There is a suggestion in the text that forms the basis of our discussion of Bhakti yoga, the Narada Bhakti Sutras, that Bhakti or devotion is somehow superior to the other forms of yoga like Karma yoga, raja Yoga, or even jnana yoga.

The orthodox Indian yogi always received such statements with a pinch of salt. And in the orthodox tradition there is a literary device known as Arthavada which means glorifying something for the sake of glorifying it.

You will find this nearly everywhere in India. Like for instance 1) everyone would say that his/her guru is the supreme. 2) If we take the poetic compositions of a saint, he visits a number of holy places, a number of places of pilgrimage and wherever he goes, he says this is the supreme place on earth.

In India they have a explanation for it, they say don’t get excited. That’s courtesy. Arthavada means courtesy. When you are writing book on Bhakti naturally you must glorify it above all else. Otherwise you have no business to write a book on Bhakti. So you might find that when you study the Bhagavatham it says if you read this book the heavens will open to you, and if you don’t read this book you will go to hell. It’s a form of literary device, which is meant to enhance your zeal, intensify your zeal, so that you apply yourself heart and soul to it.

Eg Take a litre of milk or water and take a few containers. One a large flower vase and pour into the flower vase, tall deep, narrow. Its narrow and deep. And pour the same litre of milk into a huge basin and it is not one tenth of an inch deep but is spread out. It seems to be spread out everywhere but not deep. When it is everywhere it is not deep and when it is deep it is not everywhere.

So fanaticism has got a depth. Its narrow but it can sort of hit through. The other saying is everything is all right, all is good, is so completely, totally spread out that you may not have an in-depth understanding of any of those things.

Its only an enlightened person who has both these together because in case he has no limitation. The milk is not limited to one litre. One litre milk can either go down or spread out. When you have overcome that limitation and you are an unlimited supply of milk(meaning knowkedge) then you can spread throughout the universe, go deep and spread out at the same time.

When you study the Bhakti sutras you may be made to feel that this is the supreme thing, you don’t need to bother about meditation, you don’t need to bother about yoga, you don’t need to bother about karma yoga or anything. Do this Bhakti and that will do.

But one interesting argument why the author sage Narada considers Bhakti to be supreme is

Anyasmat saulabhayam bhaktau

For one thing it is easier than the others. Anyasmat saulabhyam bhaktau. It is easily accomplished. Love of god is more easily accomplished then the other methods. In jnana yoga you are supposed to have a brilliant intellect according to orthodox tradition. I am not saying it is true or false. That is what they thought.

But Love is inherent in all, love is predominant in all. You may or may not be terribly dynamic, you may or may not be charismatic figure personality, you may or may not have a disciplined mind to practise meditation. But love seems to be common to everybody and since it is common, universal, it is something which is easily accomplished. He also says

 Pramaanatarasya anepkshatvat swayam pramanatvat

For it needs no external proof being its own proof.

I have a vision in meditation, what does it mean? You may have to go and ask somebody. Or I have tremendous love or devotion to my husband/wife. Is it all right on the principles of Karma yoga, is it attachment or pure love?

All these questions arise when you think in terms of karma yoga, when you think in terms of meditation, when you think in terms of experiences and in the enquiry of the ‘I’, am I doing it rightly or wrongly, am I going along the right track or the wrong track; because its all wooly, we are all the time roaming in the region of the unknown.

 Pramaantaraat anepkshatvaat

We don’t need anybody else’s comment, approval, to know there is love in my heart. I don’t have to go and verify from somebody else, that I love. You are full of it, you are bubbling with it, you are bursting with it.

 Swayam pramantavaat

That itself is its own proof. Love is its own proof, just like I don’t go about asking somebody please can you tell me if ‘I am alive’. It’s a silly question! In the same way you know when you love, you know when love exists in your heart. For that you don’t need ANYBODY else’s testimony, anybody else’s attestation. You know it right.

Get hold of it chew it and experience it. Make it real. This is what it means to realize love.

We are not taking about cosmic love, uncosmic love, individual love etc. we will come to that.

