he has it but he will not be able to convey it to others in words.
Sutra 53
Prakasate
kvaapi paatre.
(The pure
love) is found to manifest in some rare ones who are qualified recipients.
This ‘anirvachaniya’ love
shines in some rare persons who are qualified by being detached from worldly
attachments and being free of mamakara. Lord Krishna points out the rarity of such fit
persons in Bhagavad Gita (7-19):
Bahoonaam janmanaamante jnaanavaanmaam prapadyate;
Vaasudevah sarvamiti sa mahaatmaa sudurlabhah.
At the end of
many births the man of knowledge (of Self) attains Me, (realizing) that
Vasudeva (God) is all. Such a great one is very rare.
And now,
sage Narada tries to describe this indescribable love, using negatives, in next Sutra.
Sutra 54
Gunarahitam kamanaarahitam pratikshanavardhamaanam avichhinnam
sukshmataram anubhavarupam
Free of attributes, free of selfish desire, growing each moment, unbroken,
extremely subtle, of the form of sheer experience (is this pure love).
Pure love is devoid of all
attributes. Attributes reside in matter
and describe one or other aspect of relativity while the pure love for God is
beyond matter and relativity. It is free from all desires; not even the desire
for Moksha is there. It grows in volume and intensity every moment. It has a ceaseless flow. It is of the form of
subtler feeling. It is impossible for
the ordinary human mind to have any conception of this pure love. It is of the
nature of the devotee’s immediate experience, without the intervention of any
medium.
Sutra 55
Tat
praapya tadevaavalokayati, tadeva shrinoti, tadeva bhaashayati, tadeva
chintayati.
Having
attained that (Supreme Love), the devotee sees (feels, comprehends) that alone,
hears that alone, speaks of that alone, and thinks (contemplates upon) of that
alone.
Attaining the state of Supreme Love, sage Narada says, the bhaktha
comes to speak of that alone; becomes so full of that, that he cannot speak of
anything else. That alone he continuously feels; the mind then cannot
comprehend anything other than that. And that bhaktha is filled with such a
deep and firm devotion that at the intellectual level he apprehends God only
within, without, and everywhere. His whole
being is simply soaked in thought of God.
There is no faculty which is left out of this experience. A similar description of the highest
spiritual experience, experience of infinte (Bhuma), is given in Chandogya
Upanishad (7-24-1); “yatra nanyatpasyati, nanyacchrnoti, nanyadvijanati, sa Bhuma (Bhuma (the Infinite) is that in which one sees nothing else, hears nothing
else, and understands nothing else.)”
Sutra 56
Gauni tridhaa guna-bhedaad
aarta-aadi-bhedaad vaa.
Secondary bhakti is
threefold, based on differences in natural tendencies (gunas) or
according to distinction as aarta, etc.
To start with, bhakti was
differentiated as para and apara bhakti, which were then
identified as saadhya and sadhana bhakti. Now, under sadhana
bhakti, we have:
1) Mukhya or
primary bhakti, and
2) Gauni or
secondary bhakti.
All bhakthas
start at the secondary level. Secondary bhakti is further classified based on
the three gunas, namely, tamas, rajas, and satva.
Alternatively, secondary bhakti can also be classified based on the
distinction specified in the sutra as “aarta, etc”. This distinction
refers to four distinct categories of bhakti as narrated by Lord Krishna in
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VII, Verse 16.
Looking at the first
classification of bhakti by gunas:
i) Tamas is
characterized by inertia, lethargy, and ignorance,
ii) Rajas is
characterized by passion, desire, energy and activity, whereas,
iii) Sattva is
absence of tamas and rajas. It indicates purity of mind.
In Ramayana we have the
examples of Kumbakarna for Tamasic bhakthi, Ravana for Rajasic bhakthi and
Vibhishana for Satvic bhakthi. Though they were asuras, they were bhakthas as
well, because they did Tapas praying to God.
Kumbakarna asked for sleep, Ravana for rule over the whole world and
Vibhishana for Hari bhakthi.
The second classification
is based on kinds of prayers the seekers offer:
i) aarta, the one
who prays when in distress.
ii) arthaarthi, one
who prays to God for this and that; he seeks material goal
iii) jijnasu, the
one who seeks to know God.
The above three division is from
the Bhagavad Gita (7-16) where Lord Krishna gives a classification of His
bhakthas as:
Chaturvidhaa bhajante maam
janaah sukritino’rjuna;
Aarto jijnaasurartharthee
jnaanee cha bharatarshabha.
O Arjuna, lord of Bharatas, four kinds
of virtuous people worship Me: the afflicted, the seeker of Knowledge, the
seeker of wealth and the man of Knowledge, Jnani.
Of the four Jnani bhaktha is a
sadhya bhaktha and so only the other three are referred to as Gauni bhakthas.
In puranas we have the example of Draupadi for aarta bhakthi, Uddava for
jijnasu bhakthi and Dhruva for artharthi bhakthi
Sutra 57
Uttarasmaaduttarasmaat
purvapurvaa shreyaaya bhavati
Each prior one is nobler
(greater) than the successive one.
In the classification as per Gunas, Rajasic bhakthi that is
practiced to obtain power and wealth is placed higher than Tamasic bhakthi in which
divine help is sought to harm others as well.
Satvic bhakthi is still higher placed for it only seeks to know God and
prays for the happiness that prayer gives. So, the bhakthi is ranked in the
following order where one is superior to the next: Satvic bhakthi, Rajasic
bhakthi and Tamasic bhakthi.
In the second classification, Jijnasu bhakthi where knowledge is sought is placed higher than artharthi bhakthi, where power and wealth are sought. Artha bhakthi, wherein a sincere, passionate appeal is made to God, while in distress is considered higher than Jijnasu bhakthi. So here the ranking order is: Aarta bhakthi, Jijnasu bhakthi and Artharthi bhakthi, where one is superior to the next. Here artha bhaktha is defined as one who feels distressed even by the thought of separation from God.
Mukhya Bhakthi is superior to satvic bhakthi and artha Bhakthi and Para Bhakthi is superior to Mukhya bhakthi.
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