What Our Soul is Seeking For

 

(Above: ShukdeoJI explaining the ultimate aim of human life: receiving the Divine love of Shree Krishn. Leela performance at JKP, Barsana Dham, US Ashram of Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj)

The word God is very common. Everyone knows this particular word. Then what is meant by the word God? Seldom people know. In our Vedas, it says, “As you know Him, you find Him.” If you don’t have Him, it means you don’t know Him. It means the knowing and finding are simultaneous. The Gita says the same thing: “As soon as a person knows God, dedicates himself to God…then what happens? Whatever he wants.” Let us look at this idea more closely.

Krishn, God Himself, tells us in the Gita, “Suppose a devotee has surrendered himself to Me, but his mode of surrendering, his motivation behind that dedication is unique. His conception about God is unique. His relationship with God is unique. According to all of these uniquenesses, he attains Me, but in that unique and variable form because I have uncountable forms, because I am almighty and loving.” Thus God is here, He is everywhere, He is in His Divine abode, He is Divine, but His form is uncountable. You cannot count. So a devotee or a true aspirant is really wanting God, but in what form is he wanting God? That makes all the difference! So we must look at who or what we believe God is.

What is the definition of God in our minds? If you look through the books available nowadays on spirituality, God or meditation, you’ll find that the definition of God is very much changed as it was hundreds and thousands of years ago. In those days God was only absolute love, absolute Divine love, but now the definition has been changed and people are thinking all in psychic terms. Everything that is a little different from what we normally experience, everything that seems superior, everything that appears abnormal, we just put a label, ‘G-o-d’, God.

The question is: Is that the God of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Is that the God of the Gita? Is that the God of the eternal Vedas? This is the real question.

Take a factual example: You wish to know about God, and I am here to teach of God. But what I think about God is in my mind, what you think about God is in your mind. What I mean to say is that actually, what is God? Unless you understand that aspect, there cannot be a path to or a devotion of or a meditation for God realization.

Say, for instance, you are going to meet someone. All you know is that the person lives in Los Angeles. You flew from New York, came to the Los Angeles airport, and now you are trying to find that person. It’s such a big town—miles and miles and miles. Can you find that person among the millions of houses? I think it is impossible. But you know he is there, he is there somewhere, but it is impossible. You can devote your whole life and still you may not find him. You must know the exact address of that person, the person’s name, who that person is. Only then you can reach him.

Similarly, unless you know the exact definition of God, the exact form of God, the exact path of God realization, then and only then can you directly proceed on the path. Otherwise, there is no possibility. You may spend your whole life—even lives and lives—you may spend all your time before you realize you are lost, and then it is too late. You started on some path and you sincerely believed it was the path to God. You followed it, perhaps wholeheartedly, but after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years you began to experience that you are getting nowhere. You noticed you are feeling more attraction towards the world than towards God. Your heart is burning with increased desires and discontentment, and you feel far from God’s consolation and Grace. Now it is too late to change your path to God.

So it is very important to know what is the actual definition of God. And who can tell? Who can tell? That’s the greatest question: who? There are millions of missions, religions, philosophies and belief systems all over the world. In every country there are hundreds and hundreds of missions and belief systems related to God, and they confuse you more and more. How are you going to find out if that problem is solved? Solve that problem and then at least a major problem has been solved.

To this end I can only suggest that you know there are Saints, prophets, descensions of God on this earth, descensions of the loving and Gracious personality of God, Divine personalities, Saints sent by God to propagate His mission. They will not be in thousands or hundreds—not at any one time on this earth, but in our history, in our scriptures, they are in the thousands. So those Divine personalities they introduced God. They were one with God. They propagated only God’s love, so their writings can guide you a little to find what is the path to God.

We can have a quick survey of all of those. We can’t have all, just a few important scriptures, starting from the very beginning of the human civilization. Vedas were the only scriptures which were revealed in the very beginning or you can say even before human civilization. According to our Indian Divine history, the very first people on this earth were all the descended Saints. They appeared with the will of God and then it started through one generation.