Wherever you feel within yourself, wherever you experience the unmistakable love, doesn’t matter if you feel that when you are playing with your child or with your husband or with your friend etc. But why is it is insisted upon is because most of the time we pass through this experience without experiencing or awareness of it, because at that time our attention is fully outside. Though we say ‘I love you’, I don’t know what is happening in me; I am only admiring you drrr…ahh..then I am not watching to see exactly what is happening in me! Because here is a limited love! I turn around I see another person whom I hate.

So this precious experience, which could have acted as a key to open the chambers of God’s love, has slipped through my fingers. I have missed it. I had missed the lesson of that love experience, so that I don’t know what happened and it is completely forgotten.

Here our division and devotion theory has to be applied again. By becoming aware of that love, I am creating a division between the experience and me willfully, in order that I may cultivate the Love/devotion again. I am becoming aware of that experience; knowing that the awareness creates a division between the experience and me.

In some kind of love relationship you lose yourself in love completely and you are in bliss. And that is supreme experience, marvelous experience. But in our case it passes unnoticed. I want to notice it. When I notice it, naturally I am creating a division between the experience and me. Eg when u are aware of your dream you are different from it. Once I have created that experience, once I have tasted it, I have cultivated a taste for it, I know what it is and now I am ready to preserve it.

So I must consciously have that love experience. Wherever the heart experiences that love, I must become conscious of it, aware of it, so I know this is love and this is where I am completely dissolved, and therefore there is no anxiety, there is no worry, there is no fear, nothing. It is completely and total oneness, because, there is surrender of the Me, the absence of the ego sense.

So in Bhakti he said get hold of that one single love experience, never mind where you found it and that experience does not need a proof. It is its own proof. Love is its own proof. You don’t have to go and ask someone else I had a vision last night, is this hallucination or is this real. You don’t have go and ask someone I looked at my husband and I felt its lovely. Do you think it is real or hallucination? The question doesn’t arise. You know it within your self as clearly as evidently as you see that you are alive.

So it is its own proof and therefore it is easy. It is easily achieved because it is easily experienced and the experience is its own proof.

You have that experience once, and I think we all love allsorts of things in the world, but I think we also know by the same token, we also know that this love for God is the purest form of love that I have experienced not according to somebody else but according to yourself.

According to yourself you realize that this is the purest form of love I have experienced. Love in which there is no mixture of anticipation, expectation, reciprocity, fear, fear of losing, fear of hurting or fear of being hurt. Lets say for the sake of argument that you experience it when you are holding your baby. You got that feeling now, you got that feeling absolutely, cleared, Self evidently. That is the starting point. Can that love slowly and gradually expand?

What Are the five attitudes of Bhavas of devotion?

Shanta bhava is an intense peaceful form of love. Some say that, this is the supreme among the five forms of love, there are some who say no; it is the lowest, because what is devotion without the exuberant energy. If there is no excitement between lovers then the relationship is very boring say some. But the others say no, the other type is emotionalism, excitement, and sentimentalism. One must be calm and offer oneself up. I think there have been exemplars of the shanta bhava and they more often then not, have been yogis. They who may not jump up and down singing god’s name. They are immersed deeply in meditation. And in that meditation they are totally absorbed in God.

Vatsalya Bhava is the mother infant relationship. The love that a parent feels for their infant. Vatsalya Bhava is not uncommon. I have some stories where Christian missionaries too have regarded Jesus as their infant. They who were devoted to Jesus as infant Jesus. There were some women saints and of course Krishna’s mother, Soordas and few others have been given as examples of Vatsalya Bhava.

There are also recent examples where we know the case of some women who either had no children or who had lost a child. In their case, they know the intensity of this love they had for the child. That whole thing is immediately turned towards God. They usually adopt a form just like this Christian mystic using Jesus as a child or Rama, Krishna, Muruga. Its usually Krishna as their baby and they become totally immersed and absorbed in worship and other devotional practices treating that Krishna as my baby. They realize also that it was because I loved that human baby, which was subject to birth and death, I am in this miserable position. Now that I am regarding you the lord as my child as my infant I am safe, I wont lose my child anymore. That’s a very nice way of sublimating the human love into divine love.

And it is also possible to view this from another angle; and i.e. one who does that, to begin with treats all children in the world as her children, as lord. The lord as child, the lord as infant. It is not necessarily my infant. It starts with my infant. The My infant, My baby person had a shock when the baby died. And in that shock there is a sublimation. The lord is my baby. The lord = to my baby. So the baby = to my lord.

