Speech of HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji on third day of 2nd Gnaa-Naa-Bha-Yoga Conference – January 3, 2009 – Vijayawada
Jaya Guru Datta !
The day three of 2nd Gnaa-Naa-Bha-Yoga Conference started with samoohika
Vishnu sahasra naama parayanam conducted in collaboration with Avadhootha
Datta Peetham, Mysore and Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams, Tirupathi.
Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji spoke on Nava Vida Bhakthi. This
program was telecast live on SVBC (TTD) channel for over 3 hours.
Discourse
Dattatreya Samarambham Nrusimhadika Madhyamam
Sachchidananda Paryantam Vandey Guru Paramparam!!
Brahmanandam Parama Sukadam Kevalam Gnana Murthim
Dwandwatheetham gaganasadrusam tatvamasyadi lakshyam
Ekam nityam vimala machalam sarvadhee saakshibootham
Bhavatheetham triguna rahitham sadgurum tham namami
Happy New Year to you all !
We are following a custom of greeting & distributing gifts to our relatives
& friends on the New Year day & several other festivals. But all the gifts
that we give will perish on some day or the other. But for Datta Devotees,
this year has begun on a very special note. Pujya Sri Swamiji has given them
a special gift. A gift that does not perish. That stays as long as the
moon & stars exists. That is Gna Na Bha Yoga Sammelan Gnana Nada Bhakthi
Yoga conference.
In this context I recollect the Keerthanotsavam, the festival of Swamiji’s
keertanas conducted in Chennai few weeks ago. I repeat the words of Sri
Karaikudi Mani, who says when we have darshan of any Sadguru they give some
kind of prasadam like kumkum, vibhoothi etc. Our Swamiji gives Svetha arka
Raksha. Along with that raksha Swamiji also gave us one more prasadam, which
is ageless, priceless and has no end – The Bhajans. How true indeed!!
When we approach Pujya Sri Swamiji, we take back permanent Ananda, bliss in
return. An example for this is the bhajan that we heard just now Yedu
kondala Swami Govinda. The Vedas praise the glory of the lord. The easiest
way of praising the lord is through Nada. Nada means Sound, the celestial
sound.
Today we have assembled here to talk about Bhakthi. What is Bhakthi? Why do
we need Bhakthi? What are the benefits of having Bhakthi ?
The one, which does not allow vibhakthi vibhajana seperation, is Bhakthi. We
do not seek seperation from the Lord. We want to immerse ourselves in the
divine self. Bhakthi is not a means. It is a root for spiritual path. It does
not have age & time. Upanishads say who has parabhakthi in the Lord, and
also has the same level of bhakthi in the lotus feet of Sadguru; only such
man can understand and follow the spiritual path. Guru means the universe.
Bhakthi is not born in a certain situation. It is ancient. It exists as long
as there is Bhagavan (Lord) & Bhaktha (devotee).
Why do we worship the Lord? When things are in our favour, when everything
is fine, we forget His existence and when we need help, we develop bhakthi.
This is not right. Bhakthi should be uninterrupted at all times says
Maharshi Narada. He gave us the nine ways of bhakthi called Narada Bhakthi
sutras. We should worship the lord because we are living out of His grace.
We are inhaling and exhaling because of Him.
Where did we come from? Smart children of this generation say they came from
their parents. But when we question their parents about this, they talk
about their parents, grand parents, great grand parents and like wise when we
go back to the age of the ancestors the chain goes through some great
maharshis like Bharadwaja, Vasishta, goes through Brahma as these maharshis
are the sons of Brahma and stops at Vishnu as Brahma originated from Lord
Vishnu. We cannot go beyond Him as it is Nirvikalpam (formless) beyond Him.
We see our form in Him. The energy that is within us is Bhagavan, the Lord.
If that Lord talks to us, wanders around us, He is called Sadguru. The root
cause for all this is Bhakthi. This custom started in India first.
Maharshi Narada gave the Nine Bhakthi Sutras (aphorisms) It is called Nava
vidha (nine ways) bhakthi on the formless lord who is spread all over the
universe.