So from those days, Vedas existed. All the Vedas, there are many, many branches, but in gist, there are two main points: “We cannot find God with intellectual speculation or intellectual analysis or intellectual research.” But Ved doesn’t say that you can never find God, it says you cannot find God with your intellect. Then what is the path? Ved says, “Bhakti…” Dedication… It’s not an act of your intellect; dedication is an act of your heart or you can say your emotional mind. So through dedication, through complete dedication, you can find God.

Now come to the Gita. It says, “Through bhakti, through dedication, through exclusive dedication…you can find God.” Exclusive means… Say for instance you are in the world. You have a family, husband or wife, children, you have to support. You have a job. Don’t leave anything. Devote some time for God also. It means you are doing 50-50, you’re putting half of your mind in the world and half in God. Even then it is quite enough. Suppose you have got that great longing for God realization and you want, “Oh, I must find God right now. Not tomorrow, not tonight, why not now?” And you supported your thought with your understanding. Here comes the right use of your intellect.

What is your understanding? That He is kind. You know that through the scriptures, through writings of Saints. He is kind and He can shower His kindness any time. So when He’s kind, why cannot he shower His kindness on you now? There’s no reason. Because He is almighty, He has no dates or no appointments for various people. There is no appointment book because there is no limitation. We keep our appointment books because there’s a limited twenty-four hours in a day, limited about thirty days in a month. We have got all limitations. So we get the appointment book and make appointments. But in God’s kingdom there’s no limitation of anything, there is no diary. It is open every time, it is open, come and receive. Delay is from the soul’s side, not from God’s side! The Giver is giving; it is for the receiver to receive when he is ready to receive. So that is what you have to understand mentally.

Let’s say both things are being properly used, your mind and your heart, your emotions and your intellect. So when you have intellectually learned, when you learned that yes, He is kind and He can show Himself any time, then why not now? With this understanding, when your longing goes deeper, and deeper, and deeper, He comes closer, and closer, and closer to you. But you see even if you try to force your mind that way, a part of your head will say “No.” Why not? “No.” This is because you hesitate in trusting that He will appear, or even that he may appear, maybe in one hour or tonight. You don’t trust. From the heart you feel, “No, No, it cannot be that easy.” It is your heart that hesitates. God is ready.

Why won’t you accept it? Why is there something that is pulling you back, something that you don’t know, that brings you back? That something has to be avoided. I’ll explain what is that something. Anyway, if that comes in your mind that “truly I want Him now” and you have the intense longing for Him, there is no reason why He should not come. That is complete dedication as taught in the Gita. It means exclusive devotion or exclusive bhakti or exclusive surrender. Surrender, dedication, devotion, bhakti, all of these four words signify the same thing.

So when that thing happens, then He reveals Himself. You can see Him. You can visualize Him face to face. You can merge yourself in Him. You can experience His absolute radiance which is omnipresent in the world. You can play with Him. Whatever you wish, everything is perfect. But whatever you wish, that depends upon you, and upon your conception about the personality of God.

In this conception you cannot think of God using your psychic powers or abstract intellectual ideology. I mean it should be the real God, but in the form that you love Him. Say, for instance, in the world you love someone as your daughter, someone as your friend, someone as your sister, someone as your mother, they’re all women but the relationship is different. That’s what I mean, that you must remember the real God. In that way you feel yourself related to God, that relationship and those feelings may appear. In that form, He will come to you.

So in this way, this is bhakti, this is dedication or devotion, or this is surrender. The Bhagwatam explains that there are many, many confused aspirants who try to find God in their own way and devote years and years and years in isolation, transcending inside into samadhi and trying to find God in their hearts. They are called yogis and gyanis. They fail. But Krishn, the supremely charming and loving personality of God, says, “A devotee who is not trying to find Me with his intellect, but rather he is trying to dedicate himself, the one that knows that his soul and I are not just closely related, but that we are eternally closely related, that our relationship is not a formed relation, but it is an internal and eternal relation that can never die, he experiences Me as his Divine Beloved and tries to find Me, not with any demand or request. He only wants Me to love, that is all. Such a devotee or such a disciple or such a bhakt, I take care of Him even during his devotional period, and I don’t let him fall in the worldly mire. I protect him. Slowly as his divine love consciousness increases, he feels Me closer and closer, and in the end he finds Me.”