When you say equal to it is interchangeable. First you think God is my child, means the child is my God. You turn around look at children they are all God and therefore they are all my children. It’s a beautiful way of sublimating ones affection ones love.

And here again the awareness of the intensity of that love and the beauty of that love which I felt for that one person, I loved my baby and I am aware of the intensity of that love of my baby and so when I extend it to all the babies, I can make sure that I have the same intensity of love towards all the babies, all the children in the world.

How do I know that I love you with the same intensity, with which I love that baby? I have experienced it? I was aware of it, I knew exactly how it felt and now I know, I feel exactly the same thing with you. That’s it.

I have a touchstone. I have a sample experience. I was aware of it then. I didn’t pass through that thing blindly. And therefore I am aware of it and since I was aware of it at that time, I can ensure that our relationship now is exactly the same as that was then, when I experienced it.

Dasya Bhava is something which is difficult to understand now. In ancient days, the servant was deeply devoted to the master. Or you can say faithful dog bhava. Because I don’t think that it exists now; as no servant is so devoted to the master that they are ready to sacrifice their life for it. Dasya Bhava is the relationship of a servant. The feeling the devotion that a servant has towards the master. Perhaps you can also add, since such servants are rare, a disciple’s feeling towards his master. Where the very service of the master is a thrill and there is a great joy when the master commands me to do something for him. Its tremendous joy, I don’t feel it a burden. I look for opportunities to serve the master.

Sometimes the master can even be critical of you. But who will be critical of you and make remarks about you and your behavior? Someone who cares for you. Eg Some school teachers may scold their children. Some may be polite, because they don’t care whether you pass or fail. Some Swamis may appear sweet and polite and others will always walk with a mirror in their hand pointing out your defects. So who cares for you?

Once you realize it, that he that trains me, even by the rod sometimes, he does so because he loves me, cares for me. Once that is realized, then you don’t resent such treatment you love it. If the master was a bit critical then you think Oh my God, he cares for me so much that he wants me to be even better than what I am. That love is called Dasya Bhakti.

That love which is able to see God in that master and therefore see God as the master. First I must see God in the master whom I must serve and then I will be able to see God himself as my master, with the result from thereon the entire universe becomes your master.

Then and only then is true humility possible. It is not AMMA, not only this Swami or that Swami is my master but he ‘in him I saw my master whom I loved and adored’ whom I served and I knew what it was to serve this master, love this master, adore this master.

Then you turn around you see God is my master. I served the master, the God in him and therefore God is my master, God is omnipresent, God is everywhere and we will serve all, anybody, anyone with the same feeling, the same devotion, with the same love.

So again you have a sample experience, you become aware of it, you taste it, you realize its sweetness and there is no need for you to discuss it with anybody else, its purely personal. Bhakti is therefore an entirely personal adventure. The souls own adventure. It needs no proof, not only that it has no proof it needs no proof. It’s its own proof. It’s self-evident. I love the master, I love the God in the master, and I love God as my master, and God is omnipresent and so I love all as my master. These are the steps and so again it expands.

There are few stories and is everybody familiar with the story called Ramayana. There is a personality called Hanuman. IN Indian mythology this hanuman was supposed to be monkey. Hanuman is considered to have been a monkey. Rama himself says, “Here is someone behaving so politely, so gently, sweetly – well-versed in the Vedas.” Does that fit a monkey? Probably we have to take some things at face value and other things not so literally. Hanuman is supposed also to have been the son of the wind. Anyhow, that monkey was tremendously devoted to Rama as a servant. Rama is considered an incarnation of God. And this hanuman was supposed to be the son of the wind God. Still a small fry compared to the incarnation of God.

And son of the wind is something interesting. And this person before he became the devotee of Rama was a monkey. And you know what monkeys are? Tearing. Destructive. Even as a monkey he was prone to be destructive. It was said that he destroyed a pleasure grove, a garden in a few minutes. But as a servant of Rama, the story says he was capable of the most impossible feats.

