Sunday, February 15, 2015

Bhakti

                                                              
Benares - The faith of the people here makes even a non-believer like me believe!

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)

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