There were many Saints in India, they all said very similar things. Harivansh, Haridas, Roop Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Vallabhacharya, Nimbarkacharya, many, many acharyas, very similar things they said. Dedicate yourself to loving, Gracious God, He will take care of you, and in the end He will come to you in His Divine personified form. Just start something: cry for Him, cry for His Grace, for His Love alone. That will purify your heart and put positive imprints on your mind and move you towards the path of dedication. In this way a devotee or any person who determines to find God understands that this life is a golden chance to find the love of God. It can start any time he desires to. Your time is passing. Every moment…what is gone is gone. It will never come back. Start now.

(by H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati)

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Hinduism at a glance

The original name of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharm. ‘Sanatan’ means eternal and ‘Dharm’ means those actions, thoughts and practices that promote physical and mental happiness in the world and ensure God realization. 

Sanatan Dharm eternally exists in God, is revealed by God, describes the names, forms, virtues and the abodes of God, and reveals the true path of God realization for the souls of the world. 
 

There are three eternal existences: soul, maya, and God. Souls are unlimited in number, infinitesimal in size, Divine in quality but eternally under the bondage of maya. Soul does not belong to maya or the mayic world. It has a natural and eternal relationship with God.

Maya is a lifeless power of God having three qualities: sattvic (pious), rajas (selfish) and tamas (impious) that represent its existence when it is evolved into the form of the universe. The universe has two dimensions – material and celestial. The Divine dimension of God lies beyond the field of maya. 

 Hinduism is monotheistic. There is one single God Who represents the various aspects of His unlimited Blissful charm through many forms such as Krishn, Vishnu, Shiv and Shakti and the impersonal aspect. Out of these Krishn is the absolute supreme form of God which includes all others. God is an eternal, omnipresent, all-Blissful, all-Gracious, all-kind and all-loving Divine personality.

Hinduism explains that the soul is eternally yearning for perfect, unlimited and everlasting happiness. But the soul is mistakenly searching for this happiness in the mayic world where one finds only transitory pleasures followed by disappointments.

The illusion of finding perfect happiness in the mayic world is the cause of soul’s reincarnation. The soul, since uncountable lifetimes, has been taking birth into the 8.4 million species of life where it undergoes the consequences of actions (karmas). Perfect happiness is neither a feature of the mind nor a nature or quality of the mayic world. It can only be attained by God realization.

The human form of life is the only chance for a soul to attain God realization, if one understands the disappointing nature of the illusive attractions and attachments of the world and sincerely proceeds on the path of God realization by completely trusting in the causeless kindness of God.

The aim of human life is to attain God realization. The means of God realization is bhakti and God’s Grace.
 Humble, loving and wholehearted submission to a personal form of God is called bhakti. Bhakti evokes the Grace of God and ensures God realization. Upon God realization the soul is released from the bondage of maya and achieves unlimited Divine Bliss forever.

Sattvic practices such as austerity, intellectual study of Vedant, practice of renunciation and meditation, on their own, can only evolve the sattvic quality of person’s mind to a certain extent. They can never be the means of God realization. When one begins to do bhakti, these practices, with the Divine uniting factor of bhakti, are then classified as karm yog or gyan yog. Only when these practices are performed with bhakti, can they become the means of God realization, because only bhakti unfolds God’s Grace.

A personality who has the Divine knowledge of all the scriptures and who is God realized is needed to guide, protect and Grace the souls on their path to God realization. Such a Divine personality is called Guru. It is the Guru who imparts the Divine vision or Divine love of God to a dedicated soul when they reach a stage of complete surrender through bhakti. Divine personalities are always present on the earth planet to guide the souls.

In addition to sending Divine personalities from His abode to the earth planet, God Himself descends on the earth planet from time to time to establish and protect Sanatan Dharm, to reveal His absolute Blissfulness through His Divine actions (leelas) and to show the path of bhakti to the souls. The descension of God into the material (mayic) realm is called avatar in Sanskrit.

The Divine scriptures of Hinduism include the Vedas, the Upvedas, the Vedangas, the Smritis, the Darshan Shastras, the Upnishads, the Puranas, the Itihas (Ramayan and Mahabharat), the Gita, the Bhagwatam and the writings of Jagadgurus, acharyas, and Saints. 

