Vyakhyaan by Vinod ji Agarwal_'C'
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Na kahin se door hain manzilein, na koi kareeb ki baat hai. Jise chaaha dar pe bula liya, jise chaaha apna bana liya; yeh bade karam ke hain faisle, yeh bade naseeb ki baat hai . . . __ https://soundcloud.com/braj-rasik-vinod-agarwal/sets/vireh-ki-peedhttps://soundcloud.com/braj-rasik-vinod-agarwal/sets/sakhi-ki-preet
A true lover readily puts his everything at stake for the sake of love as beloved is considered to be equivalent to God. Now let us pause to think how this would sound if beloved is God Himself. For that case we can recall the life of Shri Meerabai. The physical afflictions had little effect upon her because Krishna's love was excruciating her heart and there is nothing more painful than the feeling of being away from Him. This so called ‘separation’ is actually a mechanism to instinctively join us with Him while bodily, we may be apart. Love cannot be exactly defined but it is said to have 9 attributes- body begins to pale, sighs become cold, and eyes remain wet; there is loss of appetite and sleep; staying aloof, all time waiting for the beloved, feeling anxious about the reason of delay while faith restoring the patience. The genuine spirit of love, thus, lets us naturally dissolve our identity into His endless existence.
Once we embark upon spiritual journey, we are sure to reach, sooner or later depending upon our fervor. However, we need to be careful of not mistakenly start believing that the soul has achieved its purpose while it is still on its way. A rational analysis by self or by Guru is must before drawing any such judgment.
We all are hungry for love and seek it from the people around- mother, father, spouse, siblings, progeny, friends etc. However their affection is only a drop of what Lord has to offer us. In fact, His love is the source of all metaphorical love. For that reason devotees say that ‘You are my mother and my father, my friend, my brother, my learning, my wealth, my everything.’
Many Saints interpret Vrindavan as any body which strives for Lord. Our body organs are the real means of worship, most importantly our mind. By visualising Him in our conscience, mindfully listening and speaking about Him we are able to attain Him within.
Our sincere commitment surely help us in reaching up to His gate but we cannot take entry unless He mercifully calls us in. So we have to wholly depend upon His grace after faithfully completing our part of endeavor. The more clearly He reveals Himself to us, the more we are drawn inwards.
Making efforts or observing austerities to achieve something is called saadhna while bhajan means to relish what has already been received. In other words, saadhna is done to make the things happen while bhajan is to let the things happen. So at the level of bhajan i.e. not wanting anything more from life, the individual tends to becomes sehaj (easy-going) as the need for customary vrat, tap, saiyam, niyam recedes. Therefore all our efforts should be meant for taking us to the level of Bhajan i.e. becoming a viewer instead of carrying the sense of being the doer. This is called 'drashta bhaav' whereby a devotee feels that His Lord actually performs all the actions by using him merely as an instrument.
The festival of Holi in Vrindavan is based on ‘parkiya bhaav’ whereby sakhi wholeheartedly submits herself to Lord Krishna who is an embodiment of purity and bliss. Lord accepts her offering of love and in return, casts His color upon her which never fades away.
Holi means 'ho' + 'li' that is whatever had to happen, has happened. Now i have become Yours - an unconditional surrender. So the real celebration of Holi means forsaking the malice of every sort for the sake of His love and spreading the colors of good wishes all around.
The interaction between a devotee and God is characterized by emotions (bhaavukta), sentiments (bhaavna) as well as the spirit (bhaav). Emotions are of momentary nature as they are more or less connected with our gross body. Sentiments stay a bit longer being a part of our subtle body but bhaav is the permanent mood of our soul saying "I belong only to my Lord."
On being sincerely called by a devotee, Lord surely comes but in His own way. Either He makes him feel His direct presence by showing that everything exists in Him only (all in one) or He makes him feel His absence. The sting of this absence keeps the devotee continually connected with Lord and disconnected from the world. Finally a point is reached when he is unable to feel anything else than his Idol (one in all). In Raso-upaasana, the psychological state of this 'effortless and unbroken connection' is called 'Divya unmaad'.
When Udhav ji asked Lord Krishna that why He had left Gopis suffering from the pain of His separation, Lord replied that this pain for a soul is far more valuable than His physical presence beacause He cannot be around in His visible form forever but the unbearable pain caused by his desertion keeps Him always invisibly around. So whosoever is very dear to Him, He sets that heart ablaze with the spirit of love as there are chances of deviation in all the routes to God but the one who is victimized by His love, can never get distracted.
The feeling of being away from God is a poignant mode of inner purification. Vireh (disunion) can be of three types - one when He is actually away, second is when He has come but the harrowing thought of His going again abstains us from fully relishing His visible presence and then the eventual desertion.
Yog means to unite and viyog is intetpreted in Ras-Shastras as vishesh yog (special kind of union) which means that when the beloved is not physically around, the mind of the lover remains incessantly absorbed in his thoughts only.
Lord is omnipresent yet the lovers crave for having a concrete association with Him. He is kind enough to grant them a few such moments and then disappears again. This pseudo disunion is, in fact, His way to stay permanently connected with them through His reminiscences as physical affinity is not all time possible. Therefore devotees pray that may His thoughts incessantly hang over their mind irrespective of their body-actions.
