Bhakthi and Upasana

Upadesa Saara – verses 4,5&6

Verse no.4 of Upadesa saara reads as:
कायवाङमनः कार्यमुत्तमम् |   (Kaaya Vaang manah kaaryam uttamam)

पूजनं जपस्चिंतनम क्रमात् ||  (Pujanam japah chittanam kramaath)

Action of worship can be done with the body, words and mind. The action done with body is Puja, the action done with words is chanting and action done with the mind is meditation. Each is superior to the other in ascending order. (The action done with words is superior to action done with the body. The action done with the mind is superior to action done with the words.) 

In this verse Ramana Maharishi elaborates about Ishta Devata Bhakthi, Bhakthi in respect of one’s chosen Deity of worship. Bhakthi  is defined normally as reverential devotion to a superior - object, person or ideal.  Here we are referring to Bhakthi as a religious action, reverential devotion to God, the Cosmic Supreme.  This action can be divided into kayikam (physical), vachikam (verbal), and manasam (mental).  Physical action is doing Puja, by offering flowers. lighting a lamp, chanting slokas or Mantras etc., to one’s Ishta devata or visiting the temple and participating in the worship there or going on a pilgrimage to holy places.  Here all the three instruments of body, mind and speech are employed and this is called here Poojanam.  Verbal action consists of singing Lord's glory, reciting slokas in praise of the Lord, reading of religious texts containing the glory of the Lord, including Ithihasas and Puranas and repeated chanting of His Name or a Mantra, regularly.  Here mind and speech only are involved and so this requires more mental concentration than physical action.  This is referred to as Japa.  Mental action is meditation on Lord and this is called Chinthanam.  Manasa puja is also called Upasana. This requires a high mental discipline, much greater than that of physical puja and verbal worship.  All the three actions qualify as Yoga when action is done selflessly surrendering the ego in respect of a single Devata, adopted as one’s Ishta Devata.  It is this Bhakthi that transforms Karma as Karma Yoga. And when this Bhakthi is done for Bhakthi’s sake alone it becomes Bhakthi Yoga. In Bhakthi Yoga  reverential devotion yields place to unqualifed Love of the Lord to whom one surrenders one’s total will and ego.

As Bhakthi matures, the Love expands to embrace the whole creation as Bhaktha sees Lord in all and all as the Lord.  This is called Viswarupa Bhakthi.   Maharishi talks of this Viswarupa Bhakthi in the next verse, verse no.5.

जगत इशधीयुक्तसेवनम् | (Jagada Ishadee yukta sevanam)
अष्टमूर्तिभ्रिददेवापूजनं ||  (Astha murthy brid deva poojanam)

Service of the world is service of God having eight-fold form, with the idea that everything is God alone.

The eight-fold form of God consists of the five elements; space, air, fire, water and earth, the sun (representing all stars), the moon (representing all planets and satellites), and the Jivas (all living beings).  In verse 9 of Sri Dakshinamurthy stotram Sri Sankara describes specifically the Viswa Rupa of Lord Dakshinamurthy in the same way as eightfold form i.e. comprising the earth, water, fire, air, space, sun, moon and Jiva; the manifested Universe of all movable and immovable objects.  Sri Krishna also talks of His eight-fold Prakriti in Gita  (7 – 4), “This Prakrti of Mine is divided eight-fold thus: earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect and also egoism.”  Further the very first nama of Vishnu Sahasranamam  is “Vishwam” – which means one who has entered into all beings, inert and sentient, movable and immovable -“Vishathi ithi Vishwam”.  Again Isavasya Upanishad also in the very first line states “Whatever is here in this world, everything is pervaded or covered by God”

Understanding Universe itself as nothing but a form of God is the essence of this Bhakthi.  Initially, the understanding was that God as creator is only the intelligent cause for the Universe.  As one’s knowledge of God grows, understanding expands and one has the knowledge that God is both intelligent cause and material cause of this Universe. As material cause of Universe, God pervades all objects of creation, both movable and immovable, just as gold pervades all ornaments of gold.  A Viswa-rupa Bhaktha sees God in all and all as God.  From Viswa rupa Bhakthi, with expansion of vision and maturity of understanding one grows to appreciate Abhedha-Bhavana and gain Advaitic Jnanam, which Maharishi will discuss later.

