ON BHAKTI AND BHAKTA

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

[This is an extract from an article that appeared in April 1979 issue 
of the monthly journal ‘Vicharasetu – The Path of Introspection’]

To serve the cause of Nature, to serve therefore the inscrutable scheme of the one Grand Creator and Lord of the Universe must, O Arjuna, be the constant aim of the devotee. It should not vanish from his mind anytime. He may live as the others do, breathing, eating, drinking, walking, talking, working, interacting, in short, doing everything incidental to the world, necessary to his life in it. But nothing of these should dislodge him from his basic sense of dedication.

It is always the ego that causes havoc in the path of devotion. Ego is found most prominent in the human beings. Like the humans, are there not many other creatures in the world? In none of them will you find the sufferings caused by the ego as in the human individual. I shall explain to you Arjuna, how the ego troubles the humans, while it does not the others.

Think of a huge forest and the multiple display of creation, of nature thriving upon it. The plains as well as the forests are exposed to the rays of the sun and the thundershowers of the clouds. But the forest alone becomes filled with vegetation and wild life. Grass, shrubs, bushes, plants, trees small and big, all these grow in abundance. Nature’s creation does not stop with these.

Eating the grass and other plants a number of beings, animals and birds live. While these perpetuate themselves, living upon vegetation, the carnivorous creatures find their existence and preservation living upon the herbivorous. The growth of one kind resulting in food for the other, the destruction of that other resulting in the growth of yet another kind, and the extinction of the third again tending to preserve the growth of the first, thus, Arjuna, it is a grand, complex cycle of creation, the mystic rhythm of Nature.

This dependence and inter-dependence, giving rise to the cyclic processes of birth, growth, decline and death go on for years, centuries and their multiples. Yet the huge forest remains huge, complex and wholesome all the while. If you were to ask of the forests and their varied population “ for whose sake do you all live and grow and perish like this”, what answer would you get?

“ We do not know really. The laws of Nature cause our birth; the same laws act upon us and make us behave the way we do. The Grand Scheme of multiple lives, multiple growth and manifold fruition sees to its own preservation. Though visibly active, we are not really our own. We do enjoy and suffer a variety of outcomes. Nevertheless the basic fact remains that Nature and Nature’s Lord are the cause and motive behind all that we do.”

Now, what can be the story of the humans? Human beings have also evolved from the same Nature. They have, in fact, followed the rest of creation. Being the last evolved, the humans have the advantage of having the best evolutes of Nature. The intelligence, seated in the topmost place of their body, gives them the supremacy, the maximum of creativity. And that again is what makes them suffer in the hands of their ego, making them misconstrue their position in the world, within the orbit of Nature. In what way is their life, so far as Nature’s hold is concerned, different from the creatures that live in the forests? But what a great difference has their mind and intelligence brought about?

This is what I meant by tracing devotional practice to the decline of ego. Man’s intelligence makes him think in his own peculiar ways. While the lower beings remain all the while as products of Nature, motivated by Nature, fulfilling Nature’s own schemes and purposes, mankind goes away from the tunes of Nature, and hence beyond the reigns of God too. The human ill recognizes the place of Nature, the place of Nature’s Lord. In their place he installs his own ego, the ‘I’, then designates everything after and for it, not for Nature or the Creator. The confusion becomes colossal the more and more he grows, lives, acts, enjoys and suffers from.

*  *  *  

QUOTES FROM POOJYA SWAMIJI

Unlike other beings', mankind's behaviour is a matter for constant improvement. Even spiritual wisdom becomes meaningful only when it is able to orient individual's and society's behaviour, enriching both. All codes of dharma personal, domestic and social - are but to refine our behaviour at all levels, ensuring stability and contentment.

- Swamiji