Yogis are very patient by nature as their spiritual accomplishments unfold through their perseverance only but devotional lovers impatiently wait for their beloved God. They are always found engrossed in His memory, no matter the body is working or at rest. This state of mind is called Bhaav samadhi as He remains in their sight whether the eyes are open or shut. Like yogis go into the trance to experience union with God, the devotees ruminate about Him in such a concerted manner that they tend to completely lose the sense about themselves. The moment ‘self’ goes away, presence of Lord is instinctively felt.
As we can not see our breaths but a living body is a testimony to their presence, similarly we may not directly find much reference to Shri Radha in our scriptures but Her presence is obvious all around because no mention about Lord Krishna is viable without Her. Shri Radha though indistinguishable from Lord, holds our finger and takes us to Him just like the invisible fragrance enables us to locate a flower. Also, love contains an unquenchable thirst, represented by Shri Radha while Sh Krishna represents fulfillment. So Radha- Krishna collectively symbolizes the divinity of love, wherein there is no point of saturation despite the perpetual proximity. This is referred to as Maadnakhya Mahabhaav. (Read Pad-Ratnakar 292, 293, 296, 297 for further clarification).
As Shri Krishna is bliss, we can not put value to it unless we feel the craving for it. In gyaan maarg this craving is called jigyasa (curiosity), while in Bhakti it is called bipaasa (thirst). It is only through the presence of Shri Radha in our hearts that we can feel thirsty for Lord Krishna and hence cause Him come nearer and make us blissful forever.
Devotees consider God as their Supreme well wisher and care taker. A few feel blessed to serve Him as their master while some adore His child-like form. Further are the ones who take Him as their friend or beloved. These are the different moods, through which devotees feel connected to Lord, commonly known as shaant bhaav, dasya bhaav, vatsalya bhaav, sakhya bhaav, and kaant bhaav respectively. Each of the mood is like a flowing river intended to merge in the Ocean of Mahabhaav which implies an affectionate surrender to God's will. This sublime state of devotion, also known as Radhabhaav, enables us to subtly feel Krishna being active in everything around.
‘Ra’ denotes fire which kills all our impurities and ‘dha’ denotes His assumed form becoming alive. Our bad karmas act like stumbling blocks in our spiritual journey but by reciting the word ‘Radha’ we get free from our sins and on being rendered pure we are able to savor the obvious presence of Lord.
In Raganuga Bhakti, we follow the footsteps of the people who have already attained God while in Prem-lakshna Bhakti intimacy with God is sought without any intermediary. Freely saying to Him whatever we feel like and getting His clear response from within is one of the ways to get directly connected with Him.
In 'Gyaan maarg', seeker needs to rise above His false ego and then connect Himself with His source whereas in 'Bhakti maarg', devotee needs to go deep inside the ocean of His love to reach Him.
Devotional lovers need not do ritualistic worshipping as their introverted feelings only are the sublime form of adorations. They naturally go distant from formalism and get absorbed in their isolation.
In Dwapar Yuga, when Lord Krishna blew His flute for Maharaas, only the selected people could hear it. Today also Lord is constantly active around us but we remain unaware unless He wills us to know about it and those who get to sense His presence, begin to seek Him.
Discipline is essential for making a child begin to learn. However as he grows up, greater stress is put on his academic subjects and after the higher secondary level his learning becomes independent of the disciplinary grading -uniform, attendance, punctuality etc. Similarly Spirituality is beyond dress code, religious markings and customary practices. It is rather about the progress from externalities to the point of experiencing Him within. We need not look distinct from others but need to feel oneness within. As we turn inwards, our 'self' gets dissolved and the spirit of love takes over.
Many of us attend Sankirtan programs as a means of saatvic entertainment only. On being touched by any of the words there, we move one step ahead as our intellect starts getting involved. However, the real effect does not come until our conscious is fully absorbed in the bhaav of those words. Such a deep involvement signifies 'Masti' which naturally comes when we get free from our false ego i.e. effacing the 'self' through submission to God leads us to the intended rejoicement. This state of mind is free from the interference of intelligence even.
Though a devotee always wishes for God's love yet he prays here 'I may ask for Your love but You please do not oblige’. This is because knowing that He loves us we might feel privileged whereas devotees intend to always stay humble assuming themselves as unworthy of His grace.
l the devotees wish to be permanently cast in Divine colour. However we must remember that bleaching is an essential prerequisite for proper colouring. Bleaching, in this context, implies troubles, humiliations and various sorts of worldly disappointments. So Sufi here prays to get refined while passing through such negativities in Divine faith. This type of detached attitude towards life enables us to remain constantly closer to God in its true sense.
Gopis address Lord Krishna as ‘kaant’(pinnacle of joy)- ‘Ka’ denotes joy and ‘ant’ means end line. So having Him implies having all the joys. But His act of hiding is His ‘kapat’ (impeding their joy) as ‘pat’ means barrier. Gopis say to Lord Krishna, “You only made us love You, pampered us too and then suddenly dumped us.” Your absence is now sucking life out of us and you are carefree about it. Despite Your butcher like behavior, we are enduring it just to save you from the slur of our murder."
In Braj literature, Lord Krishna is not just worshipped as God rather He is adored as a beloved. He is considered to be a husband (swakiya bhaav) as well as a boyfriend (parkiya bhaav). In the former case, the devotee simply loves Him as his ‘everything’ while in parkiya bhaav intenity of love is much more and the devotee looks crazy about his ‘special one’.