In verse no.6 Maharishi elaborates on verbal worship.

उत्तमस्तवादुच्चमंदतः |    (Uttama stavaat uccha mandathah)
चित्तजं जप ध्यानमुत्तमम् || (Chittajam japa dhyaanam uttamam)

Singing of Lord’s glories is good, but better than that is loud chanting in japa, while superior to loud chanting is soft chanting in japa. However, best of all is silent, mental japa.

Japa means repetition of a mantra or Lord’s name.  In Japa one should always focus on the mantra or the nama. Focus on the deity is done before the japa begins, as an invocation, and not during the chanting.  Japa produces a vibration which is supposed to be beneficial. The importance of Japa as a sadhana can be seen from Sri Krishna’s words in Gita (10-25) “Among the Yajnas, I am Japa Yajna”.  Japa can be done in a loud voice or in a soft voice or mentally.  The most effective chanting is mental and least effective is loud chanting.  Mental chanting is as good as meditation and so is a form of Upasana.  So Maharishi calls it as Dhyana Japa. 

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Nama Siddantha

Nama stands for Divine name, any one name of the Lord as Saguna Brahman. Saguna Brahman is the formless Supreme with Its power of Maya manifest.   The forms and names are many for Saguna Brahman as Lord Sri Krishna states in Gita (10-40) “There is no end to my divine manifestations, O destroyer of enemies”. Lord also states in another place (4-11) “In whatever form or manner they seek me, I favour them in that form or manner”.  Efficacy of Nama constitutes the core philosophy of Nama Siddantha.  It embraces the sadhanas connected with Nama, namely Nama Japa, Dhyana of Nama, Nama Sankeertan, and Divya Nama Bhajan. While in Divya Nama Bhajan devotional songs on various Namas are sung; in others, Nama of an Ishta Devata is taken for chanting, meditation or group singing in Satsang. Of these Nama Sankeertan is most favoured one as in Satsang, control of the wandering mind and concentration on Nama is more easily achieved. To illustrate that the name of the Lord is superior to the form it relates to, an incident relating to Lord Sri Rama and his ardent devotee Hanumanji is quoted.

The king of Kashi was going to Ayodhya to pay his respects to Lord Sri Rama.  Sage Narada met him on the way and requested a favour. The king agreed and Sage Narada told him not to bow down before sage Viswamitra when he meets him. The king agreed and did likewise. Sage Viswamitra took it as an insult and was upset. He took the matter to Sri Rama and demanded that the king be punished for the deliberate insult.   Sri Rama promised to lay the king’s head at his preceptor’s feet.  The king got frightened on hearing about this. So he approached Sage Narada to save himself from Sri Rama’s wrath.  Sage Narada advised him to seek the protection of Anjana Devi, mother of Hanumanji.   The King went to her and sought her protection first and when he got the assurance, he narrated that it is from Sri Rama’s anger he sought protection. She felt troubled but as she had given the word, she asked her son to help the king to survive Sri Rama’s wrath.  Hanumanji  was in a dilemma but decided to risk Sri Rama’s displeasure to help him. He stretched his tail and wound it round the king like a fortress and sat on top of it chanting the name of Sri Rama.  Sri Rama in the meanwhile went in search of the king and not finding him, shot an arrow charging it with Mantras to seek and bring the head of the king. But the arrow stopped in the mid-air and turned and fell at his feet. Puzzled Sri Rama decided to use the infallible Brahmastra. Then Sage Narada appeared and asked him to listen carefully to the faint sound coming from distance before acting.  Sri Rama listened and he heard the chant of his name by Hanumanji.  Sage Narada then narrated to Sri Rama all that happened and also explained  that his Nama is more powerful than His own Self. Meanwhile Sage Viswamitra also came there, contrite over the crisis he had precipitated.  Sage Narada asked the king to prostrate before Sage Viswamitra laying down his head at the Sage’s feet, as promised by Sri Rama. The king prostrated accordingly and Sage pardoned him. Sri Rama was also relieved to know that it was all a ploy by Sage Narada to demonstrate the power of His name. 

