Re: About the Bhaktas and Bhakti

From the Bhakti List Archives

• January 22, 2000


Dear Balu
  Its soo funny the way your question is, I may not
know so many things, but i guess i can share what
little i know !!! Well first off, Lord never stole
anything well I know we all hear that He stole the
butter, and lied about it and all that, but the key is
to understand one thing, that Lord Sri Krishna Blessed
the Gokulam with cow's and gave them a meaningful life
of his leelas and etc... We as his devotees, must
offer everything to God, even before we take anything,
well for that matter trust me, even ourselves, our
kids wife, grand kids, parents and everything and
anything that you know in life, must be offered to
God, before you accept it, coz it's his blessing and
his grace that what we are today, and even this life,
He is the one that blessed us for giving this Human
Life and just as how a claf who is saperated from the
mother will stive to go back to her, The Atma we have
in ourselves will exactly feel the same that We all
should Stive to go back to that GodHead, but anyway
comming back to your question, Lord Sri Krishna has
actually blessed the gopi's and other goppanas by
stealing their butter, coz even before they go and
sell it and make money or a living out of that butter,
its because of Lord Sri Krishna's blessing that they
have that, and by stealing it from them he has taken
the liberty to take it by Himself rather than them
giving it to them... Acutally in reality they all
Loved when Sri Krishna stole thier butter and milk,
but its just the maya loka in which we are in that we
see things little different, that how come He stole
butter and lied about it !!! No actually in reality,
it belongs to Him and its us who stole that from Him. 
Well even this Life tooo for that matter it even
dosent belong to us, we have stolen it from him and
its our duty to give it back to Him !!!!!  Thats why
the Bhakthi Marga and the Prapathi Marga which guides
us to attain salvation, and attain moksham in life... 
  Well to define Bhakthi marga we have to go back to
Gita, and refer what Sri Krishna told us, I believe
most you do know that so i dont wanna expand on that,
but the other eazy path of salvation which is Prapathi
Marga, through which we follow Sri Ramanuja who has
shown the path of Salvation to one and all in this
earth, well the principal behind that is, If one
couldnt attain perfection in Bhakthi then Prapathi is
the way to go to attain Moksham coz imagine and lets
analyze ourselves, None of us here are as great as the
King Jada Bharatha, who literally left even his
Kingdom to attain salvation, he then spent his life in
a forest and try to do thapasya on the Lord Govinda 
to attain Moksham, but unfortunately he fell in love
with a bambi and he took care of that little dear in
his old age, and died thinking about the dear rather
than the Great Lord, well lets imagine how may dear
things we have in life, Family Friends, Car, Houses,
well the list goes on !!! But anyway in prapathi marga
one still follows the Bhakthi marga, but gets an
assurance of an enterence to Moksham by Lord in this
birth itself, by surrendering to through an Acharya. 
The reason is once the lord gives His Word to us, he
will never go back, for instance, Lakshmana asks Rama
that Rama you have promised Vibhishana the kingdom
when he surrendered to you, what if tomarrow Ravana
himself comes and surrenders to you, then what would
be your answer.  Rama then says " Sakru Deva
Prapanyaya, Thavas Mi Ithi Yachathi, Abhayam Sarva
Boothabyoo, Dhatham yaathat Vratham Mamaa"  (please
pardon me if ther are any mistakes on this sloka ) but
the meaning is that Lord Rama says forget about Ravana
even to any jeevathma, for that instance comes to me
and surrenders completely to me, then I will give them
Salvation no matter what !!!! Well That is the Great
ness of our Lord, I dont know if i answerd your
question or not, to just recap about Bhathi and
Bhaktas, its like one cannot be without the other, Its
the Force Bhakti that drives the Bhaktas and i repeat
its the Force Bhakthi that gives a meaning to
everyone's life.  Everyone in this earth certainly do
have that, and its just matter of time to realize to
what extent to it, it is !!!!! 

Adiyen
Servent of my Acharya and Bhagavathas and to My Lord.
Krishna Kanumalla 

--- Balu  wrote:
> Dear Fellow-travellers,
> 
> Avidly, and with great interest, have I been
> following our discussions. I
> want to raise a question about which, I hope, you
> will do some thinking
> before answering -- if at all. 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? I mean
> to ask you the following: is the bhakta moved
> because, for example, the
> child who stole the butter happens to be the
> *Kannan*, or because the
> *child*, who also happens to be the Lord, stole the
> butter? If it is the
> first, it is *worthless*: it is the same as being a
> sycophant (as the
> Americans would put it: one sucks up to ...). If the
> second, it is false:
> surely, we are not moved to tears when our children
> steal and then lie about
> it. When the mother gets to hear from a child: "'I'
> did not steal" and, as
> proof, gets to see the 'vishwarupa' (in the mouth
> where the speech manifests
> itself) and 'sees' the Cosmos (all that ever was, is
> and shall be) in an
> 'I' -- what is the question, and what the answer?
> 
> In the hope that bhakti will not become a show of
> sentimentality,
> 
> Yours truly,
> 
> Balu
> 
> 
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