Nine Stages of Devotion Through Devotional Songs

This article is adapted from a talk by a young devotee of Bhagavan Baba who has been in the Sai fold since 1979.  He was an active member of the official bhajan group of Brindavan, and has done many workshops and talks on devotional singing and the efficacy of God’s name. 

We are extremely fortunate to be born at a time when our Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, has chosen to be in His physical form. During the last several decades, Swami has lovingly highlighted the importance of namasmarana [remembering the Lord’s name] as the spiritual practice for Kali Yuga [this age].

We may wonder how it is possible to turn inward and realize God through a seemingly simple activity like singing devotional songs. Some may even doubt that we can realize our inherent divinity without reading scriptures or doing some severe penance. It is very natural to question the purpose of human existence and the value of any kind of sadhana [spiritual practice]. Since Bhagavan has identified singing bhajans [devotional songs] as a spiritual exercise, we will take a closer look to get some of the answers.

Let us start with the inquiry: What can singing bhajans do for me? If these songs can help us realize our true self, what do we sing and how do we sing? When we participate and attend bhajan sessions, we are in the stage of shravanam—listening to the glory of the Lord — one of the nine forms of devotion.

Govinda Bolo Gopala Bolo
Ram Ram Bolo Hari Naam Bolo

This song tells us to sing the name of Govinda, Gopala, Rama or Hari. But, we ask ourselves, why should we sing only these names?

Allah Sai Yesu Nanak
Zoroashtra Mahavir Buddha Naam Bolo

The next line says that we can also chant the names of Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mahavir or Nanak; for, all these names are the same in their essence. We question further: What are these names and why should we sing them?

Ye Naam Saare Hai Jeevan Sahare
Paramanand Ke Kholte Hai Dware

All these names are our only refuge. Everything else that we seek for happiness in this world is only temporary. The question then arises: What happens when we seek refuge in these names? The bhajan replies that by chanting these names, the doors of Paramananda (supreme bliss) will be opened! Thus, we can see how, by concentrating on just one devotional song, we have been able to get the answers to our queries.

During the shravanam stage, i.e. listening to the glory His name, we have an uncontrollable urge to chant His name and sing along with the bhajans. Thus, we move on to the stage of kirtanam—singing the glory of His name. This transition happens very beautifully, without our awareness, and we start longing for the Lord.

Avo Avo Sai Pyare
Kirtan Karun Mein Sai Tumhare

By singing this song, we invite Lord Sai to enter our lives, so all our thoughts, words and actions are dedicated to Him. We entice Him by telling Him, “If You come, I will always sing Your glory.” But our so-called reasoning mind questions: Who is this Sai?

Tum Ho Mere Nayanon ke Tare
Darshan Do Jeevan Ke Sahare

The answer we get is that He is the twinkle of our eyes and the only refuge of our life. “So please grant us Your darshan (vision),” we sing. When we go to Puttaparthi or Brindavan [Baba’s ashrams] and we have His darshan, our mind is totally blank. It is devoid of all desires and we are in divine bliss. Thus, when we ask for His darshan, in effect we are asking Him to grant us the same state of mind that we have when we are in His presence.

As we are immersed in kirtanam or chanting His name, we start dwelling on the wonderful attributes of the Lord—love, compassion, mercy, simplicity, etc., and our hearts are filled with joy. This is the stage of Vishnusmaranam, i.e. dwelling on the Lord. He starts filling our whole being and we think of Him constantly.

When we like or love something, we always try to compare it to an experience that we may have had earlier. But, as we get deeper and deeper into smaranam, into remembering Him, we have nothing to compare the attributes of the Lord. This is exemplified by the following bhajan:

Anupama Sundara Nanda Kishora
Brindavana Ghanashyam

“Oh Lord! The resident of Brindavan, the One with the deep blue form, You are so beautiful and incomparable.” What do we mean when we say ‘beautiful’? Those of us who have had the good fortune to be present during darshan in Prasanthi Nilayam will agree about this: the way the Lord walks or rather floats, the way He talks, the way He moves His hands, smiles, or even the way He sometimes ignores us are all very beautiful and adorable.