He could lift a mountain; he could jump over a wide expanse of ocean and could do fantastic things, which even this God incarnate Rama could not do. That’s the fun. Rama could not cross the ocean, its only the monkey who could cross the ocean. Leap over the ocean. Rama could not lift a mountain, it was only the monkey who could lift a mountain.

What is the message there? Hanuman was the son of wind. In English it’s a very simple thing. If you turn the first letter of the wind upside down, it becomes mind. So mind and wind are interchangeable. Mind and wind are the same: mind can also go from one corner of the world to the other in a twinkling of the eyes – like wind. This Hanuman represents mind. That is why they also say that the mind is as difficult to control as the wind is. You cannot gather up all the wind here and put it in your handbag. And even so you cannot restrain your mind from flowing out.

But when can the activities of the mind be controlled, be restrained, made fruitful, divine? When Hanuman became the servant of Rama he was wonderful. Even so if the mind may be made to serve God, as God’s servant then the same mind works wonders. Works greater wonders than even God!

It is said that Hanuman was not aware of his own strength until he was reminded of it.Even so, the knowledge that is hidden in you does not manifest until someone else reminds you of it. That is the role of the Guru. You know everything, but it is all submerged, hidden. Only when a Guru reminds you does this knowledge come up again.

So when you, the mind and when the heart become the servant of the lord or when you treat yourself, or when you see, you are the servant of God, God being omnipresent, then there is absolutely nothing that you cannot achieve.

Even so, there is the famous Vali episode where Rama is supposed to have been not quite so righteous. Vali had a boon by which fifty percent of his enemy’s strength was automatically transferred to him. So he was always stronger. He could not be fought face to face: one had to overcome him from behind.

This means, you have a bad thought in your mind, you cannot get rid of it by fighting it. The thought that you are trying to get rid of is this bad thought. The more you think of it, face it, the more impossible it is to eliminate it. So you have to get behind it, trace it to its source, or take refuge in God and then this evil thought goes away.

Sakhya bhava

Sakhya is friendship. This also is difficult to understand nowadays. That kind of loving friendship is gone. The friendship of those days when there was great self-sacrificing devotion to each other, that’s not there anymore. Its thinned out. We know an enormous number of people and all the hundreds of them are sort of our friends.

Which means more an acquaintance. I may know some of them by name, a figure is pointed out in the photograph and we say ah! I know him. Other than that we don’t know what friendship is. It spread out. We may several thousand acquaintances on social websites but not even a single close friend among them.

This Sakhya Bhava even the orthodox commentators of the scriptures are cautious about it. There have been a few in religious history who have treated God as a friend. Friend is a two-way traffic, whereas being a servant is a one-way traffic. You command me I do it. That’s my attitude. If I am your friend it’s a two-way traffic, I ask you to do something for me sometime and you can ask me to do you a favor sometime.

Its both ways and there have been a few egs of such friendliness towards God. And commentators usually warn people don’t take it too seriously. One eg given is of Arjuna, the disciple mentioned in the Gita. He treated Krishna as his friend so that he could even say drive my car; become my chauffeur. God almighty!

Now Krishna had a sister Subhadra and Arjuna was fond of her, she was also fond of Arjuna. And Krishna had an elder brother who wanted to marry her off to someone else. She was miserable and Arjuna was also miserable when he heard that. So what to do now? Arjuna went to Krishna and said what about your sister? Krishna replied, what must I do, my bother wants to marry her off to someone else, your enemy.

Arjuna said my God both of us will perish. And it is said that Krishna suggested, he become a swami, a sannyasin, and not to worry about these girls. But then he does a trick. Arjuna became a swami for the time being, put on those clothes and went out to the village where this girl lived and was sitting outside near the bank of a river.

Krishna’s elder brother was very devoted to these holy men. So when he saw this man sitting under a tree, he said who are you, you are a wonderful good looking Swami come on. Arjuna made a pretence of very reluctantly goingto stay with the brother of Subhadra and one fine morning they both eloped. She was serving him not knowing whom she was serving. Swamis in those days were usually Brahmins and Brahmins usually don’t handle weapons.

One day she noticed some tell tale marks on his hands of his proficiency in archery, shooting. She noticed it and looked at him. He knew that she had found out. He looked at her, took of all the wigs he was wearing and she said it is you! And he said yes it is I, come on lets go!

