Bhakti
My friend recently updated his Facebook page
with the above photo of a man praying in Benares, with the tag line, “Benares -
The faith of the people here makes even a non-believer like me believe”.
This friend of mine, is a very keen observer of
life around him. Mostly quite in his disposition, with good tastes but clear
mind. But his tag line was quite an invitation for me to put down my thoughts on
faith nay bhakti, and that is the reason for this blog.
Faith can move mountains. Well, and this old
man’s faith or bhakti made my friend a believer…even if it means only for
some time.
That reminded me of a story that I heard. This
story was in the context of sangeeta upanyasam (story telling through songs) of
Narada Bhakti Sutra by one of the renowned exponents from south India.
First the story.
Rasa Khan was a Muslim (emphasis)
diamond merchant living in Mathura in the 16th century. He found out
that most the Seth (rich merchants) in the town go to upanysam or storytelling.
He thought it would be a good idea to pitch his sales while all the Seths are
congregated in one place.
As it would have been, the story was of
Govinda, the local lad, the revered Lord Krishna. As the story telling was
going on, Rasa khan approached a Seth with one of his special diamond jewellery
and showed it to him. The Seth engrossed in the story telling, shooed him away.
Rasa khan tried again with another Seth, only to be shooed away again. He
approached many more such Seths, in the hope that one of them will pay
attention to him and he could connect and make a sale. But alas, he could not
even get attention of anyone of them.
Resigned at this fate, as he was ruminating,
he caught the story teller use the word diamond jewellery. Human mind is such
that, the word or object on top of one’s mind is always heard or seen. Rasa
Khan, caught the part, where the story teller describes in detail how Lord
Krishna’s adorned with diamond jewels, his flowing curly hair, his mystifying
music from flute and his personality was so alluring to the people in Mathura.
Not knowing that Govinda, the boy, was
someone, who had lived in Mathura millenniums back, he was in awe with emotion
on got goose pimples when heard about this Govinda. He was for some moments transfixed
at the description of this lad and remained rooted to his ground. He was
wonderstruck. Within minutes, he realised he had to see Govinda. He wanted to
see this person immediately. Lost in this moment of calling, he dropped all his
jewels and ran into the town asking the people of Mathura, where he could
possibly see this Govinda. People, took him to be mad and booed at him. Most
people thought, he was making fun (because he was a Muslim) of them, while
others were afraid of this man’s sudden interest in Govinda.
One gentleman, though, directed Rasa
Khan to seek Govinda in Brindavan. Rasa Khan ran to Brindavan and on reaching
asked the people where he could see Govinda. They directed Rasa Khan to Srinathji
temple, where the lord is seen as Goverdhana giridhari.
People were in queue to enter the
temple, and Rasa Khan joined the queue. When his turn came, the guards objected
his entry, as he was not a Hindu. But Rasa Khan was madly in bhakti. He kept
mumbling the word Govinda and stayed near the temple for ten days. Finally, the
guards, unable to goad him away, complained to the temple in-charge about him.
The temple was looked after by the Vallabhacharya clan. When the present Acharya
heard this, he said “Oh, Govinda, I have been your lifelong devotee, but never have
I reached such a state of bhakti. Why does the lord not make me mad like Rasa Khan?”
He addressed the guards, “you don’t know the power of bhakti, and this power
does not have any religion, caste, background, and status as its source. It is
the source itself.” So saying, he immediately rushed to the temple and took
Rasa Khan inside the temple for the lord’s darshan. When Rasa Khan saw the Lord’s
Idol, he attained enlightenment. His initial pursuit was to see a live person,
whom he knew as Govinda, when he saw the idol in all its splendour, he felt his
bhakti for the Lord Govinda, through this idol. And on that very moment
composed his first bhajan standing in front of the Lord Srinathji. From there
on, he composed and sang many bhajans and remained a lifelong bhakt.
Rasa Khan’s story is about one type of
bhakti that humans attain by just listening to the stories of great people who
have lived this land. His story is about a person, so far away from Govinda and
its history, but attaining enlightenment due to an association for only few
moments, of Govinda’s story during the upanyas.
The power of the Lord is from the strength
of the bhakt’s bhakti. Bhakti is one of the ways to attain enlightenment. The
stronger the bhakti, the closer is the human soul to the Supreme.
Bhakti, is but buried in every human
being. Occasions like the story telling, satsang provide opportunity for this bhakti
to flower. The flowering of this bhakti brings unending joy and bliss. In Rasa
Khan’s case, other than the bliss that he achieved, due to the strength of his
bhakti, he also left a legacy of beautiful songs for us to hear.
Narada Bhakti Sutra’s is a compilation
of stories on how through bhakti, one achieves enlightenment. This compilation is quite extraordinary in
itself. It start with “Athatho bhaktim vyaakhyaasyamah” which means “now hereafter,
we will explain bhakti”. This means, there is something before. What is it?
(inspired
by Smt. Visaka Hari, exponent of sangeeta upanysam and Amit Khanna, a friend)