The vast collection of Bhartiya scriptures are a systematic line of teachings. They provide the guidelines for all kinds of people, having varying levels of purity of mind and receptivity for God, and lead them towards God realization.

The Bhartiya (Hindu) scriptures also reveal the scientific axioms that are valuable in the research and development of modern science. They reveal the sequence of the procedure of creation of the universe, the exact model and working of the universe, as well as the science of defense, medicine and aviation, whatever is required by the society for daily living.

Compiled from “The True History and the Religion of India” by H.D. Dharm Chakravarty Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, formost disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

© 2004 The Vedic Foundation May be reprinted with permission in writing from The Vedic Foundation.

 

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The Search for Happiness by Kripaluji Maharaj

Every soul in the world desires happiness. Happiness is synonymous with God. Whether one says ‘happiness’ or ‘Bhagwan’ or ‘God’, all these have one meaning. The Ved says that God is happiness, anand. As souls, we are a fraction of God who is the form of happiness, and that is why we naturally desire happiness. Every fraction naturally desires its source, and by attaining that, becomes complete. This is the law of nature. In fact, we could never desire unhappiness. Even if we were to try, it is impossible because everyone naturally desires happiness.

Can we determine if there happiness in this world? The Ved defines happiness as, Yo vai bhuma tatsukham. True happiness is of an unlimited limit and it remains forever. What are the qualities of worldly happiness? First, it is limited, because a greater happiness always exists. In our world, those who are millionaires are superceded by multi-millionaires, and ahead of them are billionaires, and ahead of them are multi-billionaires, and the richest is Kuber, the god of wealth. This means that worldly happiness is not of an unlimited limit, and what does exist, keeps on changing and ultimately comes to an end.

Just like you hugged your mother. From the first hug you got a lot of happiness, from the second hug, it was less, from the third, it decreased further, and by the fourth, it was finished. We experience this daily in this world. So there are two problems in the happiness of this world. First, it is not of an unlimited limit, and second, it is not for an unlimited time. The happiness we truly desire is with the unlimited ocean of Divine happiness, Krishn, or you can say we desire Krishn, Who is the form of happiness. But He is not visible to us, so how will we receive His happiness?

If we want something from someone, how do we get that? One way is to grab the person, tie him up and snatch it. Another way is to steal it from him. Another way is to beg. These are the three ways. God is all-powerful and the soul has very limited powers, so it is impossible for a soul to forcibly take anything from God. God is also omniscient, omnipresent and knows what is in everyone’s heart, so stealing from Him is also impossible. So there is only one way left: request God for alms of His happiness. Beg Him. It is God’s rule, “If you ask, I will give.” But you have to request properly. There shouldn’t be any craftiness or deceit in your heart.

How long does a newborn baby have all his desires fulfilled by his mother just by crying? If he feels cold or hungry or if he has pain anywhere, he cries. There is one remedy for all his demands: crying. That is called complete surrender. In the same way, shedding tears before Krishn with a pure and sincere heart, we can ask for Divine happiness. When will this happen? When we have complete confidence. Our present confidence is that perfect happiness is in the world, and one day we will attain it. We have to change this decision. This is done by detaching the mind from this world (vairagya) and attaching the mind to Krishn, (abhyas) and tearfully requesting His Divine Vision, Divine Love, and Divine happiness. Devotional love is the practice and Divine love is the attainment.

The scriptures say that with the Grace of Guru and God everything is possible, but where do the Guru and God bestow their Grace? Grace is received in the heart and the heart is mayic, material. On one side, the heart is occupied by the commanders of maya like lust, anger, greed, attachment, passion, and jealousy. On the other side, all our worldly attachments are seated there. God asks, “Is there any space for Me?” So He says, “Purify your heart first through your tears of love, than I will give My Divine happiness.”

TV Asia airs the discourses of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj (Shree Maharajji) daily

Weekdays at 8:00 am & Weekends at 10:00 am EST.