Murali Madhava Radhey Govinda
Madhusudhana Ghanashyam

Dear, playful little Krishna (Nanda Kishora), please make our hearts like the beautiful gardens of Brindavan. Let us be like Your flute (murli), hollow, so that Your divine music can flow through us. You are Madhusudhana—the one who destroyed the demon Madhu—please destroy our evil tendencies also, so that our hearts become pure and that we can install You there.

Sathya Sai Sundara Shyam
Kunja Vihari Mandara Giridhari

You are the beautiful Lord Sathya Sai who resides in Brindavan. You are the embodiment of love and compassion. What does the term Mandhara Giridhari mean? Briefly, when the demi-gods and the demons were churning the ocean to obtain nectar, they used the Mandhara Mountain and the snake Vasuki for the churning process. During this process the mountain began to sink, so Lord Vishnu came in the tortoise form (Kurma Avatar) and held the mountain on His back. Thus he helped the churning process. Since then He is called Mandhara Giridhari.

What is the significance of this story in our spiritual progress? We are all in the process of obtaining the divine nectar from within us. Sometimes on this journey there are numerous ups and downs. During these low moments, the Lord comes and lifts our spirits, cheers us and pushes us toward our goal.

Kamala Nayana Bhagavan
Bhakton Ke Prabhu Parthishwara Sai

His eyes are very beautiful and are compared to the lotus flower. Like the numerous petals of the lotus, His eyes, too, have numerous expressions. We also call Him the Lord of His devotees because whatever He does is always for their uplift. When we go to Parthi, we see that the Lord devotes all His time for the service of people. He has built educational facilities, hospitals, water projects, accommodations, dining facilities, just to name a few. And all these are either totally free or are highly subsidized. This avatar is only for his devotees.

The more we dwell on the glory of the Lord, the more we start seeing His Divine hand in our day-to-day experiences. So we begin to desire to get closer to Him. How do we achieve this and where do we start?

Each of us has a favorite form that we love and worship. In all these forms, one common feature is the lotus feet of the Lord, and we start to love and worship this. This worship is the padasevanam stage. Padasevanam does not mean that we keep an expensive set of golden feet at the altar to worship, but that we install His feet in our heart.

Sri Rama Charanam…Bhaje 

Oh mind! Sing the glory of Sri Rama’s Divine lotus feet! The mind wonders, “Who is this Sri Rama?”

Vaidehi Ramam Vaikuntha Ramam
Bhoopala Chudamani

Vaidehi signifies earth and Vaikuntha means heaven, thus signifying that Rama is the all-pervasive Lord, the crown jewel among the rulers. We allow the body and the mind to rule us; but if we install Him (lotus feet) in our hearts, He will rule everything and thus lead us on the royal path of divinity.

Atmabhi Ramam Prabhu Sai Ramam
Sri Rama Charanam Bhaje …

Ultimately this Rama is our very own atma [soul], and in the human form our beloved Lord Sai. Thus, as we move along on our spiritual journey, we develop a wide range of feelings for the Lord and we form a divine relationship with Him. We thank Him in good times; complain to Him during bad times. When dark clouds fill the skies, we try to seek Him. Sometimes we miss Him dearly, and when we find Him we are delighted.

If we observe closely, we realize that all our feelings toward Him are that of worship. This, indeed, is the stage of archanam, worship. Archanam does not mean that we place the idol of our favorite deity at the altar and offer flowers, etc. Basically, at every moment we offer our feelings of love, anger, despair and so on to the Lord.

After we form this unique relationship, the Lord teaches us the very valuable lesson of His omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. As the longing grows, we realize that He is everywhere and in our hearts, too. We start having conversations with Him. For example, here is another devotional song:

Chittachora Yashoda Ke Bal
Navanita Chora Gopal

We pray to Him to purify our heart and make it soft and white like butter (navnita), so that Yashoda’s son [Krishna] will steal (chora) it from us and make us His. Our feelings intensify, and we call out to Him by singing bhajans because that is the only way that we know how to, for we are not learned in the Vedas [scriptures].

