Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari,July 2002

A former Editor of The Vedanta Kesari, Swami Brahmeshananda is now the Secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Chandigarh.

Of the four yogas, Bhakti Yoga is consid- ered to be the easiest andthe most natural. Even Sri Ramakrishna was of the opinion that in the present Iron Age (Kali Yuga), the path of Bhakti as preached by Narada is the best and the most suited.¹ The competent aspirant (adhikari) for Jnana Yoga must have four essential prerequisites, viz., viveka, discimination; vairagya, dispassion; intense desire for liberation, and the six virtues: restraint of the mind and senses, withdrawal from objects of enjoyment, concentration, forbearance and faith. For success in Raja Yoga too, one must assiduously practise the five Yamas, i.e., non-violence, truthfulness, continence, non-stealing and non-coveteousness; the five Niyamas, i.e., purity, contentment, austerity, scriptural study and surrender to God. Karma Yoga, also, according to Sri Ramakrishna, is not easy. One might feel that one is doing all actions without attachment and egoism, but somehow ego and attachment creep in.² But these problems and preconditions are not essential for Bhakti, or devotion. Even an illiterate person born in a low caste, and even a wicked person³ can become a devotee of God. In hagiography we get innumerable such illustrations. Valmiki, Ajamila, courtesan Pingala and many others have attained liberation through love of God. In short, the doors of Bhakti are open for every one, young and old, men and women, rich and poor, wise and unwise.

But is Bhakti really so easy? Although Sri Ramakrishna has recommended it for the present age, he has also warned us that it is not so easy as one might think. The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi used to say that Mukti or liberation is easier than attaining true Bhakti or devotion to God. Swami Vivekananda, while speaking on Sri Krishna, has said that the love of the Gopis for Sri Krishna is the highest manifestation of spirituality.⁴ And yet, he did not preach it or recommend it for the common masses. Instead, he advised that Sri Krishna's teachings in the Gita must be followed.

Once Swami Premananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, had to address a public meeting at Malda. While he was elaborating and stressing service of man as God, as propagated by Swami Vivekananda, some one asked him to speak on love and devotion. At this, Swami Premananda forcefully said, 'Who will listen to love and devotion? I don't find anybody here who is fit to listen to it.' Then the Swami continued: 'Sir, listen to a story. Once a street hawker was calling out, "Who wants to buy love? Who wants to buy love?" People opened their front doors and inquired about the price. The hawker said, "Price? It is priceless! But I can sell this invaluable love in exchange for a head. Are you ready to give up your heads?" People immediately shut their doors.' Then pointing to the audience, Premananda said, 'Is there anybody here ready to give up his head [the ego]?' Everyone kept quiet.⁵

Bhakti is easy because everyone is capable of loving. All love something or the other. ... Love is naturally present in everyone. But it is also difficult because it is not easy to love an invisible, intangible Being called God. And the purest, most unselfish love which can make the Lord of the Universe appear before a devotee is all the more difficult.

The Sanskrit word for love is prema, which etymologically means priyasya bhavam--the feeling one has for an object or person whom one likes is called love. 'I like the object or person which delights me and gives me pleasure, and my feeling towards it is called love. A natural scenery, a book, a fountain pen, a car, a watch etc give me pleasure--hence I love them.' Now, in this definition of love, the criterion for love is the pleasure, joy or delight obtained by the lover, the person who is loving. While this feeling of love for inanimate objects is understandable, it takes the form of selfishness when it occurs between two beings. Such a selfish love between men and women where personal happiness and sense enjoyment is the aim, starts with mutual attraction, matures into marriage and ends with divorce or separation. Referring to such a love, it is said in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:⁶

It is not for the sake of the husband that the husband is loved; it is for one's own sake that the husband is loved...

It may appear unfair to dub all human relations as selfish, but there is sufficient truth in it. Sage Vidyaranya, in the celebrated treatise Panchadasi, gives the example of a father who loves his child dearly. He takes the child in his lap, hugs it and repeatedly kisses it. But does the child like it? No. It weeps because the beard of the father pricks its delicate facial skin. But the father delights and would not leave the child!⁷ (One cannot blame Freud, if he calls this lust.) At times, people intentionally tease a child so that when it starts weeping, they could take it in the lap and delight it by fondling it! Such an attitude of delighting in inflicting pain on the object of one's love is nothing but machochism--a mental aberration.