Shree Maharajji was offered to become Jagadguru by the Kashi Vidvat Parishad of Varanasi, India in 1957. Thus, he became the fifth original Jagadguru in the last 5,000 years. Shree Maharajji founded a worldwide non-profit, educational and charitable organization, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat which has five main ashrams. Four in India and the fifth, Barsana Dham located in Austin, TX. For further information visit www.BarsanaDham.org or call (512) 288-7180.

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The Upnishads: Correct understanding of the ‘self’ and ‘soul.’

The Upnishads give two facts: (1) The first one is that the soul does not belong to maya or the mayic world because it itself is an eternal, infinitesimal and Divine entity and (2) the second one is that the soul has a natural and eternal relationship with God. The Upnishads describe this fact with their aphorism like tattvamasi (Chand. 6/8/7). It means: (a) (tatsadrisham tvam) Soul (in its pure form) is substantially the same as God, like a drop of the ocean and the ocean itself. (b) (tasya tvam) Soul belongs to God as it is eternally related to Him. Souls are unlimited in number. But the truth is that the souls in the mayic realm are eternally blemished with the association of maya which is an eternally existing delusive power of God that appears and multiplies itself in the form of this world. Thus, a person has to recognize this truth, that he is under the bondage of maya and so he has to renounce his ignorance by properly understanding the fact that he does not belong to this mayic world, he only belongs to his Divine beloved God with Whom he has all kinds of sweet relationships, and after knowing that he has to love Him wholeheartedly and selflessly.

http://www.barsanadham.org/index-jskm.html

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What is the true path to God?

What is Sanatan Dharm?

The religion which eternally exists in God, which is revealed by God, which describes the names, forms, virtues and the abodes of God, and which reveals the true path of God realization for all the souls is called Sanatan Dharm, the universal religion for the whole world.

The word dharm is formed from the root word dhryan (dhryan dharne); it means such actions and such spiritual or religious practices that finally result in all-good for a soul. A general description of dharm is:

It means that such actions, thoughts and practices that promote physical and mental happiness in the world (abhyudaya) and ensure God realization (nishreyas) in the end, are called dharm.

There are two kinds of dharmas: (a) Apar dharm, or varnashram dharm, or seemit dharm, or general dharm, and (b) par dharm or bhagwat dharm.

(a) Apar dharm, or varnashram dharm, or seemit dharm, or general dharm. The word dharm means the religious practices and thoughts that are aimed to fulfill a pious goal in life. Accordingly the apar or varnashram dharm is the religious discipline and injunctions of do’s and don’ts that are explained in the scriptures for uplifting the sattvic qualities of a human being in general. Varnashram word refers to all kinds and classes of people of this world living various orders of life (like a family man, a priest, a monk or a sanyasi), and apar word means ‘secondary’ or ‘general’ or ‘preliminary’ because it is not the absolute or prime dharm, it is the preliminary dharm for everyone in the world.

The discipline and rules of apar dharm vary according to the state of the spiritual consciousness of a person, and its rigidness also varies from age to age, that is, from satyug to kaliyug. In short you can understand that (for the existing age) all kinds of good deeds and philanthropic works that are beneficial to the society, and sincere observance of the religious discipline of the ‘order of life’ (religious student, family man, or a renounced person) you are following, come in this category, provided, that they are done with sattvic motivation. Sattvic motivation means having faith in God and then doing all the good karmas only to please God and not for any kind of personal gain. Even if you think of receiving compliments for your good karmas or the religious practices which you observe, it will not be classified as sattvic, it will become rajas, because you desired for the compliments and you have received them. Thus you have already availed the outcome of your so-called good deeds. According to the Gita:

There is hardly any further good outcome of such good looking karmas in the next lifetime.

So, apar dharm means good karmas with sattvic motivation where a person is devoted to God in a conventional manner, which means a general faith in all the forms of God. Such good karmas pacify the mind of the doer in the existing life, and in the next lifetime they create a good destiny which is called ‘abhyudaya’ that brings physical and mental well-being in a person’s life.