Both of them slipped out. So that is the type of friendship we were warned about. Arjuna treated Krishna as a friend so that he could ask him to do whatever he wanted. A similar story is told of a more recent saint in south India (8^th century) who also treated Shiva as his friend, so if he fell in love with somebody then Shiva had to go and tell her and arrange for his wedding and do whatever was necessary.

So God could also be used in that way. That is the mischievous expression that man is able to use God as a friend, which is rather unfortunate. We often do it ourselves in our own relationships. We use friendships, instead of spontaneously helping one another; the moment you become my friend, the only thing my friend thinks of is how to use you? That’s unfortunate. Because of the fact that there is this unfortunate twist in the relationship as friend they said Be Careful!

Madhurya bhava

It is the lover beloved relationship. The relationship between the lover and the beloved. Which may even apply to husband and wife, though not always.

Here also again one has to be careful that in this lover beloved relationship God is my lover, God is my beloved and one should be devoted to this God as the lover without allowing the relationship to sort of go haywire. So it must divide, to ensure that all devotion must be to the God in the other person, to the God who is omnipresent. Not to the flesh that is not omnipresent.

There have been a few instances in India, it is usually women who have adored God as their husband or lover. And there have been even some instances where they say they have even got married to a deity. There is a story of a young girl who fell in love with the deity of the village in the shrine, to God as it were and it is said that they decided to celebrate the wedding. And the girl was taken in procession to the temple and when she entered the temple she disappeared. She was also from South India and her name was Andal. There is also the story of Meerabhai.

I am giving another eg to show that this is not another crazy oriental stuff! If you study the biography of St Catherine of Sienna, you will find almost exactly the same parallel there. It is said that she had a vision of Jesus and this Jesus came right down on to the earth and married her and gave her a ring and it is said that the ring was the real stuff and so she was married to Jesus Christ became the bride of Jesus Christ.

Even in Christian theology there is a belief that all the nuns are married to Jesus. There is a ceremony to become nuns. At that time some of them wear a wedding dress in a sort of attitude of dedicating their lives to Christ. And then they take it off and start wearing the headscarf. The whole body of church itself is regarded as the bride of Christ.

We must remember in this discussion that it is based on two important principles. One that, that particular aspect of love exists on the human level and two that it is sublimation. When we don’t even know what real friendship means, how am I going to sublimate that friendship into love?

There must first be the real experience of love on the human level, and then that must be sublimated to the divine level. That is there is an element of earth worthiness in the human relationship. That is if I am your friend, I atleast expect you to do something for me. In simple words I exploit that friendship. We all do that. Except in the case of genuine master servant relationship, even that is nearly going. I have seen it among the very poor people that this attitude still exists, in the rural areas among the very poor people. I know of some people who would do anything to serve their master.

And this Bhava (attitude) of theirs is not because they are poor, not because they are afraid to lose their job, but somehow they have developed that feeling, that love. Their heart seems to be unpolluted by all this ideas of exploitation, how to exploit a situation, that they have never thought about it. So their heart is still pure.

You are my friend, can I at the same time sublimate this relationship and see and love the God in you? You are my friend, God is the friend in you and so I love the God in you as a friend. Then it is also possible to sublimate this human relationship and raise it up instead of bringing the other thing down, so I don’t get disappointed Eg Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Amma etc.

If you remember, this also was the basic principle in karma yoga; that I served not Mr x or Mr y but the divine principle, the divine spark in all. And therefore the cultivation of this attitude or feeling or bhavana helps us regulate our life here and our attitude towards people and relationship.

Two things are important here; one is that it should stop us from exploiting one another, exploiting the individual relationship, and two it shouldn’t degenerate. It should be uplifting, not degenerating.

 Murthy Sthapana of the beautiful idol of Lord Shri Ganesha has

been performed on Friday 22nd August

The Idol will be taken for Visarjan to Choisy on Sunday 31

August at 9.30 am

 Bus will be made available for the devotees willing to participate, kindly register your name as earlier as possible

Come, have the Darshan of Lord Ganesha and be blessed

Aum Amriteswaryai Namah

GANESH CHATHURTI Celebrations

AUGUST 22 -31, 2014

On Sunday August 31^st, hundreds of devotees gathered at the ashram at ten in the morning to participate in the final celebrations of Ganesh Chaturthi. On the stage, next to Amma’s picture was the resplendent statue of Lord Ganesha. On all ten days, Lord Ganesha had been glorified by Bhajans, Pujas and arati in honor of the beloved remover of Obstacles.

