Many people feel like you need to have faith in God in order to practice devotion to God. Some even feel like you need to subscribe to a certain religion or have a certain fixed idea about what God is or isn’t in order to practice Devotion. No and no! Faith is not the means in Bhakti but rather the ends!
In this class, we take up the first sutra of Narada’s Bhakti Sutra, the scientific manual on the Art of Devotion to make the case that faith is not a pre-requisite for Bhakti at all. We also try to define faith and set it apart from belief, which is a mere intellectual assent to a set of untested claims. Then, we do some comparative study of the different Yogas to see how the pre-requisite for Bhakti, while not wholly absent, is unlike that of the different paths. Finally, we make some passing comments about Verse 2, from a Sankrit grammar point of view!
Week 2
Your homework this week, should you choose to accept it is: memorize verse 2 of the Bhakti Sutra of Narada. Now you have two verses memorized!
Then, contemplate the following:
1. Is divine love different from human love? If not, explain. If so, what then is the defining characteristic of Divine love that sets it apart from mundane human love? In other words, how is the love for God different from, say, the love of the mother for her child, the love of a child for his mother, the love of friends for one another, the love of a spouse for their partner, a person for their pets etc. What makes Bhakti parama prema (Supreme Love) as opposed to just regular love? Come up with as many distinctions as possible!
2. Narada doesn’t define exactly who or what God is in verse 2 of his Bhakti Sutra. He uses the neuter to avoid sectarianism and exclusion. He merely calls God, “this”. What is “this” to you? How many different ways can we conceive of God? In other words, what is truly worth loving?
3. Why does Narada say “devotion is like supreme love for “this” (God)? What is about supreme love that is beyond description? Or rather, why couldn’t Narada define it exactly and directly as opposed to merely telling us what is like?
4. What is the difference between gauni bhakti and para bhakti? Bhakti is the means and Bhakti is the ends, certainly. But is there a distinction between Bhakti as a means and again as an ends? If so, what?
5. How does prema or para bhakti, the ultimate state of Bhakti Yoga compare to nirvikalpa samadhi, the ultimate attainment of Yoga and aparokshanubhuti/brahmajnana the ultimate attainment of Advaita Vedanta? Are they similar, the same or wholly different?
Here are the previously recorded classes in this series:
1- Introduction to the Bhakti Sutra of Narada
https://www.patreon.com/posts/introduction-to-75754359?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
2- Pre-requisites for Bhakti? | Bhakti Sutra Verse 1
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pre-requisites-1-76056279?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