(b) Par dharm or bhagwat dharm. This is the main dharm which brings the absolute good (the nishreyas) of a soul, and the absolute good of a soul is only God realization which happens through the direct devotion to God in His personal form. It is called bhakti. It gives both, peace and happiness in life as well as God realization. Apar dharm is the general dharm for all and is only a preliminary dharm, which is like the preparatory practice for entering into bhakti for those who cannot accept it in their life right away. Bhakti is above all the religious formalities, rituals and intellectual practices of meditation. In one sentence you can say that bhakti is the true ‘love’ for your soul-beloved God. It could be observed by any person of the world. It is universal; it is for every age; it is said and revealed by God Himself; and it is sanatan which means eternal. Thus, the dharm which is based on such bhakti, which is eternally established in bhakti, and which establishes bhakti for God as a universal religion of the world, is called Sanatan Dharm.

God is: “dharmadhishthan.” It means that the Sanatan (eternal) Dharm is established in God and resides in God as a Divine power. It is revealed by God through Brahma before the human civilization and is represented through the Upnishads and the Puranas.

God and His path of attainment are both eternal.

Material beings are eternally under the bondage of maya and are ignorant. So the Divine matters are beyond the reach of human mind. It is thus quite obvious that a material mind can never find a way to approach the Divine. It cannot even know the nature of the Divine power on its own. It is thus only God Who Himself reveals His knowledge to the human beings. It is seen in the world that nature produces milk in the bosom of a woman before the birth of a child as the child may need it immediately on birth. So, even before the birth of human beings on this earth planet, God produces the knowledge of His attainment through the Upnishads, and the Puranas.

These scriptures reveal the form of God, personality of God, nature of God, greatness of God, Graciousness of God, path to God and also the procedure of the path. This path is called bhakti or divine-love-consciousness. Everything that relates to God is eternal because God is eternal. Thus, all the knowledges of the Upnishads and the Puranas along with the path of bhakti are eternal. Bhakti and the Grace of God are very closely related to each other.
The definition of bhakti (devotion).

Bhakti is the submission of the deep loving feelings of a devotee’s heart for his beloved God where all of his personal requisites are merged into his Divine beloved’s overwhelming Grace which He imparts for His loving devotee. This loving submission has been described in the scriptures and in the writings of the acharyas and Saints in many ways.

The Gita uses the terms surrender and single-mindedness.

These are the famous verses of the Gita that tell about surrendering all the social and religious (apar dharm) commitments at the lotus feet of Krishn and then wholeheartedly and single-mindedly worshipping Him with faith and confidence.

The Bhagwatam stresses on the selflessness of a devotee (bhakt) of Krishn and tells that the leela Bliss of Krishn is so deep, profound and limitlessly charming that even God Shiv’s heart was entangled in its fascination and He always wandered in Braj absorbed in the love of Krishn. So the Bhagwatam advises the souls, to drink the nectar of the leela Bliss of Krishn and selflessly desire for His vision and the Divine love.

The Ramayan emphasizes on the sincere humbleness of a devotee. Goswami Tulsidas says,

O my supreme beloved Bhagwan Ram, the crown jewel of the dynasty of King Raghu! I am the most fallen and humble soul of this world, and You are the most kind friend of all such souls. Your Graciousness has no compare. So, please lift me up from this unlimited cosmic ocean and make me Your own forever.” Selfless devotion to God with such feelings of devotional humbleness are constantly expressed in the Ramayan and also in the Vinay Patrika.

Jagadguru Nimbarkacharya introduced a method of devotional remembrance and meditation called ashtyam seva, which means that a selfless devotee should remember the leelas of Radha Krishn, whatever They normally do since the early morning when They get up from the bed and till the night when They go to sleep. In this way, meditating upon Their leelas, the devotee should feed and decorate Radha Krishn accordingly. (Ashtyam literally means the 24 hours.) This is just a procedure of meditation where a devotee develops his longing to see the Divine leelas of Radha Krishn and to be in Their Divine service forever in Vrindaban or Golok.

Jagadguru Ramanujacharya used a word prapatti to express the feelings of a devotee who very humbly surrenders his heart, mind and soul at the lotus feet of his loving God and earnestly desires for His Divine vision.

