Bhakti
The meaning of devotion
Hinduism has many names for love. Love of parents for their children is called vatsalya, love between friends is called sakhya, love between lovers is known as prema and love for god is called Bhakti.
Bhakti is a most mis-understood word. All Semitic religions are bhakti oriented. All claim to love God. In fact their love for god is so intense that they are prepared to die for Him. Their devotion might be termed great but the fact is that before we can love anything it is absolutely necessary to know something about that thing or person. This is true even in a normal physical relationship. People fall in love without knowing the true nature of their loved one and get disappointed later. The same is the case with these religions. They insist that their God is the only one, and the only true one and therefore insist that all other gods are false. This assumption very easily leads to the next step which is to say that all those who do not worship their god will be condemned to go to Hell. Only the believers of their god can have a place in heaven. Again the next step is to say that all non-believers should be killed for their own good if they do not agree to follow their god!! These are inevitable steps which the Semitic religions take. So even though these religions have great faith and great Bhakti, they are still totally off the mark as far as Hinduism is concerned. In fact this is why in Hinduism it is said that Bhakti without jnana (wisdom) will turn to fundamentalism which is what we are seeing in the world today. In fact Bhakti without jnana is positively dangerous to the world as we are seeing now. This fact was declared in the Bhagavad Purana by the great sage Narada more than five thousand years ago.
Narada has a conversation with Bhakti who is personified as a young damsel who is accompanied by her two sons called Jnana and Vairagya who are in a very decrepit condition. Therefore Bhakti says that she is very sad since her sons Jnana, wisdom and Vairagya (discrimination) are not longer accepted in the world. Only she is accepted and she fears that this will lead to a lot of bad consequences which we are seeing today. See how wise our ancients were that they could foresee all these happenings which are taking place in the world today due to mis-placed Bhakti.
The only way to change this dreadful world situation in which we are placed in today, is to make people understand the true nature of God. Hindus also believe in one god but that god is an all-inclusive, omnipotent and all compassionate Being which is not exclusively delegated for only one class of people. In fact that God is an energy, a force which underlies everything. Neither Christian nor Muslim nor Hindu nor anything else can exist without that force. It is a benign force and has only love for all creation. He will certainly not condemn any of his creation to hell or expect his votaries to kill themselves in order to prove His greatness. He does not care if you believe in Him or not believe in Him. He is there for all. You can accept Him or not accept Him but He will continue to love all, since His is the only love which is totally unconditional. His expectations from human beings are also the same. We should love everyone unconditionally, whatever denomination or religion they follow. This is true Bhakti, when we love everyone as we love God. Such a person will certainly not want to kill any one just because they don’t believe in their God. The only way to get this type of Bhakti is to start seeing everyone as God, and see God in everything whether human, animal or plant. This the highest Bhakti when we see nothing but god everywhere. We are not asked to die for His sake but to live a life of purity and dedication to Him who is in every creature.
The question may be asked as to why Hindus worship many idols and have so many gods with different names. The reason is simple. That God which pervades everything and is found in everything is formless and therefore the human mind which is conditioned to think only of forms and can comprehend only through forms, will not be able to comprehend Him. But since he is all pervasive He is to be found in everything. Hence the Hindu is asked to worship him in the cow as a symbol of the animal kingdom, in the tulsi plant as a symbol of the plant kingdom, in the sun and moon and fire and water as symbols of nature and also see Him in all the idols we worship since He is in everything. These Gods are the forms in which we imagine Him to be, since as I said we cannot imagine something which is formless. This is purely a scientific method of controlling the mind and allowing it to soar to higher heights in a natural way.
When the mind starts loving the god of its own choice, the mind will find it easy to love Him and when the mind has already been told that this is only a symbol for that formless divine, it will easily be able to uplift itself to that formless. Hence the Hindu can accept any form and any religion which sees Him in another form. Hence the tolerance we find only in Hinduism. The form is imbued with the strength of that divine and when our love is directed towards it, we will automatically be filled with the strength of that Absolute which passes through the form and fulfills our aspirations.
This is true bhakti and only such a type of bhakti can bring peace and happiness to the whole world.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