Gopal Gopal Gopal
Govardhanadara Gopal

We call Krishna and ask Him to hurry to us like He did when He ran and protected the gopis by lifting the Govardhana Mountain (as Indra lashed Brindavan with rain). Sometimes we are happy, and then again we become sad. Soon, we realize that He is in everything, within us, around us, beside us, and beyond us. We don’t miss Him anymore because we feel His presence always.

In fact, His omnipresence is so overwhelmingly incomprehensible that we join our hands together and offer Him our salutations. This is the vandanam stage, where we prostrate reverentially before the omnipresent Lord and offer our gratitude.

Sai Om Sai Om Sai Om
Tan Man Pran Mein Sai Om

We pray to Him: Oh Lord, You are the primordial sound Om. You are present in our body, mind, and soul, i.e. You are the very breath of our life.

Sayan Sapna Mein Sai Om
Gagan Pavan Mein Sai Om

You are not only present in our sleep, but also in our dreams. You are in the sky and in the air that we breathe. You are everywhere.

Nayan Nayan Mein Sai Om
Janama Marana Mein Sai Om

We see You everywhere, because You reside in our eyes. When we reflect, we find that You are even in life and death. Thus we salute You.

Soon we start wondering how can we dedicate our life entirely to the service of this all-knowing, all-pervasive God. We have this burning desire to be His humble servant, and we move on to the next stage of dasyam (servitude). A very important aspect of this stage is that we cannot choose to be His servants; it is only His grace and mercy that give us the opportunity to serve Him.

Dattatreya Satguru Deva…
Dehi Dehi Tava Sri Paada Seva

When our desire to serve Him intensifies, we pray and plead to Him to give us the ultimate opportunity to be His servant. We praise Him in various ways to get His attention and please Him.

Tum Hi Brahma Sanathana Deva
Vishnu Narayana Sri Vasu Deva

“As Brahma, the creator, You give us the benefit of human existence,” we sing. “As Vishnu, the sustainer, You give us the opportunity to know and experience You.”

Pannagabhushana Shiva Maha Deva
Dehi Dehi Tava Sri Paada Seva

“As Shiva, the destroyer, You allow us to realize and merge into You.” To Lord Sai—the embodiment of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva—we plead and pray to allow us to serve Your lotus feet.

The more time and energy we spend in serving the Lord, the closer we get to Him. We start considering Him as our friend. According to Swami, friendship is an expression of unshakeable love that is free from desire, ego, and selfishness. We realize that the Lord is our only true friend, expecting nothing from us and giving us His unconditional love.

We want to emulate the Lord as we try to develop a friendship with Him; so we free ourselves from ego, desire, and selfishness and develop an unshakeable, unconditional love for Him. This is the stage of sakhyam [divine friendship].

Tumho Anatha Natha Bhagawan
O Sai Mere Prana Sakha Bhagawan

O Lord Sai! You are the Lord of the destitute and my only beloved friend for eternity.

Mata Pita Guru Bandhu Tum Ho
Bhakta (Dina) Sakha Bhagavan

You are mother, father and teacher, but also a true friend to the devotee and the needy. Considering the Lord as our closest friend and becoming the Lord’s friend by His own definition of true friendship is perhaps the best relationship that one can hope for as a human being.

Let us go back and see where we started: We were full of ego and desires, but as we progressed along the various stages of devotion, understanding the attributes of God and getting closer to Him, we started losing our individual identity. The latter ultimately became insignificant. However, in this last stage of sakhyam or divine friendship, we still have an element of duality. We should bridge this and get still closer to Him so that even this tiny element of ego is completely dissolved. Two entities should not exist anymore but unite to become one. Thus, we dissolve and immerse ourselves in Sai-consciousness completely and reach the last stage—atmanivedanam. This stage is pure joy, pure bliss, pure love!

Atmanivedanam—where we surrender to Him totally—does not mean death. It is the stage of liberation, and the body may exist. Divine grace alone grants liberation. At this stage, the singer and the song are one, and thus we are one with the Sai consciousness.