There is another story in Bhagavatha, the story of Ajamila, to emphasise the glory of Nama.  Ajamila is a Brahmin who forgot the Vedic ways and turned a sinner led astray by his senses. At his death-bed, in the last few moments of his life he called out  “Narayana” with passion and love, not thinking of the Lord, but thinking of his youngest son, Narayanan. Still he was saved because of the power of the Nama and taken to Vaikunta. This story is not to be taken literally but understood for its message.  The thrust of the story is the emphasis on the efficacy of Nama even when spoken of involuntarily, what to speak of use in japa, dhyana, Bhajan or Sankeerthan, with devotion and dedication. Of these the importance of  Nama Sankeerthan which is the easiest to practice cannot be overemphasised in the modern days of temptations and distractions galore and spiritual indifference. 

One of the pioneers of Nama Siddanta was the fifty-ninth Peetathipathi of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Bodendra Saraswathy Swamigal, known as Bhagavan Nama Bodendral.  In his work Namamrta-Rasayana, he outlines six reasons for the glory of Nama.

1) The repetition of Nama is open to all irrespective of caste, sex, and stage in life and involves no injury to any living being.
2) It does not require any ancillary aid.
3) It does not need the intercession of third person for giving result.
4) It can be performed at any time – no time restraints.
5) It can be performed in any place – no place restraints.
6) There are no ritualistic regulations governing it. 

Although there are no extraneous restrictions, the sadhaka should steer clear of Nama-Aparadha, offence against Nama which will be incurred by:
1) Speaking ill of others and insulting Bhagavathas and other good people.
2) Making distinction between Siva and Vishnu, in respect of their names or attributes.
3) Showing disrespect to Guru.
4) Deriding Vedas and/or other sastras.
5) Relying on efficacy of Nama as a shield and abandoning nithya, naimithika karmas.
6) Non - cultivation of virtues enumerated as Daivi Sampath in Gita like Ahimsa, Satyam etc. 
7) Sporting Ahamkara and Mamakara.
8) Losing faith in the efficacy of Nama
9) Initiating one lacking faith in Nama into the practice of Nama Japa.
10) Straying from the path of Dharma.

In Vishnupurana there is a verse that says;”What is gained through Dhyana in Kritha yuga, through yajnas in Tretha yuga and through ritual worship in Dvapara yuga is obtained by chanting the names of  Kesava (standing for God) in Kali yuga”.  Yugas here can be interpreted not as the ages in physical time but as the state of mind from the least evolved state of consciousness represented by Kali Yuga to the highest developed state represented by Kritha yuga, observes Dr. T.M.P. Mahadevan.  What is gained by Dhyana, Yajnas and ritual worship is Chitta-Suddhi and through that Jnana Yogyatha. The Chitta-suddhi and Jnana yogyatha are easily gained through Nama Sankeerthan is the point of emphasis here. This we can see from Gita {(9-14) and (10- 10 & 11)}.  Describing such devotees, Lord Krishna says in Gita (9-14) - “Constantly singing my glory and striving with firm resolve (for liberation)  and bowing down to me in devotion,  they worship me with single-minded devotion, ever united with me”.  After describing them again in next chapter, Sri Krishna follows it up with the assurance (10-10 &11)-“To them ever united with me and worshipping me with love, I confer that Yoga of wisdom through which they come to me. I abiding in their hearts dispel the darkness born of ignorance, by the shining light of Jnanam.”

Nama siddantha is common to followers of all systems of philosophy including Advaita. The two great teachers of Nama Siddantha, Sri Bodhendral and Sri Sridhar Ayyaval were adherents of Advaita philosophy and what more the former was an ardent Vishnu bhaktha while the other an ardent Siva-bhaktha. The essence of teaching of all sastras is that one should surrender oneself to God to earn God’s Grace and to realize God.  And engaging in Nama Sankeerthan with ananya bhakthi is an easy way of surrendering oneself to Lord.

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