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Written by Swami Vivekananda |
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Bhakti–Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord,
a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One
single moment of the madness of extreme love to God
brings us eternal freedom. “Bhakti”, says Nârada in his
explanation of the Bhakti–aphorisms, “is intense love
to God”; “When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none;
he becomes satisfied for ever”; “This love cannot be
reduced to any earthly benefit”, because so long as
worldly desires last, that kind of love does not come;
“Bhakti is greater than karma, greater than Yoga,
because these are intended for an object in view, while
Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own
end.”
Bhakti has been the one constant theme of our
sages. Apart from the special writers on Bhakti, such
as Shândilya or Narada, the great commentators on the
Vyâsa–Sutras, evidently advocates of knowledge
(Jnâna), have also something very suggestive to say
about love. Even when the commentator is anxious to
explain many, if not all, of the texts so as to make
them import a sort of dry knowledge, the Sutras, in
the chapter on worship especially, do not lend
themselves to be easily manipulated in that fashion.
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There is not really so much difference between
knowledge (Jnana) and love (Bhakti) as people
sometimes imagine. We shall see, as we go on, that in
the end they converge and meet at the same point. So
also is it with Râja–Yoga, which when pursued as a
means to attain liberation, and not (as unfortunately it
frequently becomes in the hands of charlatans and
mystery–mongers) as an instrument to hoodwink the
unwary, leads us also to the same goal.
The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the
easiest and the most natural way to reach the great
divine end in view; its great disadvantage is that in its
lower forms it oftentimes degenerates into hideous
fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, or
Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been
almost exclusively recruited from these worshippers
on the lower planes of Bhakti. That singleness of
attachment (Nishthâ) to a loved object, without
which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the
cause of the denunciation of everything else. All the
weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or
country have only one way of loving their own ideal,
i.e. by hating every other ideal. Herein is the
explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly
attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his
own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as
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soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal.
This kind of love is somewhat like the canine instinct
of guarding the master’s property from intrusion; only,
the instinct of the dog is better than the reason of
man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an
enemy in whatever dress he may come before it.
Again, the fanatic loses all power of judgment.
Personal considerations are in his case of such
absorbing interest that to him it is no question at all
what a man says — whether it is right or wrong; but
the one thing he is always particularly careful to know
is who says it. The same man who is kind, good,
honest, and loving to people of his own opinion, will
not hesitate to do the vilest deeds when they are
directed against persons beyond the pale of his own
religious brotherhood.
But this danger exists only in that stage of Bhakti
which is called the preparatory (Gauni). When Bhakti
has become ripe and has passed into that form which
is called the supreme (Parâ), no more is there any fear
of these hideous manifestations of fanaticism; that soul
which is overpowered by this higher form of Bhakti is
too near the God of Love to become an instrument for
the diffusion of hatred.
It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the
building up of our characters in this life: yet we know
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that that character is of the noblest type in which all
these three — knowledge and love and Yoga — are
harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a
bird to fly — the two wings and the tail as a rudder
for steering. Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing,
Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga is the tail that
keeps up the balance. For those who cannot pursue all
these three forms of worship together in harmony and
take up, therefore, Bhakti alone as their way, it is
necessary always to remember that forms and
ceremonials, though absolutely necessary for the
progressive soul, have no other value than taking us on
to that state in which we feel the most intense love to
God.
There is a little difference in opinion between the
teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both
admit the power of Bhakti. The Jnanis hold Bhakti to
be an instrument of liberation, the Bhaktas look upon
it both as the instrument and the thing to be attained.
To my mind this is a distinction without much
difference. In fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument,
really means a lower form of worship, and the higher
form becomes inseparable from the lower form of
realisation at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great
stress upon his own peculiar method of worship,
forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is
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bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect
knowledge true love is inseparable.
Bearing this in mind let us try to understand what
the great Vedantic commentators have to say on the
subject. In explaining the Sutra
Âvrittirasakridupadeshât (Meditation is necessary, that
having been often enjoined.), Bhagavân Shankara says,
“Thus people say, ‘He is devoted to the king, he is
devoted to the Guru’; they say this of him who
follows his Guru, and does so, having that following as
the one end in view. Similarly they say, ‘The loving
wife meditates on her loving husband’; here also a kind
of eager and continuous remembrance is meant.” This
is devotion according to Shankara.
