1) Bhaktii is the path
that takes one closest to God. At first, there may be mere dim signs or signals. Not everything will be revealed to you at
once. You got to persist and persevere in the bhakti marg. Then one thing
leads to another, eventually to God-realization.
2) For example, if you are
near railway track on which a train is about to run, the first sign you get is a ray of light from the engine headlamp; then
the light becomes brighter as the train approaches you; then you get to see the form of the train; later, as it nears you,
its shape and size become apparent. Next, you will discover the train is made up of bogies, compartments, so on.
3) Another example: When sage
Narad-ji appears, the first sign is His effulgence. Then one gets to get a feel of the form. Then one realizes it's
the sage.
4) Another example: suppose
the weekly village fair is on beyond the outskirts. The first sign you get is some kind of diffused glow in the night sky,
from the illumination at the fair. As you near it, you will get to hear the din and the hum. You may see signs of
dust in the air above the fair. As you approach it further, the shape and size of the fair become visible. Once you enter
the fair itself, all the people and things there, the sellers, the buyers, the merchandise, the goods, the smells, etc, become
apparent.
5) Scriptures say there is
ONLY ONE path to God-realization. And that path is bhakti. There are other complementary
paths, sure. But you still need bhakti. You need to blend bhakti into the alternative paths. Without
bhakti, the other paths by themselves won't help you to attain God. So bhakti is essential for God-realization.
6) Without bhakti, you
can never cross Maya.
7) You can extract oil from
sand perhaps; maybe, you can even extract butter from water; but you cannot reach God without bhakti -- this is an
irreversible fact.
8) In Dwapar yug, Krishna had
a friend called Uddhav. The latter believed God is formless and Brahmanand is highest.
Krishna decided to bring Uddhav
into bhakti marg, to set an example for the rest of the mankind.
The Lord played a trick. He
requested Uddhav to do him a favor, go to Braj in Vrindavan, just 12 km away, and
convey to His dear gopis a message. "Hey Uddhav, the gopis have got attached to me so much they are experiencing grief, sorry
and pathos in my absence. So much so, some of them may even commit suicide. So, oh gyaani, please give them gyaan.
Tell them you are the God."
9) Uddhav agreed to do the
favour, provided Sri Krishna offered a message to his mother Yasoda. So Krishna requested him to convey this message "Dear
Mother, pranaam. Please accept my obeisance. In Mathura, there is no shortage of anything. There's opulence, lovely
clothes, great food, everything.... But I'm not enjoying Mathura as much as I used to enjoy Vrindavan. Here, in Mathura, there's
no motherly love that I had in Vrindavan, and no motherly scolding either."
10) Upon reaching Vrindavan,
Uddhav asks for guidance to reach Nand Baba's house. The locals ask him to watch out for streams flowing out of houses, and
the house from where the largest, longest stream emanates, is the one belonging to Nand Baba.
11) Uddhav discovers these
are streams of tears rolling out of people's eyes that are unable to cope with separation or distance from Lord Krishna,
their dear son, (or friend or beloved or neighbour).
12) Uddhav preaches to the
seemingly grief-stricken gopis that he is God, that each gopi is God herself. The gopis start smiling and counter-question
Uddhav that if everyone is God, then what is he preaching and why? Is God preaching to God? They tell him they are not crying
for Lord Krishna as he is still amidst them. Uddhav is puzzled and seeks to know where. So each gopi points to some place,
a treetop here, or a bush there, or a pasture here, and says there He is, the Lord. Uddhav replies he is unable to see Him.
Thereupon, gopis tell him they can clearly see Him. (Note: the Swamiji elaborated on this topic
again on 13 May 2003 at a house satsang program.)
13) They request Uddhav to
convey to Sri Krishna that they are all happy and well. But Uddhav interjects, saying if he were to convey the message, Sri
Krishna might misconstrue that gopis have forgotten Him. So the gopis say, "Do not say anything at all. Just remain silent
if He enquires about us." Again Uddhav doubts if such a message would not be misunderstood to mean something terrible (like gopis committing suicide, pining for Sri Krishna) had happened.
14) At this stage, Radha
Rani intervenes to request Uddhav to convey any message whatsoever, the only condition being that whatever his message,
the smile on Lord Krishna's lips shouldn't shrink.
15) Uddhav finally realizes
that these gopis have infinite bhakti or divine love for Sri Krishna that all they care about is their Beloved's
happiness, not their own bliss or travails. They wouldn't mind the pangs of separation and the intense pathos; they are willing
to endure any pain or difficulty as long as they realize their goal -- which is to ensure their Beloved remains happy every
moment. This spirit typifies the Madhurya Bhaav.
16) He recognizes
that if one becomes God-realized, one attains divine love, which helps one to stay in touch with God at all
times, irrespective of the physical distance, because the God resides in such a devotee's heart and mind at all times.
17) Uddhav recognizes the
power and bliss of bhakti and the divinity of it all.
18) After going back to Mathura,
he requests Krishna to grant him a boon that in his next birth, he is born as a blade of grass on which the gopis, the divine
souls, move about. He aspires to be in touch with the holy dust trampled by the blessed gopis.
19) This episode proves that
the biggest gyaanis forsook gyaan for bhakti.
Click here for the salient points of the discourse on Day Nine