Vallabhacharya defined his path of devotion as the pushti marg. Pushti means the loving Graciousness of Krishn which fosters the devotional feelings of a selfless devotee, and marg means the path. So pushti marg means the path of devotion to Krishn where a devotee, depending upon the Graciousness of Krishn, humbly surrenders and dedicates his whole being for the service of Krishn.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji simplified the procedure of sadhana (devotional) bhakti for the devotees and said that the remembrance of Krishn is easily and most effectively done through the chanting of His name and the leelas, and the desire of His meeting is quickly deepened when you develop the feeling of longing for Him in your heart. He says in the Shikchashtak:

It means that a devotee should be humble, forgiving, forbearing, respecting to the devotional feelings of others but not desiring for any personal compliments for himself. With such a humble heart, which is yearning for the love and the vision of his beloved Krishn, the devotee should sing and chant the leelas and the names of Krishn.

These are all the descriptions and the definitions of the devotional bhakti (sadhana bhakti) as to how it should be observed in the practical life.
The eternal significance of bhakti.

As mentioned above, bhakti is eternal. It means that it is the eternally existing path to attain God. God is one, so the path of His attainment is also one, and thus, the same path of bhakti ensures the attainment of any of the forms of God. The path of bhakti is prevalent in every brahmand of this entire universe and it is for all the souls of this universe. It remains the same in all the four yugas (satyug, treta, dwapar and kaliyug) and, as it is directly related to soul and God, it is above caste, creed, sect and nationality. It can be adopted by any person of any nation of this world, because it is gifted by the supreme God Himself for the benefit of the humankind; and again, there are no physical requirements in doing bhakti. There are no meditation postures to adopt, no concentration techniques to follow and no rituals to observe. So it can be done by anyone, young, old or sick, and at any time in twenty-four hours, because bhakti is the pure love of your heart that longs to meet the Divine beloved of your soul in this very lifetime. The philosophy of bhakti is also described in Narad Bhakti Sutra and Shandilya Bhakti Sutra.
Karm-yog and gyan-yog.

Sattvic good karmas on their own only purify the heart to some extent; but if the doer of good karmas starts doing bhakti, his actions are classified as karm yog, and then, on the perfection of bhakti, he receives God realization. Literally the word yog means ‘the unity.’ Thus, the (Divine) uniting factor, bhakti, when it is predominantly added to the sattvic good karmas, it is then called “karm yog.” Similarly, when bhakti is predominantly added to the practice of gyan (or yog), it is called gyan yog. So, now we know that all kinds of good karmas and all kinds of yog and gyan-related practices are only sattvic, but when they are predominated with bhakti, they become the means of God realization, because bhakti unfolds the field of God’s Grace.

From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p7IKox10lk

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What is the essence of the Gita and the Bhagwatam?

The Upnishads.

The famous “Purush Sookt” of Rigved (10/90), that describes the Divine greatness of God, starts with the word purush which means ‘the Divine personality of God’; and the very first Upnishad in the list of 108 Upnishads starts with the word Ishah which also means the same. In general, teachings of the Upnishads relate to the personal form of God Whose path of attainment is bhakti. We can see how it is worded in the Upnishads.

We get three prime statements in relation to God realization:

It means that only those people realize God: (1) Who selflessly adore God in His personal form; (2) whose all the desires (along with their subtle forms) are totally removed from their heart; and (3) who wholeheartedly worship and adore a personal form of God and the Divine Master with equal reverence.

The first statement clearly asserts that selfless bhakti to a personal form of God is the means of God realization. The third statement further clarifies the situation and says that, for the steady progress in devotion, during the devotional period, a devotee needs to surrender to a knowledgeable Divine personality (shrotriya brahmanishth) and, accepting him as his Divine guide and Spiritual Master, he should lovingly and wholeheartedly follow his instructions and do the devotions. Then, with the Grace of his Divine Master, the devotee will receive the knowledge, vision and love of God.

The second statement literally means that ‘when the desires are absolutely eliminated from the heart,’ only then the practitioner receives liberation and experiences the omnipresence of God. This statement refers to the gyani and yogi practitioners, because their style of practice is based on total renunciation and the removal of all the desires.

But the practical difficulty is that ‘desires’ originate in two ways: (1) By observing the world and then desiring for it; and (2) by the subtle instincts of the old karmas that are stored in the mind. Such instincts in a very subtle form emerge from the unconscious section of the mind (where all the karmas are stored) and then appear into the conscious mind in the form of a desire. Thus, as long as the karmas are stored in the mind, the desires cannot be totally eliminated, and such karmas, which are called the sanchit karmas (sanchit means accumulated), are uncountable. So, they cannot be destroyed by any means. Even the highly evolved state of yog could only eliminate the apparent desires but not the internal inherent instincts of the desires.