Not all loves, however, are of this inferior selfish category. In the majority of worldly relationships, there is mutual give and take. The lover and the beloved both delight in loving. They derive pleasure mutually. For example, a mother derives joy on seeing the child and also tries to make him happy. She feels pain if the child is unhappy. But even in the love of a mother for the child there is some amount of selfishness. The mother expects that the child would look after her when he grows up. Sri Ramakrishna used to explain the selfish character of worldly love to his devotees and disciples through various interesting stories. We also know the story of sage Valmiki, who was transformed from a dacoit into a sage when he learnt that none of his family members--mother, father or wife--was willing to share his sins!

But there are also exceptions to this rule that all love is selfish. A story is told of a man to whom a son was born at a ripe age. Naturally the old man was found extremely attached to his only son. The father would remain day and night engaged in serving and caring for the child. All his activities and daily life were centred on the son. He did everything possible to make his son happy. Unfortunately, at the age of fifteen, the son fell seriously ill. The father did everything possible to treat him but the son could not be saved. Just before the son's passing away, the father asked his son whether he had ever been unhappy or uncomfortable during those fifteen years of life. The son confessed that he was never unhappy.

After the passing away of the son, everyone thought that the father would breakdown completely since he was so much attached to him. But no. The father was not at all sorry at the death of the son! Such examples of absolutely unselfish love are rare. Of course there are people who unselfishly fulfil their duty to their parents and relatives. But duty without love sooner or later becomes a burden. Says Swami Viveka-nanada, 'Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly.'⁸

True love is higher than duty. In its purest form love means a burning desire to serve the beloved, to make him or her happy, a passion for the absolute good of the beloved. Such a love, as we have said, is rare.

The second problem with Bhakti is that it is very difficult to love an invisible and intangible God. There might be a few fortunate souls, endowed with noble past impressions (samskaras) and an innate natural love for God. But all the rest of the people have to face this problem. Normally, children born in devoted families might show some faith and simple attraction for God and his images, but as they grow and intellectually mature, such faith gets reduced to mere formal devotion. None-the-less, faith in the existence of a God who can be loved and who reciprocates our love is very helpful in Bhakti. Indeed there cannot be any Bhakti without faith.

Bhakti or devotion to God starts with selfish devotion and formal worship of an image or symbol of God. According to the Gita worship devoid of chanting of mantras, not according to the prescribed method and done only for self-aggrandizement is tamasika worship.⁹ It is often seen that the cheapest clothes, fruits and other articles are used in worship. It is obvious that in such a worship there is a total lack of faith in the deity being worshipped and an absence of conviction that the image is alive with the presence of the Divine.

A higher form of worship is that in which the devotee offers the best possible articles to the deity. He decorates the image with the finest clothes and the costliest ornaments. But, here also, the devotee's wish prevails. For God, gold and ornaments have no value. They are precious for the devotee. The devotee thus offers what he thinks valuable and thus derives satisfaction.

In a still higher form of worship, the deity is worshipped strictly according to the scriptural injunctions and not according to the devotee's whims and fancies. Thus, the ritual of worship of Kali and that of Shiva are different from each other. Sri Ramakrishna must be offered farina pudding, although one may offer other things also. Although a devotee might initially like to decorate the image of Sri Ramakrishna with costly clothes and ornaments, he would soon realize how ridiculous it was to offer gold to him who could not even touch metal!

A stage comes when the devotee goes beyond the injunctions and prescribed norms of worship. The worship which began as a sakama puja--a worship for the fulfilment of some desire--soon becomes nishkama, free from all selfish motive. Finally, the worshipper will become one with the worshipped deity. No more can such a devotee perform formal worship. Sri Ramakrishna's informal worship of Mother Kali, which had transcended all prescribed rules, was a cause of alarm for the people around!