“Meditation again is a constant remembrance (of the
thing meditated upon) flowing like an unbroken
stream of oil poured out from one vessel to another.
When this kind of remembering has been attained (in
relation to God) all bandages break. Thus it is spoken
of in the scriptures regarding constant remembering as
a means to liberation. This remembering again is of the
same form as seeing, because it is of the same meaning
as in the passage, ‘When He who is far and near is
seen, the bonds of the heart are broken, all doubts
vanish, and all effects of work disappear’ He who is
near can be seen, but he who is far can only be
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remembered. Nevertheless the scripture says that he
have to see Him who is near as well as Him who, is
far, thereby indicating to us that the above kind of
remembering is as good as seeing. This remembrance
when exalted assumes the same form as seeing. . . .
Worship is constant remembering as may be seen
from the essential texts of scriptures. Knowing, which
is the same as repeated worship, has been described as
constant remembering. . . . Thus the memory, which
has attained to the height of what is as good as direct
perception, is spoken of in the Shruti as a means of
liberation. ‘This Atman is not to be reached through
various sciences, nor by intellect, nor by much study
of the Vedas. Whomsoever this Atman desires, by
him is the Atman attained, unto him this Atman
discovers Himself.’ Here, after saying that mere
hearing, thinking and meditating are not the means of
attaining this Atman, it is said, ‘Whom this Atman
desires, by him the Atman is attained.’ The extremely
beloved is desired; by whomsoever this Atman is
extremely beloved, he becomes the most beloved of
the Atman. So that this beloved may attain the
Atman, the Lord Himself helps. For it has been said by
the Lord: ‘Those who are constantly attached to Me
and worship Me with love — I give that direction to
their will by which they come to Me.’ Therefore it is
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said that, to whomsoever this remembering, which is
of the same form as direct perception, is very dear,
because it is dear to the Object of such memory
perception, he is desired by the Supreme Atman, by
him the Supreme Atman is attained. This constant
remembrance is denoted by the word Bhakti.” So says
Bhagavân Râmânuja in his commentary on the Sutra
Athâto Brahma–jijnâsâ (Hence follows a dissertation
on Brahman.).
In commenting on the Sutra of Patanjali, Ishvara
pranidhânâdvâ, i.e. “Or by the worship of the Supreme
Lord” — Bhoja says, “Pranidhâna is that sort of Bhakti
in which, without seeking results, such as sense–
enjoyments etc., all works are dedicated to that
Teacher of teachers.” Bhagavan Vyâsa also, when
commenting on the same, defines Pranidhana as “the
form of Bhakti by which the mercy of the Supreme
Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him by granting
him his desires”. According to Shândilya, “Bhakti is
intense love to God.” The best definition is, however,
that given by the king of Bhaktas, Prahlâda:
“That deathless love which the ignorant have for the
fleeting objects of the senses — as I keep meditating
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on Thee — may not that love slip away from my
heart!” Love! For whom? For the Supreme Lord
Ishvara. Love for any other being, however great
cannot be Bhakti; for, as Ramanuja says in his Shri
Bhâshya, quoting an ancient Âchârya, i.e. a great
teacher:
“From Brahmâ to a clump of grass, all things that
live in the world are slaves of birth and death caused
by Karma; therefore they cannot be helpful as objects
of meditation, because they are all in ignorance and
subject to change.” In commenting on the word
Anurakti used by Shandilya, the commentator
Svapneshvara says that it means Anu, after, and Rakti,
attachment; i.e. the attachment which comes after the
knowledge of the nature and glory of God; else a blind
attachment to any one, e.g. to wife or children, would
be Bhakti. We plainly see, therefore, that Bhakti is a
series or succession of mental efforts at religious
realisation beginning with ordinary worship and
ending in a supreme intensity of love for Ishvara. |
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