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How Does Devotion Manifest?
Prayer is the sign of devotion. It shows that we have established
our relationship with the Holy Divine. When the idea of Divine Mastership
is established, our position turns into that of a serf. Now service
is the only concern of the serf. Take for example the case of Bharata.
He never allowed his heart to be contaminated with anything but the
esteem, regard and devoted worship of the Master. This example must
be kept in view for maintaining the relationship, which is the true
form of devotion. This is the connecting link between the Master and
the serf.
Everyone is familiar with the principle of telegraphy. When one end
is connected to electricity, the message is immediately carried over
to the other end. Similar is the case with the devotee, who makes himself
known to the Master by the current of his own power. Now by effect of
devotion, that which is with the Master begins to flow towards the serf
through the medium of the connecting link set up between the two. Gradually
everything of the Master begins to flow into the serf. In the beginning
the devotee[servant] had only conveyed his own cognizance to the Master
but subsequently by the effect of devotion, the Master began to adopt
nearness to him, which went on developing till the thought of actual
communion began to pervade within him. Divine revelation and Nature's
commands then begin to descend upon him and the first phase of initiation
thus comes into effect. Generally people think that devotion makes us
slaves, but here the invertendo rule comes in again. The human concept
never extended so far and the mystery remains sealed until now.
When devoted people speak about the Master, we seem to go into some
sort of a Samadhi state, and I think that is how the original tradition
of speaking, katha kalakshepa[discourses from Epics], arose -
one of the ways of inuring the rest of the people with one's own inner
condition, by reciting that or those qualities which we have fallen
in love with, in the one whom we adore, whom we worship.
This is one of the ways of transmitting, I think. Even bhakti
[devotion], that a bhakta [devotee], if he speaks in the sole consciousness
of his prabhu [the Lord], is capable of creating some sort of
a similar condition in those who listen to him, provided they are attentive.
It is like this physics phenomenon of resonance: something vibrates,
and if something else is in harmonious vibration with it, you strike
this, and that vibrates. And the facility with which some of the great
speakers - not intellectual speakers, because they don't generally convey
much - but those who are able to speak with the fervour of love that
is burning in their heart, it is amazing how much they can create in
the hearts of a huge multitude, even ten thousand people, a hundred
thousand people. Whereas the intellectual is struggling to impress,
but often fails because he is demanding from the audience an intellectual
reception. And if they are not trained, if they are not educated, they
cannot respond. It is like badly tuned strings of a sitar - you may
pluck for eternity but the other string will not resonate. That is why
intellectuals speak to small, select, intellectual audiences. They cut
no ice with the masses.
Whereas a man like Mahatma Gandhi, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, Swami Vivekananda,
no doubt they were intellectuals, but they had thrown away their intellect
as something like a boat with which they crossed the stream and then
they now depended on the inner fires of their bhakti, their shraddha
[faith], their love for divinity. And when they spoke, people heard;
people not only heard, they listened. Otherwise it is like that forlorn
cry of the Christian story, "We have eyes but we see not; we have
ears but we listen not." But when we speak from love with bhakti
we are able to evoke the attention of the people, whether they will
or will not cooperate. It is as if something is pulled out of them,
their attention is pulled out of them and hooked onto the speaker like
so many intangible waves of influence.
Therefore, the bhaktas, the sadhakas [spiritual practicants],
the great saints have relied on speech. It is, of course, in a way transmission.
Transmission of one's inner condition, not of the verbal content of
what one says, but of what one has inside. That is why katha kalakshepa
even when it is done, even by an ordinary kalakshepi [one who
does katha kalakshepa], it has its own asar, as we say in Hindi,
its effect. Therefore, it is always nice to speak of love; it is even
nicer to hear of love, even at the very mundane level. That is why love
stories are so popular - romance. All the world loves a lover, and if
a true bhakta loves his prabhu with that intensity that he remembers
nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing except his prabhu, I dare
say that the world must love such bhakta.
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