Narada Bhakti Sutras

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Chapter 3 Sutra 3

HARI AUM

Prostrations to all.

Sutra 3 –

Avyaavrittha bhajanaat

Word meaning
(Para bhakthi is through)
Avyaavrittha – continuous and uninterrupted
Bhajanaat – devotion to the Lord as well.

Sutra Meaning
Bhakthi sadhana also includes continuous and uninterrupted devotion to the Lord.

In the last day we saw Narada proclaiming the negative aspect of sadhana to achieve supreme devotion towards the ultimate reality of Lord. In this sutra, Narada is speaking about the positive aspect of sadhana.

What is essential for a seeker to become a real and supreme devotee of the Lord?
Continuous thought of the Lord which is termed by Narada here as devotion. Though devotion or bhajanam in this sutra can be interpreted as any service to the Lord or his supreme devotees but we can take the direct meaning itself which is apt in this case.

Thus the positive aspect of sadhana is to continuously think about the Lord. The devotion should be continuous and uninterrupted. Even as a mother thinks about her child and a lover thinks about his love always, similarly a devotee should always think about the Lord. The means of easily achieving this constant contemplation is doing seva to the Lord or the world or the Lord’s devotees.

Seva is generally taken as social service but this is not true. There may be many people who do social service; even Sneham and other organizations started by infy people (even Sudha Murthy’s charitable institution) does social service. But these social services are not seva.

Why these social services are not Seva?
Seva is any activity done remembering the Lord and as an offering to the Lord. Sudha Murthy among many other people might be remembering the Lord but it is very important to remember the right Lord. After learning Java, if I go to an examination and say I remembered Java but failed because I was remembering core Java whereas the questions were from EJB (part of J2EE) – the social services done remembering a Lord who is there in heaven or just for tradition sake is not SEVA. We should clearly understand that SEVA is not serving the needy because it is not done for other’s sake – it is for one’s own betterment. An attitude of serving the people will reduce ego and expand our horizon through the thought that everything that is present is the Lord alone. Thus the Lord who should be remembered while doing any activity in order for it to become SEVA is the Lord who alone is present as the entire world – the Lord alone exists and he is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.

Bring this attitude of remembering such a Lord who alone exists, then any activity becomes SEVA. Remove this attitude and the greatest of social service will cease to be SEVA and thereby will only lead us more and more into the ocean of samsaara. It is very easy to get wrong understanding but to remove the wrong understanding, get the right understanding and following it is very tough indeed in the current day. This is mainly because each and everyone has access to the so-called human-Gods and to half-learned/half-understood scriptural knowledge.

Merely going to a Mahatma and having learnt a part of the scriptures for a year or two doesn’t make a person learned nor does it lead a seeker in the right direction. Svetakethu had to spend 32 long years at a Gurukula after which alone was he instructed by his father into brahma vidya – devendra had to spent more than 100 years to get the knowledge about the ultimate reality of Brahman.

There are many people who interact with me saying “I have learnt the scriptures” and then raising questions as to “how to control the mind, these people are criticizing and misusing me” etc. These are people who after hearing the discourse of the 2nd chapter of Gita say that “Krishna has told to do action and hence we have to be involved in the world”!!! What foolishness and ignorance???

We have to again and again remember that such little and wrong knowledge will not only lead us to the reality whereas it will also lead us in the wrong direction. Such people are dangerous not only to themselves but to others as well since they will be leading others as well in the wrong direction. If such people who after learning one single chapter of Gita (we cannot call it learning as it is but wrong knowledge) advise me (as a seeker who has been learning the scriptures since a long time -- Jno egoistic attitude meant), then it is very much possible that many other seekers will become the target of such little-learned-pundits.

If we don’t know and remember the Lord as the all-pervasive and only-present Consciousness, then whatever activity we do will only lead us away from the Lord. It is only that action wherein the Lord as the non-dual reality of Consciousness is remembered and the action which is offering as an offering unto such a Lord – can be rightly called SEVA. Such a SEVA is devotion towards the Lord because the devotee is always thinking about the Lord whatever the activity that he is doing be.

Narada will be clarifying this devotion as well as enumerating other sadhana to ultimate devotion in the next sutra which we will see in the next day.

Prostrations to all.

HARI AUM

Thanks
Hariram
Let a moment not pass by without remembering God

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