The Highest Devotion
This world is a manifestation of the mind. The world as well as the senses are manipulated by the mind alone. The senses and the world take sustenance from the mind. The entire universe is made up of the five elements. Ether, air, fire, water and earth are the five elements. Each of these elements assumes subtler forms than the other. Water, for instance, is lighter and subtler than the earth. Fire is subtler than water, and air is still subtler than fire. Of all these, ether is the subtlest. Hence the earth, water, fire and air, all emerged from ether. Because of the motion of ether, air is formed. From air is formed fire. Fire cannot sustain without air. Because of the coolness from fire, water is born. Water when solidified forms earth. All these elements take sustenance from Divinity. Mind is the root cause of all these.
Mind is present inside the body amidst the five sheaths (pancha koshas). The five sheaths are annamaya kosha (gross body sheath), pranamaya kosha (pertaining to the prana, lifeforce), manomaya kosha (mind sheath), vijnanamaya kosha (intellect sheath), anandamaya kosha (bliss sheath). Where is the mind inside these five sheaths? Above the mind is prana(life force) and below it is discrimination power. Both these are related to fire. Mind is related to water. The Moon is the presiding deity for the mind. Hence, coolness is the nature of the mind. Because of the presence of lifeforce above and discrimination power below, the mind melts and gets transformed into water. The nature of water is to flow toward the lower level. It does not have the nature of flowing upward. Hence, the mind always wanders around the sensory pleasures. It is always driven into worldly activity. It can’t voyage toward the pure and higher stages. To divert the mind toward the higher realms, spirituality is of utmost necessity.
Journey to the ‘amanaska’ state
Every human being is aspiring for happiness and is desirous of it. How can one be happy? You should understand the nature of the atma that gives sustenance to all the senses. The source for all the five senses is the space or ether. This ether emerges from the atma. If you understand the atma clearly, there is a possibility that your senses and the five sheaths will be under your control. Then you can enjoy happiness. Happiness is beyond comfort and sorrow. Comfort and sorrow are just manifestations of the human mind. That state that is beyond this pleasure and grief is happiness. Such a state of happiness is knowledge. This knowledge is all pervading. This is referred to as “prajnanam Brahma”—knowledge is Brahman.
Even though this knowledge is all pervading, certain ways must be followed to identify it. This is called prajna as it speaks of the equanimity present at all levels viz. body, mind, discrimination, and intelligence. This is called the inner voice. There exists no difference between this inner voice and God. God is the inner voice, and the inner voice is God. When the voice of the heart, that is the voice that comes from within you is adhered to, happiness follows. How to experience that inner voice? To experience this inner voice, you must control the activity of the external senses. When the inner and outer sense organs are completely controlled, then the inner voice can be heard. What manifests externally, the activity pertaining to the external world has been named ‘manas’ (mind). That which is internal is named ‘nama’. That which is not the mind (manas) is nama. As long as he is under the influence of the mind, man treads various paths. When he gains control over this mind, he reaches the state of amanaska (no mind state). The voice of God is heard only in the ‘no mind state’. To listen to this inner voice, you have to practice various spiritual disciplines. These are named as devotion and surrender to God.
Different types of devotion
To understand these aspects, you should have love for God. To achieve love for God, the easiest path is to worship God as having a form. There are various ways in this type of devotion. Most important of them are three: satwic, rajasic, andtamasic. In the tamasic form of worship, man prays to God through violence (causing pain), anger, and pomp. That which is done for the sake of name, fame with pomp, and ego is called the tamasic worship. Rajasic worship is done for the sake of name and fame, for power, for fulfilling selfish interests, and to attain great heights in one’s life. A satwic devotee performs all the activities to please God, with total surrender and does it as a service to God.
Beyond these there are various other forms of devotion: nirguna bhakti (devotion to the attributeless), rakshasa bhakti or asura bhakti (demonic type of devotion), and moha bhakti (devotion with attachment). Devotion with the feeling that one alone should be safe, one alone should be happy, one alone should be blessed, involves utter selfishness. Such a devotee does not aspire for the well-being of his family or the society around. One with devotion of the demonic nature leads a life of cruelty and anger, lacking mercy and compassion. A devotee of moha bhakti does not think as to what is real and what is unreal. He does not have the faculty of observation and discrimination. Even though he has no intention of troubling others, he causes pain to others. In such a situation, he loses the capability of understanding. All the three types of people (the ones with rakshasa bhakti, asura bhakti, and moha bhakti) do not have the devotion for God. They have no quality of helping others. They are devoid of compassion and pity. Such people ‘preach’ about devotion beyond attributes. This preaching can be said to be demonic.
There are two other kinds of devotion that are different from these: vipraka bhakti and sankarshaka bhakti. In the latter kind of devotion, the aspirant tries to get closer to the objects and persons, be friends with them, believing that what is distant from him is also his own. This pertains to the principle of love. Coming close to the objects and persons far away from oneself is this kind of devotion. The other kind is full of hatred. Losing the objects and relationships with people who are near to you, thinking that the object that is near to you is far away, are the characteristics of this kind of devotion. This can be called as devotion with hatred. In the sankarshaka bhakti, there are again three kinds. One form is that the person respects someone elder to him, is obedient to him, welcomes him and enjoys his company. The second kind is where the person makes friendship with others of his age and loves them and has no fear in their company. The third kind is that the aspirant has love, compassion, and pity for those who are less privileged than him and shows them a way in accordance to their status. For all these, love is primordial.
Para bhakti: the highest form of devotion
There are four goals (purusharthas) in the world that people aspire for: dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama(desire), and moksha (liberation). They are not able to realize that there is one more thing higher than all these. God is higher than everything else in the world. When such God is realized, seen and when a close relationship is established with God, the happiness one enjoys, that state of liberation, that principle of love has been called as para bhakti (devotion of the highest order). This devotion can be called as liberation itself. Liberation is merger with God. Liberation is that when there is no difference. The ability to look for unity in diverse things rather than differences is the principle of man. Para bhakti is reaching that state. This can’t be attained by everyone. One need not be in despair that it can’t be attained. One should try for it. One should not waste his time thinking that he is different from others. As long as one sees others to be different from him, man will be in doubt. So long as there is doubt, he can’t realize the eternal truth.
Today man is preaching a lot of things, but he is forgetting the fact that the same things apply to him as well. He does not enquire whether he is practicing what he is preaching. This is ostentatious devotion. Such fanfare and ego fail man in his attempt to reach his goal. He moves away from God. You should not entertain such doubts that take you away from spiritual and divine thoughts. Such doubts exist for those who have selfishness and self-centered feelings. No such doubts arise in the minds of those people who aspire for God’s love and devotion. Today’s man exhibits his love and devotion for God only in matters related to worldly issues. But in the case of the atmic principle that is related to Divinity, the individual’s devotion and commitment is its own witness.
Source: My Dear Students, Vol. 3
