I was again thinking about bhakti on which we discussed in Svadhyayan. After giving my final closing remarks, this night I was thinking deeply on this subject. Then I wrote this song.
260 Nothing is more than bhakti
You gave relationship to worship you
You gave me the right to live with you
You gave the heart to think about you
You gave joy when I came unto your feet.
You come and occupy my whole heart
You mingle with my feelings and become one with me
You Lord over me by filling my mind
You live with me everyday
You caught in the net of bhakti
You are visible in the glory of bhakti
You join when bhaktas worship together
You give grace to grow in bhakti
How many words we might have
Though we might utter noble thoughts
There is no word higher than bhakti
There is no other means other than bhakti
What a blessing that I received this bhakti
How feel honored by you
To remain in that status
I will live always as your bhakta.
5-12-14, 11.45 pm, Mathigiri.
What bhakti is?
The origin and development of bhakti provided various layers to cover for anyone to remove that much to define it that will serve her purpose. At the same time without some definition bhakti will remain mere sentiment and emotional experience. But going to one extreme at the cost of the other will prevent us to understand and express our faith in the Lord.
When I began to use bhakti to express my definition of both my understanding and expression of my faith in the Lord, then it could lead one to see from one point of view: either as a definition of faith (doctrine, theology, philosophy etc.) or sentiment based on emotional experience to express my relationship with the Lord. But this concept of bhakti helps me to understand the teaching of Muktiveda in Indian terms. And in this sense it goes beyond ‘faith’ as understood by traditional definition among the theological level and transcends its limitation with sentiment and emotionalism, which often misunderstood and misinterpreted by many who are not happy with that Indian concept. Though one could prove its absence in Hindu Veda (which is doubtful, as Professor P. V. Kane endorses its presence in Veda#) yet for it is hard to deny its presence in Muktiveda.
Already I shared in few places how my faith in the Lord went through a journey from attending Sunday school and church service with my school friend, then my resentment towards the negative approach by the Christians; my encounter with the Lord through some Tamil servants of the Lord; my time of learning in the formative stage in a Bible Institute and my short sojourn in a Theological college and my continues effort to understand the teaching of Muktiveda through my personal studies etc. In all these with limited resource and guidance my effort was to have an intellectual understanding of my faith in the Lord. But when my own reason and intellectual understanding failed to grasp several teaching of Muktiveda, which according to my understanding has several contradictions, my Hindu@ tradition helped me to anchor my faith through my personal relationship with the Lord. Then I understood what bhakti means. It is more than any intellectual understanding about faith based on the theological terms expressed through some doctrines from Muktiveda or mere emotional sentiment. Because, if my understanding is correct, faith though important in every respect, yet is one of the doctrines found in Muktiveda. To say in other words along with other terms like hope and love, faith is also counted as important one.
Without faith there is no hope and without hope faith has no meaning and existence. And love provides a stage for us to express and experience it. I like this statement by Bishop Bill Frey: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today” {from a sermon preached at The Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, Penn. September 2001, notes 9, in Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural studies in 1 Corinthians, Downers Grove, Illinois, IVP Academic, 2011, p. 477). And love, according to my understanding is the stage to do the dancing—both solo and group. But bhakti in a single word incarnates all these three for me. So reducing it to mere doctrine, philosophy, theology, siddhant, principle, sentiment, emotional experience etc. will deprive one to do the joyful dancing (both solo and group)and may force to criticize that joyful dance.
Let me give one recent example. After writing the BT Song 259 (which I shared two days before), I thought that this one I am not going to share with anyone. Or if I have to share I have share it only with those who know Tamil. Because it is difficult for me to translate certain Tamil words in English. Particularly this line is one such: ‘இரண்டில் ஒன்று இன்றே பார்க்கணும்’ which I translated as ‘Today I want to know for sure’
The context of this line is the contention with a person with whom I have a quarrel. After become tired with him, I say ok, ‘today I want to bring an end to this between us’ which means ‘we will contest on the particular issue and if we cannot reach an amicable agreement, then we have to part. You go in your way and I will go in my own. Then you will remain dead to me and I will remain the same to you’. Similarly another line, ‘வம்புக்கு அழைத்தும் மறுப்பது முறையா’ is also difficult one for me to translate in English. This means voluntarily dragging a person in controversy though she is not interested in it. But my bhakti gives me that much liberty with my Lord to express my feeling and thought that night (11. 45 I began to write that song). But climax is in the final stanza, which rationalized by bhakti after my contention with the Lord:
ஏதோ ஒருகாரணம் உன்னிடம் உண்டு
அதைச் சொன்னால் எனக்கு புரியாது என்று
பொறுமை காக்க நீயும் சொல்கிறாய்
அதை புரிந்துகொண்டால் நிம்மதி தருகிறாய்.
