The Action versus The Gift

Sunahu Sadhak Pyare - Part 21

There are two types of love. One love is the divine power of God, and the other one is the process of practicing devotion (sadhana) to attain divine love.

A spiritual aspirant has to practice devotion sincerely under the guidance of a Rasik Saint. By doing so, the aspirant ultimately enters a state of Bhav Bhakti, wherein he can remember God constantly and effortlessly and has no trouble in focusing his mind on the loving form of God (roopdhyan) at any time and at any place.

Right after the perfection of Bhav Bhakti, the Guru bestows His grace upon the devotee. At that very moment the devotee achieves eternal freedom from Maya, attains the ultimate grace of God, and attains divine senses, mind and intellect. Everything happens simultaneously. Instantly after attaining a divine mind, the aspirant attains divine love.

ह्लादिनि शक्तेर परम सार तार प्रेम नाम ।

hlādini śaktera parama sāra tāra prema nāma ।

"The quintessence of God’s bliss potency is called love".

Love is divine. It cannot be attained by any means even though you may follow the path of knowledge or perform penance for millions of years. Why? Because all actions are performed with our material mind and body and our material mind and senses can only perceive material matter.

Therefore, prior to attaining divine love, one has to practice devotion to cleanse our mind from material attachments. An aspirant will be granted divine love naturally after being completely detached from the material world. This is also called as Ultimate Purification of mind (अंतःकरण शुद्धि). One has to accomplish it on his own. Guru can only help and guide us. Guru or God will not do this task for us. Each soul has to practice devotion individually, shedding genuine tears of longing.

For this, we have to practice exclusive devotion to Radha-Krishna and Guru. Develop a firm faith that Radha-Krishna are my divine masters, and the Guru is my guardian and chant the glories of Shri Radha Krishna, meditating upon their divine forms. Read, listen, and contemplate on the philosophy of divine love.

There are several people in this world whose sole aim is to confuse others and deter them from the path of devotion. One must avoid such delusive company. This human body is transient and nobody knows when it might be snatched away. Hence think about God and Guru as much as possible to cleanse your mind. In this lifetime, if you were able to cleanse your mind one quarter, then in the next life you may cleanse another quarter. In this manner, in just four lifetimes you will attain God. Do not be negligent and procrastinate. Think that Hari and Guru are always with you. Contemplate on this point. Initially you may have to remind yourself after every ten minutes that God and Guru are sitting and watching you. Then go back to your tasks. You should always realize the presence of Hari – Guru with you. This will keep you away from committing any sins.

Realizing Their constant presence, will increase your longing to see Them. For example, when you sing Radhey Govind, it means `O Radha, O Govind, give me alms of love`. You should long to receive their divine love, just like

कामिहिं नारि पिआरि जिमि लोभिहिं प्रिय जिमि दाम।
तिमि रघुनाथ निरंतर प्रिय लागहु मोहिं राम॥

kāmihiṃ nāri piāri jimi lobhihiṃ priya jimi dāma।
timi raghunātha niraṃtara priya lāgahu mohiṃ rāma॥

"a lustful man longs for a beautiful women, like a greedy man longs for wealth. That is how you need to long for Lord Ram".

Then that day is not far when your mind will be devoid of all material impurities.

भक्ति मुक्ति जिमि डाकिनि, मुह लगा जनि प्यारे ।

bhakti mukti jimi ḍākini, muha lagā jani pyāre ।

"Bhukti (cosmic gratification) and Mukti (liberation) are like witches; do not give them any importance".

Until now, you have been told what is the right thing to do. Now understand what are the desires that one should never develop. Never desire for material opulence or liberation. In Sanskrit there are two alphabets, bha (भ) and ma (म). In ma the line on top is united, means an individual being is united with God. Whereas in bha (भ) the line on top is separated, means the state of being separated from God, and considers material opulence as the source of real happiness. The realm of Bhukti extends up to the abode of Brahma (Brahmalok). There are ten celestial abodes (lok) above earth; each one is 1000 times more opulent than the former. In sequence, they are known as -

1. Manav Gandharv abode - This lok is the starting level of celestial luxury
2. Dev Gandharva abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Manav Gandharva abode
3. Pitri abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Dev Gandharva abode
4. Ajanaj Dev abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Pitri abode
5. Karm Dev abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Ajanaj Dev abode
6. Nitya Dev abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Karm Dev abode
7. Indra Dev abode (known as Swarg) - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Nitya Dev abode
8. Brihaspati abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Indra Dev abode
9. Prajapati abode - This lok is 1000 times more luxurious than Brihaspati Dev abode
10. Brahma Lok - This lok is the highest in celestial Luxury Thus, Brahmalok is the highest abode of the celestial world and the happiness of these worlds is called bhukti. That is also temporary. Inhabitants of all of these abodes, upto Brahmalok are under the control of Maya. Therefore passion, anger, greed, jealousy, pride etc. dominate them as well. Besides, one attains them only for a limited time.

आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन ।
गीता 8.16

ābrahmabhuvanāllokāḥ punarāvartino'rjuna ।
gītā 8.16

Therefore, only the ignorant beings desire the splendor of bhukti. In most homes, people sing an arti

सुख सम्पत्ति घर आवे कष्ट मिटे तन का ।

sukha sampatti ghara āve kaṣṭa miṭe tana kā ।

"Grant me material opulence and take away physical pains". These people do not even realize they are asking God to grant them all those things which ultimately cause miseries.

Turning away from the happiness of these mayic abodes (or bhukti) takes an individual towards mukti (or liberation). That again is not a wise choice. Although mukti is better than bhukti, as it grants freedom from miseries of the world forever, yet, those who attain Mukti are unable to attain divine happiness as they become one with God. In other words, they merge into the Supreme Being and take the form of divine happiness itself, then how can they enjoy happiness?

So bhukti and mukti both are quite deceptive.

भक्ति मुक्तिस्पृहा यावत् पिशाची हृदि वर्तते । तावद् भक्तिसुखस्यात्र कथमुभ्युदयो भवेत्॥
भ. र. सि

bhakti muktispṛhā yāvat। piśācī hṛdi vartate ।
tāvad bhaktisukhasyātra kathamubhyudayo bhavet॥
bha. ra. si

Therefore the scriptures assert that mukti and bhukti are the two main illusions, hence keep away from them.