In the highest stage of Bhakti, not only does the devotee's wish become one with that of the Beloved, the opposite too occurs! The worshipped Lord becomes a slave of the devotee. He moves and acts according to the will of the devotee. The devotional scriptures are replete with marvellous stories of such exalted saints. Although the rule is that the adored Lord must not be offered an eatable which has been tasted by someone else, Lord Rama gladly ate the fruits offered by Sabari after she had tasted them. Although the Lord becomes a slave of love of such a devotee, a true devotee would never wish to go against the Lord's wish nor do anything which might cause trouble to the Lord. Sri Ramakrishna used to tell a parable of three friends passing through a forest, when they heard the roar of a lion. The first one said that all must die because the beast would kill them. The second person said that there is no cause for anxiety. Let them pray to God and He would protect them. The third one said that there was no need to trouble God for such a small thing. Let them climb the tree and save themselves. The first person had no faith in God, while the third person was a true devotee.¹⁰

But how does one ascend to such highest level of Bhakti? It will be evident that unselfishness, love and faith are fundamental needs for such a Bhakti and of these the most difficult to attain is unselfishness. Without being pure and selfless, love and faith do not arise. Hence the first step is to fulfil one's swadharma and duty enjoined by one's station in life.

It is equally important to purify one's worldly relations and become as unselfish as possible in the worldly sense. Renunciation and service are the stepping stones to Bhakti. Let us always take the position of a giver rather than that of a receiver. Seeking pleasure and happiness for oneself has become our nature. Let us seek others' pleasure. Let us always seek to serve others. Unfortunately we are so shallow and mean minded that we are always trying to grab petty advantages. We must remember that love is obtained by giving and not by seeking. Hence an aspirant for Bhakti must totally relinquish worldly desires and ambitions.

Even if we have some desires, let us direct them towards the Lord. There is no harm in such sakama bhakti as a stepping stone to nishkama bhakti. Sri Krishna has mentioned four types of devotees in the Gita. Those seeking the fulfilment of their desires from God are also accepted as devotees.¹¹ But to ask worldly things from God is like asking for pumpkin and brinjal from an emperor. May we, like Swami Vivekananda, ask God for knowledge, devotion, discrimination and renunciation.

Practising the preparatory disciplines of Bhakti as prescribed by Ramanuja and other great teachers of Bhakti considerably helps in acquiring Bhakti. Just as by handling flowers and rubbing a log of sandal wood, one's hands get scented, similarly by doing formal ritualistic worship, prayer, chanting hymns etc, love and attraction for God arises in one's heart. Hence it is advised that one must perform ritualistic worship and chant the name of God for a fixed number of times. Following certain rules and regulations too helps in the renunciation of one's desires and rising to the level of desirelessness. This vaidhi bhakti or preparatory devotion gradually leads to true devotion, prema bhakti.

There are various types of prema bhakti as described in the scriptures. One may have any bhava or relation with God. One may, for example, cultivate the attitude of a servant. The spirit of service, cultivated towards other people and in our worldly relationship, can be very easily turned towards God. 'I am a servant and the Lord is my Master'--this attitude is a very pure and beneficial one. Although one can also cultivate the attitude of a child and consider God as the Father or the Mother, there is a certain advantage in the attitude of a servant. There is no possibility of ego cropping up in this attitude, and one continues to remain humble. On maturity, intimacy with God and a sense of belonging also arise from this very attitude.

Let us begin from where we are. Let us go on purifying ourselves gradually and diligently and sublimating our love from worldly love to divine love. There is no cause for despair, but we must know the difficulties. The Lord of Love is ever ready to lend His helping hand. If we move one step towards Him, He is sure to move ten steps towards us. A day will come when we shall realize that it was not we who were trying to reach God; it was God who was trying to approach us. Let us remember that God loves us more than we can love Him.

1. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Chennai: Sri Rama-krishna Math, 1996), p.175. Hereafter, Gospel.
2. Gospel, p.452.
3. The Gita, IX.30,32.
4. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 8 vols. (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 1979), III.258-60. Hereafter, CW.
5. Swami Chetanananda, God Lived With Them, St.Louis, USA, 1998, pp.211.
6. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, II.iv.5.
7. The Panchadasi, XII.10.
8. CW I, p.67.
9. The Gita, XVII.13.
10. Gospel, p.229.
11. The Gita, VII.16,18.