But you have your own reason to remain silent
As I cannot understand if you tell
You ask me to keep patience
If I understand this your give peace
Here to have faith that God has a reason for my present life here at Mathigiri (which I am not enjoying much) giving the hope that only if I keep patience He will reveal the secret. And the evidence for this is the peace which I receive through the love of the Lord. But all these are understood by one word ‘bhakti’. And here it is not a doctrine or sentiment but my relationship with the Lord. If it is not there in the Muktiveda, then my understanding of Muktiveda is wrong.
To be continued….
Db
1-12-14
#…Traces of the doctrine of bhakti may be discovered even in the Rgvedic hymns and mantras, some of which are full of loving faith in God, particularly in some of the hymns and verses addressed to Varuna and also Indra (Rg.III.43.4, X.42.11 X.112.10–in all of which Indra is called `sakha’ friend and I.104.9, VII.32.26–in both Indra is said to be like a father)…the Vedic sages had reached the stage of sakhya-bhakti, that the form of a wife for the sake of a devotee, that Indra partook soma juice from a devotee who, in the absence of the proper implements for crushing soma stalks, extracted soma juice from soma stalks crushed with the devotee’s own teeth…-ibid. vol.V. part.II. Ch.XXIV, p.951.
@ I am proud to call myself a Hindu. There do not exists any perfect identity of any kind—social, cultural, religious ethnic etc.—which others would like to own by giving up their birth identity. All are marred with so many blemishes. But as the Tamil proverb says: காக்கைக்கும் தன் குஞ்சு பொன்குஞ்சு = for the crow its chick is also beautiful, I am proud with my identity as a Hindu, however it looks unacceptable to others. There is no point of tracing its religious, sociological cultural origin in the recent past and proving its absence in the historical past. As long as the Constitution of my country recognizes that identity for me, I have to own it. As no one can live in a “no man’s land’, we all have some identity by our birth—however deformed is it.
‘Faith’ is mainly mean ‘trust’ in NT, says Dr. Hoefer. Then I thought about it. I can have trust on anything—inanimate objects. Will this table take this much wait on it; will this later hold my weight etc. Of course, as I said before bhakti could be even for a land like rashtra-bhakti’. But bhakti, mainly means relationship. Even this rashtra bhakti is based on the concept of considering one’s nation as ‘matru-bhumi’ (mother land) or ‘pitru-bhumi’ (father land). So I don’t find any reason why not I use bhakti for my relationship with my Lord.
After this brainstorm I was curious to know what all the information I gathered on this points. Don’t be perplexed. I am not going to give another long list of notes on them. But I will share some important points which I find will endorse my view. If there is anything that is not agreeing with my view, I will share with my response to it.
db
3-12-14
260 பக்திக்கு மிஞ்சி ஏதுமில்லை
உன்னைத் தொழுதிட உறவினைத் தந்தாய்
உன்னோடு வாழும் உரிமையைத் தந்தாய்
உன்னையே நினைந்திடும் மனதினைத் தந்தாய்
உன்னடி வந்திட உவகைத் தந்தாய்
உள்ளம் எல்லாம் நிறைந்து நின்றாய்
உணர்வோடு ஒன்றாய் கலந்து நின்றாய்
சித்தம் நிறைந்து எனை ஆள்கின்றாய்
நித்தம் என்னோடு நீ வாழ்கின்றாய்
பக்தியின் வலையில் அகப்படுகின்றாய்
பக்தியின் மேன்மையில் புலப்படுகின்றாய்
பக்தர் கூடிட இடைப்படுகின்றாய்
பக்தியில் வளர அருள்தருகின்றாய்
சொற்கள் எத்தனை மிகுந்திருந்தாலும்
சொல்லும் கருத்துக்கள் உயர்ந்திருந்தாலும்
பக்திக்கு மிஞ்சிய சொல்லும் இல்லை
பக்தியை மீறிய கதியெதும் இல்லை
எத்தகைய பேறு நானும் பெற்றேன்
எத்தனை உயர்வு உன்னால் உற்றேன்
இந்த மேன்மையில் நிலைத்திருக்க
பக்தனாய் என்றும் வாழ்ந்திருப்பேன்
5-12-2014, இரவு, 11.45, மத்திகிரி