Re: About the Bhaktas and Bhakti
From the Bhakti List Archives
• January 22, 2000
--- Baluwrote: > Dear Fellow-travellers, Is bhakti what the> bhaktas do, or are people > bhaktas because they 'follow' (bad choice of words, > but there is no other> way to put it) the 'bhakti marga', or is bhakti> *neither* of the two? > surely, we are not moved to tears when our children > steal and then lie about> it. In the hope that bhakti will not become a show of> sentimentality, > Yours truly, > > Balu Dear bhakta, AchAryA-s have been known to define "bhakti" simply as "love"... love of God. To understand the nature of "bhakti" in your own terms, perhaps you should try asking yourself the following questions: What is "love"? Is it what "lovers" do? Or is it more? Is it an "approach to life" or "mArga"? Is love mere "emotion"? Or "sentimentality"? Or is "love" the real bond that ties you and this world together, you and your family together,you and your fellow-beings too? Is there a difference between "falling in love" with someone and "being in love" with someone? Have you by chance read Shakespeare or Valmiki? If you have then please ask yourself: "When we love someone do we always become his/her "sychophant" or "slave"? Was the sublime "love" between Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "slavish"? Was the "love" between Bharatha and Rama in Valmiki's Ramayana,"sychophantic"? Does not the love of Bharatha defy our attempts to easily categorize it into either "this" or "that" sort of love? Surely, you are aware of the subtle difference in various degrees of intensity of "love" there is... such as, for example, in the relations between mother and infant, father and son, between spouses, between teeny-boppers, between two thick friends, between siblings....? "Bhakti" is the highest degree of love that exists... and it is between Man and his Maker. As regards your questions on "Kannan" and "butter-thief" you must understand that the stories of "krishna-leelA-s" are not all to be taken in a narrowly literal sense. The stories of Krishna stealing butter etc. are all allegorical accounts of Upanishadic truth... of how God "steals" individual souls or "jeevA-s" and "feasts" on them in a larger-than-human, cosmic sense. The story of Krishna's many "leelA-s" in Gokulam are not meant to appeal to the reader at a purely intellectual level. They have deeper subliminal messages to be absorbed and experienced within the core of one's being.... It is very difficult to explain in plain language the complex feelings of "bhakti" that the AzhwArs or our AchAryA-s felt for God. I agree with you, in our weak translations, their outpourings of great bhakti sometimes do seem "mushy" and "sentimental". But to really understand the AzhwArs and their bhakti you have to get immersed in the "religion of Krishna", in that kind of special language... that special experience... in that special kind of Love! In short, "bhakti" perhaps is not all what "bhaktA-s" do; perhaps, strictly speaking, it is not even a pre-defined way of life... a "mArgA", as you say. But most certainly, "bhakti" is a rare state of rare realization! Trust adiyen has been able to answer your question without any trace of "sentimentality". dAsan, Sampathkumaran __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
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