The magnificent idol of our Lord Ganapati had come all the way from India under the guidance of Swami Sadashiva to provide us with a great opportunity to clear our manifested and unmanifested karma so that we can succeed in all areas of our life. The very day Lord Ganesha stepped into our ashram, we could feel the start of the festive time coming ahead. The stage was lovingly decorated with garlands, flowers and a multicolored Lotus Kolam(drawing) to welcome the God of Wisdom. The Ganesh pandal was attractively decorated with sarees, lotus flowers, banana leaves and garlands to instal Lord Ganesha idol. There was even a beautiful throne readied and Ganesha was enthroned on it.

The celebration started on August 22^nd with the Murthi sthapana. Lord Ganesha was adorned with a dazzling crown, jewels and a multicolored shawl. Three Kalash filled with sanctified water and rice were installed before invoking the presence of Lord Ganapathi. The presence of Lord Ganapathi was invoked though prayers and mantra chanted by Swamiji.

Before the sthapana Lord Ganapathi was placed in a decorated vehicle and led in a procession around the surroundings of the ashram accompanied by music and bhajans. Hearing the music and bhajans, every now and then, residents were getting out of their house to have Lord Ganesha’s darshan. After singing a few bhajans, we were back at the ashram where Lord Ganapathi was placed on the mandhap for worship. 108 names of Lord Ganesha was recited by Swamiji, while we were all repeating “Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha”in honor of the Remover of Obstacle . The Murthi Sthapana was performed in a traditional manner and concluded with the singing of the joyful Lord Ganesha Arati and distribution of Modak to all devotees.

The celebration continued during the 10 days with evening bhajans and arati. During the day, devotees worshipped the Remover of Obstacles for blessing and protection in their lives. A special satsang on the symbolism of Lord Ganesha and a special Ganapati Homa were held by Swamiji. The spiritual talks about Lord Ganesha and the continual repetition of Lord Ganesh mantra really made us connected to the Lord of Intelligence.

On the day of the Murthi Visarjan, Lord Ganapathi was led in a procession around the Bramhasthanam Temple while everyone was happily singing “Morya Re Bappa Morya Re”. While still being in this joyful state, the procession proceeds to the newly built second floor where a Ganesh prayer was held by Swamiji. We all prayed that Lord Ganapathi blesses this additional floor to facilitate Amma’s humanitarian activities in Mauritius.

Sri Ganesha was then carefully lifted onto a bus. With music and bhajans, He was taken to the seaside for the immersion ceremony. Before sunset, Lord Ganapathi statue was lovingly immersed in the calm sea of the Indian Ocean. This immersion ceremony symbolizes the form (physical existence) returning to the Formless (Spiritual Existence).

When we were back at the ashram, everyone felt the emptiness of not seeing Lord Ganesh Statue on the stage. All week long had been a perfect time for us to make a connection with the Remover of Obstacles. Even though not physically present in the form of the statue, Lord Ganapathi has fulfilled our hearts with load of happiness.

Om Gam Ganapataye Namah

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In addition to Amma, the signatories will be:

• Catholic: His Holiness Pope Francis

• Buddhist: Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) (represented by Venerable Bhikkhuni Thich Nu Chan Khong)

• Buddhist: The Most Ven. Datuk K Sri Dhammaratana, Chief High Priest of Malaysia

• Jewish: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Skorka

• Jewish: Chief Rabbi David Rosen, KSG, CBE

• Orthodox: His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (represented by His Eminence

Metropolitan Emmanuel of France)

• Muslim: Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (represented by Dr. Abbas Abdalla

Abbas Soliman, Undersecretary of State of Al Azhar Alsharif)

• Muslim: Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi

• Muslim: Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain al Najafi (represented by Sheikh Naziyah

Razzaq Jaafar, Special advisor of Grand Ayatollah)

• Muslim: Sheikh Omar Abboud

• Anglican: Most Revd and Right Hon Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury