||  Shree Hari   ||

God with Form and Attributes and His Devotion

भगवान्‌का सगुण स्वरूप और भक्ति

continued.......

It means that God is a storehouse of all powers, all knowledge and all talents (arts).   Power cannot stay in inert nature,   rather it remains in sentiment conscious element.   How can a thing that takes place with knowledge,  stay in the inert ?   If we assume so,  that all powers are in Nature only,  then too one will have to accept that the ability to use these powers (like frabrication of this universe etc.)  of these powers is not in Nature.  Just as,  though the computer is inert it does various different things,  but one who contructs and governs the world is sentient (man).   Computer is self-evident.   There are various kinds of developments in the world,  the one who is the developer is sentient only.   Therefore, wherever you see something exceptional, extra-ordinary in this world,  it all comes from God only ‒

यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं     श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा ।

तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोऽशसम्भवम् ॥

                                                                         (गीता १० । ४१)

yad yad vibhutimat sattvam srimad urjitam eva va

tat tad evavagaccha tvam mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam

‘Any glorious or beautiful existence should be understood to be but a fragmental manifestation of God's opulence, whether it be in the spiritual or material world. Anything extraordinarily opulent should be considered to represent God's opulence.’

If God did not have power,  then how would that power come in the world? The power in the seed, it comes in the tree.  The power that is not there in the seed,  how will it come in the tree ? That very God’s power to articulate comes in God, His power to author, comes in the writer,  His power to do charitable acts, comes in the giver,  His power of poetry, comes in the poet.  liberation, knowledge, love etc.   all come from that One God.   This is the not the working of Nature.   If it is true that I am an ‘embodiment of freedom’ then where has the bondage come from ?  how did it come?  why did it come ?   when did it come ?  How can the night of “amasvasya”  (no-moon) come in the Sun?     In reality,  knowledge is God’s,  but we have assumed it to be ours,  therefore only that ignorance has come.  * ।  I am an embodiment of knowledge;  the knowledge is mine -  this “me” and “mine”  is itself ignorance.  When one’s sight is not on That which is the is the bestower of liberation, knowledge, love etc., it appears as if Liberation is mine,  knowledge is mine, love is mine.  This is the exceptional quality of the bestower, that the receiver believes that the thing is his !   

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

||  Shree Hari   ||

God with Form and Attributes and His Devotion

भगवान्‌का सगुण स्वरूप और भक्ति

continued.......

If one thinks deeply then predominance of God with attributes is only  proper.  It is only on regarding the predominance of attributeless God,  that all talks cannot be clearly understood, when regarding the importance of God with attributes there remains no doubts whatsoever.   Nowadays, believing God with attributes,  as illusory and condemning it, is not proper.  God with attributes is not something illusory, rather God is the master of “maya” (the illusory powers). * Great enlightened men like Sanakadik, Sukhadev, Janak etc. had natural love for God with Attributes,  which time and again kept manifesting itself.  It has come in Srimad Bhagwat ‒

आत्मारामाश्र मुनयो निर्ग्रन्धा अप्यूरुक्रमे ।

कुर्वज्यहैतुकीं भक्ति मित्थष्णुतगुणो हरि: ॥

                                                                              (१ । ७ । १०)

‘Through knowledge,  he whose knot is severed, such a one who delights in himself, a contemplative one,  they too without any cause, selflessly, engage in devotion, because God’s qualities are such, that He magnetically attracts all beings towards Him.’

2. God is the Root of all  Powers

That by which the entire universe operates,  where birth, sustenance and destruction take place,  such is the one power that one will have to accept of God.  If one accepts that God has no powers, then the sustenance of this world and such work will not take place !  The operator and protector  of Gita Press Shri Jayadayalji Goyandka, who used to consider God without attributes as the main,  at one time he told me in solitude,  that one will have to accept the one power of God.  There will be no choice but to accept.  

Some people believe that on negating everything , one the one only NIL (emptiness) prevails,  therefore there is nothing else besides there is nothing else.  If it is true that there is nothing else besides emptiness, then who is the one who has the knowledge of this emptiness?  Knower of emptiness, cannot be emptiness (nil).  Secondly,  if there is nothing else besides emptiness,  then how did this world come about ?   From non-existence, how can existence arise ?  ‒‘कथमसतः सज्जायेतेति’ (छान्दोग्य॰ ६ । २ । २) Therefore it  has come in the beginning of the Brahmasutra ‒‘अथातो ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा । जन्माद्यस्य यत: ।’ (१ । १ । १-२)

‘Now here, thoughts pertaining to Brahma have come,  where That by which the birth of this world etc.  (creation, sustenance and destruction) takes place, That is Brahma.’

सर्वोपेता च तद्दर्शनात् । (२ । १ । ३०)

‘That Brahma is enriched with all powers, because, this is how it appears in the Shrutis.’

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

||  Shree Hari   ||

God with Form and Attributes and His Devotion

भगवान्‌का सगुण स्वरूप और भक्ति

continued.......

In various places in Gita, the Lord talked about birth and death,  but it is only in these verses (Gita 7/29-30) that He talked about “Jaraa Maran.”  It means that he who is devoted to God,  he becomes liberated from both birth and death.  In  other words, while the body is there,  even the state of old age does not cause sorrow. Even change of state does not cause any sorrow, that after dying what will be my state ?  He takes the support of God and endeavors, therefore he gets to know the universal form of God.  In other words,  he gains knowledge with manifest divinity.   Brahma (God without attributes and form), Adhyaatma (inifinite being) and Karma (actions for the functioning of the universe)*‒ this is the department of ‘knowledge’ (God without attributes) and “Adhibhuta”  (Infinite Universes), Adhidaiva (Hiranyagarbha Brahma) and Adhiyagya (Antaryaami Vishnu) ‒ this is the department of ‘Vigyaan’ (God with attributes) ‒ The devotee who has taken refuge in God,  knows both these departments.   The reason being that the knowledge of the universal (samagra), is not from inquiry and seeking, but from grace of God, on having taking refuge in Him.  Here one needs to pay exceptional care to this one point that the name of Brahma, without attributes and form,  comes within the realm of God’s universal (total) form.  Often people are of the opinion that God - with attributes and form, comes within the realm of Brahma - without attributes and form (Ishvar).   Brahma is devoid of maya (illusory powers) and God encompasses “maya”.  Therefore,  in a fraction of Brahma, lies “Isvara”  But God says in Gita,  that within a fraction of my Universal form there is Brahma !  Therefore God called himself the support of Brahma - ‘Brahmano hi pratishthaaham’  (Gita 14/27) ‘I am the support of Brahma’ and ‘Maya tatmidam sarvam jagadavyaktamootina” (Gita 9/4).   "All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form". The meaning of these talks by God is that -I am not the ‘ansh’ (part) of Brahma, rather Brahma is my ‘ansh’.   Therefore, on thinking unbiasedly, it seems that in Gita,  there is not significance of only Brahma, rather there is significance of Universal form of God.  Total Essence is universal only.  In universal, there is inclusion of both, with attributes - without attributes,  with form and without form, everything.  In fact, when seen then universal form can be only of god with attributes; because within the realm of god with attributes, , god without attributes can also come, but within god without attributes,  god with attributes cannot come.  therefore totality, is only in God with attributes,  not in god without attributes.

He who  believes in God without form and attributes, believe in embodied soul and Brahma to be one in essence.  Even in Gita the “jeev’  (embodied soul) and Brahma have been described with same qualities.  The qualities that have been described for one with a body, those same qualities are that of Brahma, who is devoid of a body.  It means that the “jeev” embodied soul dwelling in the body, that very same ‘jeev’,  being free of the body, is Brahma only.  In other words, ‘jeev’ is separate from the body condition,  or else it is only Brahma.  Therefore in the worship of God without attributes, he who is with a body consciousness, he is an “upaasak” (worshipper) and he who is devoid of body consciousness, he is “upaasya” (the one to be worshipped).

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

THE ORIGINAL LECTURE WAS DELIVERED IN HINDI. IF THERE IS LACK OF CLARITY IN THE MESSAGE DUE TO TRANSLATION, PLEASE VISIT THE MESSAGE IN HINDI AT :  

http://www.satcharcha.blogspot.com/

||  Shree Hari   ||

God with Form and Attributes and His Devotion

भगवान्‌का सगुण स्वरूप और भक्ति

1.  The Supreme Principle of Totality (Universal Form) in Gita   

In Srimad Bhagavad Gita,  the Lord says ‒

तपस्विभ्योऽधिको योगी ज्ञानिभ्योऽपि मतोऽधिकः ।

कर्मिभ्यश्चाधिको    योगी   तस्माद्योगी   भवार्जुन ॥

                                                                                  (६ । ४६)

“tapasvibhyodhiko yogi jnaanibhyopi matodhikah

karmibhyaschaadhiko yogi tasmadyogi bhavaarjuna ||  (Gita 6/46)  

‘A yogi is greater than the ascetic, greater than the empiricist and greater than the fruitive worker, it is my opinion. Therefore, O Arjuna, become a yogi.

‒ After expressing the glories of a Yogi in this manner,  then God says ‒

योगिनामपि सर्वेषां     मद्गतेनान्तरात्मना ।

श्रद्धावान्भजते यो मां स मे युक्ततमो मत: ॥

                                                                       (६ । ४७)

‘Yoginaamapi sarvesham madgatenaantraatmanaa |

Shraddhavaanbhajate yo maam sa me yukttamo matah ||  (Gita 6/47)

"Among all the Yogis, he who devoutly worships Me,  with his mind focused  on Me, is considered by Me to be the best Yogi.*’

It means that all the various yogis that can be there -  karmayogi, jnanayogi, layayogi, rajyogi, mantrayogi etc., My devotee is the best of all.  Just as when divine tales of the Lord are being shared, the devotee becomes immersed in it and filled with joy, in the same way where talks of devotees takes place,  then God too becomes filled with bliss.  Secondly,  God forgets about all talks and His heart begins to overflow and He start to talk about devotion.  Therefore, even without Arjuna asking any question,  God on His own began relaying the seventh chapter of the Gita.

In the beginning of the seventh chapter,  God said to Arjuna,  that I will share with you the knowledge with manifest divinity, by which you will be able to get to know Me in totality “samgraha roop”, and after knowing which, there will be nothing left to know.   In the end, He describes His Universal form,  and says ‒

जरामरणमोक्षाय      मामाश्रित्य यतन्ति ये ।

ते ब्रह्म तद्विदु: कृत्स्नमध्यात्मं कर्म चाखिलम् ॥

साधिभूताधिदैवं मां     साधियज्ञं च ये विदुः ।

प्रयाणकालेऽपि च मां       ते विदुर्युक्तचेतसः ॥

                                                                                   (७ । २९- ३०)

‘Jaraamaran mokshaaya maamaashritya yatanti ye |

Te Bhrama tadviduha krtsnamdhyaatman karma chaakhilam ||

Saadhi bhutaadhidaivam maam saadhi yagyam cha ye vidhuh |

Prayaanakaalepi cha maam te viduryuktachetasah || (Gita 7/ 29-30)

Those who having taken shelter in Me, striving for deliverance from old age and death, know Brahma (the Infinite), the individual self and the entire field of action (Gita 7/29)

Those who realize Me in the Adhibhuta (the field of matter), in Adhidaiva (Brahma, The Infinite) and in Adhiyagna (the unmanifest Divinity), and having a steadfast mind, realize Me even at the hour of death. (Gita 7/30)

___________________

* Regarding His devotees,  God has further said;  just as ‒

(1) maiyyasakta manaa paarth yogam yunjanmadaashrayah । (7/1)

(2) jaramaranamokshaaya maamashritya yajanti ye । (7 । 29)

(3) maiyyaveshya mano ye maam, nityayukta upaasate;  shradhayaa parayopetaaste me yuktatama mataah          (12/2)

(4)  ye tu dharmyaamrutamidam yathoktam paryupaasate,  shraddhadhaanaa matparamaa bhaktaasteteeva me priyah (12/20)

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

||  Shree Hari   ||

Devotion and Its Glories

भक्ति और उसकी महिमा

continued.....

A devotee first has the sentiments of serving the Lord (daasyabhaav),  in which he considers God as the master and himself as the servant.  In this sentiment, there is some hesitation,  shyness, that he is the servant,  with the hope that no mistakes are made by him in serving the Lord !  As one continues with this feeling,  one develops the sentiments of friendship (Sakhyabhaav).   In sentiments of friendship,   the devotee considers God as a friend.  He develops an inseparable oneness with God.   Unlike sentiment of servitude,  in the sentiment of friendship,  there remains no hesitation and fear.  God plays with his friends.  In this play God loose, but he says that I have won !  Then the friend throws God out of the game and say,  we will not let you play with us.   !  Just because you have many cows,  does not make you great !

              खेलत में को काकौ गुसैयाँ ।

              हरि हारे जीते श्रीदामा,     बरबसहीं कत करत रिसैयाँ ॥

              जाति-पाँति हम ते बढ़ नाहीं, नाहीं बसत तुम्हारी छैयाँ ।

              अति अधिकार जनावत यातैं, जातैं अधिक तुम्हारैं गैयाँ ॥

              रूठहि करै तासौं को खेलै,        बैठि जहँ तहँ सब ग्वैयाँ ।

              सूरदास प्रभु खेल्यौइ चाहत, दाउँ दियौ करि नंद-दुहैयाँ ॥

Even though the Gopikas knew about the influence and clout of the Lord, then too they regard the Lord as their friend and they say ‒

न खलु गोपिकानन्दनो   भवानखिलदेहिनामन्तरात्मदृक् ।

विखनसार्थितो विश्वगुप्तये सख उदेयिवान् सात्वतां कुले ॥

                                                     (श्रीमद्भा॰ १० । ३१ । ४)

‘O’  friend ! You are not only the son of Yashoda,  rather you are the inner witness of all beings.  On hearing the prayers of Brahmaji,  you have taken birth in the Yadu dynasty for the protection of the world.’

In taking refuge in the Lord (Aatmasamarpan),  the devotee,  surrenders himself to God.   There is nothing that remains with him that he can regard as his own, everything becomes God’s.   His body, senses, mind, intellect,  life-breath,  his ego -  everything becomes God’s.   It does not remain his.  In this manner after surrendering,  after surrendering himself to God,  he attains “saadhya bhakti”  in other word,  “Premlakshana bhakti”  loving devotion of the Lord.  In  “Premlakshana bhakti” one cannot tell who is a devotee and who is God, who is the lover and who is the beloved.  In other words, inseparability takes place between the devotee and God.      ‒ ‘तस्मिंस्तज्जने भेदाभावात्’ (नारदभक्तिसूत्र ४१), ‘ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम्’ (गीता ९ । २१)।

Ye bhajanti tu maam bhaktyaa mayi te teshu chaapyaham ||

                                                         (Gita 9/29)  

"Those who worship Me with devotion, are in Me and I am also in them. (Gita 9/29)

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

||  Shree Hari   ||

Devotion and Its Glories

भक्ति और उसकी महिमा

continued.....

When God says that He is indebted to His devotees, He means to say, that - “the love that you all have towards Me,  I do not have that kind for you.  Because apart from Me,  you do not have the least bit of love for anyone, whereas I have love for  My various devotees !  Therefore I cannot compare myself with you.   Just as you do not believe in anyone besides Me,  in the same way,  if I too did not believe in anyone else besides you, then there could be some parity!   However, I have many devotees that I believe in.   Therefore I am indebted to you !”

यहि दरबार दीनको आदर, रीति सदा चलि आई ॥

                                                (विनयपत्रिका १६५ । ५)

Those who are poor,  lowly,  who have taken refuge in God, who are only dependent on Him,  they are esteemed in God’s eyes.  God becomes indebted to those who do not get tired of loving Him and he does whatever they want.  Coming under the influence of Love,  God even becomes a charioteer and drives the horses.  He picks up dirty vessels and becomes happy in doing so.   Just as the mother is happy even in cleaning up the child’s dirt-urine etc,  similarly, God is pleased to do the smallest of small tasks of His devotees.   The mother has some self interest and sense of mine-ness, but there is no selfishness, no attachment in God,  only there is Love.   The underlings, wish to become great, that we want to become successful.   But God being the greatest of all, He gets pleasure in becoming small.   ‒

मैं तो हूँ भगतनको दास, भगत मेरे मुकुटमणि ।

"mein to hu bhaktanko das, bhagat mere mukutmani".  

I am a servant of my devotees and my devotees are the jewel in my crown.

Therefore,  God does not become satiated in singing the glories of His devotees.   This is the greatness of His devotees !  That devotion is of two kinds -  ‒ “Saadhan bhakti” and “Saadhya bhakti”.  From “Saadhan Bhakti”  one can attain  “Saadhya bhakti”  ‒‘भक्त्या संजातया भक्त्या’ (श्रीमद्भा॰ ११ । ३ । ३१) । There are nine kinds of “Saadhan bhakti” ‒

श्रवणं कीर्तनं विष्णो: स्मरणं पादसेवनम् ।

अर्चनं वन्दनं दास्यं  सख्यमात्मनिवेदनम् ॥

                                                               (श्रीमद्भा॰ ७ । ५ । २३)

Shravanam keertanam vishnoh smaranam paadasevanam |

Archanam vandanam daasyam sakhyam aatmanivedanam ||

These are the nine types of devotion.  

Of these there are three types of differences.    In the following three -  listening (shravana), singing the Lord’s glories (kirtanam) and contemplating (smaran) on the Lord, the devotee considers himself to be distant from the Lord.   In prostrating at the Lord’s feet (paadsevanam), worship (Archanam), showing reverence (vandan),  in these three,  devotee regards the Lord to be near.    In the following three sentiments -  where a devotee regards himself to be a servant (daasya), a friend (sakhya) and one who is surrendered (aatmasamarpan) to the Lord,  the devotee is very intimate and close to God.  In this manner, from listening to surrendering, the devotee believes himself to be gradually closer to God.   In taking refuge,  the devotee completely becomes immersed in God.  

  (to be continued)

From book in Hindi ‘ Bhagwaan aur Unki Bhakti’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji

THE ORIGINAL LECTURE WAS DELIVERED IN HINDI. IF THERE IS LACK OF CLARITY IN THE MESSAGE DUE TO TRANSLATION, PLEASE VISIT THE MESSAGE IN HINDI AT :  

http://www.satcharcha.blogspot.com/