Powered By Blogger

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Love is My Religion: Quotes from Gita and Narada Bhakti Sutras

Love is My Religion: Quotes from Gita and Narada Bhakti Sutras
Meditation Sangat:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MeditationSangat
{"Do not live even a single day without inner
meditation." -- Baba Devi Sahab}







Devotion to God as Form (Sarguna), and Formless (Nirguna) Devotion
Note: Sant Mat is a school of spirituality in the "Formless" category or Nirguna Bhakti, meaning, love and devotion for a Formless God. One may notice an esoteric dimension in the Gita mentioning the possibility of Nirguna Bhakti. Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras in one place said that Krishna knew of Sants in his day. Sant Mat is a combination of Bhakti along with Surat Shabd Yoga (union of the attention-faculty of the soul during meditation with the Divine Light and Sound). The book, Satsang Yoga, Volume One, by Maharishi Mehi, published by Maharishi Mehi Ashram, has a nice compilation of passages from various Hindu scriptures including the Gita and Upanishads, from an esoteric or mystical Sant Mat perspective.


The Way of Love, Bhagavad Gita, from the Love Chapter (12) (Also see YouTube Video with translation and music below.)

Of those steadfast devotees who love you and those who seek you as the eternal formless Reality, who are the more established in yoga?

SRI KRISHNA:

Those who set their hearts on me and worship me with unfailing devotion and faith are more established in yoga.

As for those who seek the transcendental Reality, without name, without form, contemplating the Unmanifested, beyond the reach of thought and of feeling, with their senses subdued and mind serene and striving for the good of all beings, they too will verily come unto me.

Yet hazardous and slow is the path to the Unrevealed, difficult for physical man to tread. But they for whom I am the supreme goal, who do all work renouncing self for me and meditate on me with single-hearted devotion, these I will swiftly rescue from the fragment's cycle of birth and death, for their consciousness has entered into me. (chapter 12:1-7)


Chapter 12, verses 13 and 14:

That one I love who is incapable of ill-will, who is friendly and compassionate. Living beyond the reach of 'I' and 'mine' and of pleasure and pain, patient, contented, self-controlled, firm in faith, with all his heart and all his mind given to me----with such a one I am in love.



From the Narada Bhakti Sutras on the Way of Love (Bhakti):

Chapter 2

1. Bhakti is greater than Karma, greater than Jnana, greater than Yoga (Raja Yoga), because Bhakti itself is its result, because Bhakti is both the means and the end (fruit).

2. As a man cannot satisfy his hunger by simple knowledge or sight of food, so a man cannot be satisfied by the knowledge or even the perception of God until love comes; therefore love is the highest.

from Chapter 4:

9. Bhakti is the easiest way of worship.

10. It is its own proof and does not require any other.

11. Its nature is peace and perfect bliss.

12. Bhakti never seeks to injure anyone or anything, not even the popular modes of worship.

13. Conversation about lust, or doubt of God, or about one's enemies must not be listened to.

14. Egotism, pride, etc must be given up.

15. If those passions cannot be controlled, place them upon God, and place all your actions on Him.

16. Merging the trinity of Love, Lover, and Beloved, worship God as His eternal servant, His eternal bride -- thus love is to be made unto God.


Whosoever amongst us believes in this auspicious Gospel of Narada and has faith in it, becomes a lover of God, and attains the highest Beatitude and Goal of life. (Narada Bhakti Sutras)
Chapter 12, Gita, on Bhakti -- Music along with Text in Sanskrit and English -- YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjrWIxOFo3M


Ziggy Marley---Love is My Religion (Scenic Route -- Nice Video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwGPB1ha2g

Posted by at