Thus the Upnishad further says,
The (sanchit) karmas of a person are destroyed with the Grace of God upon God realization when he receives the Divine vision (drishtey) of his beloved God.” It means that a yogi, with his sincere and prolonged yogic practices, eliminates his worldly desires and attachments, and then, when he devotionally surrenders to a personal form of God, His Divine Grace destroys all of the sanchit karmas of the yogi and thus his total desires are absolutely eliminated. Then he crosses the effects of maya and the omnipresent form of the impersonal aspect of God (called nirakar brahm) is revealed to him
It is thus established that the prime theme of the Upnishads is devotion (bhakti) to God, but they also describe about the path of gyan, yog and the good karmas.
The Gita.
Krishn Himself summarizes the teachings of the Gita in one verse and says,

“O Arjun! You are very dear to Me. So, for your own good, I am telling you the greatest secret of the Divine world. Listen carefully. If you or any soul of the world desires to come to Me and be with Me forever, the easiest path is that he should worship Me, love Me, remember Me all the time and dedicate his life for Me. Then surely he will come to Me. It’s My promise.”
The Bhagwatam.

Although the Bhagwatam also teaches selfless bhakti to God, but the Divine Bliss that it describes is something very special and has no compare. It amazed the foremost gyani-bhakt Saint of his time, Uddhao, who was a friend of Krishn in Mathura and had closely experienced the Blissfulness of Krishn’s almighty glory which is especially seen in Vaikunth abode. Now see what happens to Uddhao.

Uddhao comes to Braj, sees the Gopis, and receives their greetings as he had come from their beloved Krishn. During the conversation he recognizes the Divine warmth of Krishn love in the behavior of the Gopis which he had never felt before, although he had loved his friend Krishn very dearly. In a while, Uddhao is seen drowned in the excitedness of such a Krishn love which is overflowing from the heart of everyone around him. In such a state, he deeply desires for a favor from the Gopis so that he could also taste the real sweetness of Krishn love; and, with the Grace of Gopis, Uddhao begins to perceive the unsurpassing blessedness of Braj in which the leela Bliss of Krishn love is permeated everywhere. Uddhao begins to sing the glory and the greatness of Gopis’ love and says,
“The Bliss of Krishn’s intimate Divine love, which Gopis received during maharas, was so special and limitlessly sweet and charming that even Maha Lakc◊hmi, the eternal consort of Maha Vishnu and the goddesses of the celestial abodes, could not receive that; then what to talk of the others.” Uddhao further says, “I adore the footdust of the Gopis and put it on my forehead. They are so Divinely great that the songs of the Krishn leelas and the Krishn love which they have sung purify the whole world.”

This is the Bliss of the Bhagwatam which is the essence of all the Divine Blissfulnesses. The Bhagwatam contains the substance of all the philosophies, Divine and devotional, along with the description of Krishn love whose lusciousness surpasses all the Divine experiences. This is the reason that after tasting the sweetness of the charming leelas of Krishn love as described in the Bhagwatam, the dry philosophies and other Divine descriptions become tasteless.

In the light of the above facts it is clear that, in general, the religion of Sanatan Dharm is the wholehearted devotion (bhakti) to God Who is kind, Gracious and omnipresent in His Divine personal form. The good karmas including social philanthropic deeds with pure sattvic motivation, Vedic rituals, religious fasting, general worship to any form of God, recitation of scriptures, pilgrimage to the holy places of India, pious charity, study of Vedant with a humble heart and sincere yogic practices are the means of improving the sattvic qualities of the doer. Once the mind is established in piety, a humble desire to see God develops in the heart of the doer. If it doesn’t happen, one should know that his good deeds are blemished because of his mayic desires and weaknesses. However, when a sincere desire to see God is developed, the person should follow the guidelines of single-minded devotion to his beloved God Who is his true friend and Who is eternally waiting for him to Grace him with the Divine vision and the Divine love.

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