– Sravana (hearing of God’s Leelas and stories)
– Kirtana (singing of His glories)
– Smarana (remembrance of His name and presence)
– Padasevana (service of His feet)
– Archana (worship of God)
– Vandana (prostration to Lord)
– Dasya (cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God)
– Sakhya (cultivation of the friend-Bhava) and
– Atma nivedana (complete surrender of the self).
*Sravanam: Listening about the virtues of Lord. This is the best practice.
A man however higher state he is in, should practice listening about the
Lord to upgrade himself. Best example of Sravanam can be Parikshit Maharaj.
We all know the story of Parikshit. King Parikshit attained Liberation
through Sravana. He heard the glories of God from Suka Maharishi. His heart
was purified. He attained the Abode of Lord Vishnu in Vaikuntha. He became
liberated and enjoyed the Supreme Bliss. There is no Bhakthi without
Bhagavatha smarana. Swamiji says ” srunutha Srunutha Sundaram Rama Gaatha” –
lets *LISTEN* to the beautiful story of Rama. Swamiji also says “Srooyatham
Srooyatham Sree Guru Gita” We shall LISTEN Guru Gita. Such is the
importance of listening in bhakti.
*Keerthanam : Singing of Lord’s glories. We are thrilled with Divine
Emotion when Swamiji sings bhajans. We lose ourself in the love of God. We
should seek the boon of singing His glory for all the lives that we may
have. Suka Maharshi is the example of Keerthana bhakthi.
*Smaranam: Remembrance of the Lord at all times. This is unbroken
memory of the Name and Form of the Lord. Datta Stavam says “smarthrugami
sanovathu” It is said that lord dattatreya looks for the one who does
smaranam and saves him.
*Padasevanam: Serving the Lord’s Feet. We all have a false opinion about
bhakti. When we go to a temple and offer coconut, we call it as bhakti.
No, it is not. In Bhagavatam there is a nice poem said by Pothana kavi. It
says “Nee pada kamala sevayu, nee pada archakulathoti neyyamu, nithantha
apara bootha daya” meaning serving Lord’s feet, friendship with people who
serves Lord’s feet and compassion on every living being. There are many
qualifications of obtaining jnana but there are no rules for bhakti. The
one that is useful for the society is bhakti.
*Archana: Worship of the Lord. If you observe Swamiji’s Navaavarana puja
about 15-20 years back, the archana happened for nearly 18 hrs a day. People
were tired to watch but the archana continued day long.
*Vandanam: Prayer and prostration. It is a humble prostration touching
the earth with the eight limbs of the body (Sashtanga-Namaskara), with faith
and reverence, before the God.
*Dasya bhakthi: Anjaneya is the example of this kind of bhakti. Hanuman
has everything. He gives buddi, balam, yaso, dhairyam, vaakpatuthvam,
nirbhayathvam, arogam (good health) everything. Yet he never said he is
greater than Rama. He didn’t even say Rama Bhaktha. He just said he is Rama
Dasa. None can reach him in daasya bhakti
*Sakyam: Cultivation of the friendship with God. Arjuna cultivated
this kind of Bhakti towards Lord Krishna. He got the upadesam of
Bhagawatgita while being a friend with Lord Krishna.
Yatra Yogeshwara Krishno, Yatra Partho Dhanur Dharh,
Tatra Shree Vijayo Bhutir Dhruva Neetir Mathir Mama.
*Atma Nivedanam: Self-surrender. The devotee offers everything to God,
including his body, mind and soul. He keeps nothing for himself. Swamiji’s
sankalpa is that we all should become examples for this kind of bhakti.
Here, sage vysa narrates a small story of how Lord saves His devotees.
Once in a forest, there was a deer with its baby going in the forest looking
for food. While on the lookout for the food, it suddenly realises some
danger ahead of it. It finds a net put by a huntsman. It immediately turns
back to escape but found a bear behind. It turns to the left to know that
there is a lion waiting to eat the deers. It turns to the right and finds a
fox. It was surrounded by danger all sides. It then looks up for praying to
the lord but found that the huntsman is waiting there on the branch of a
tree to kill the deer with an arrow if it escapes the net by any chance. Now
the deer looks down, closes its eyes and prays the almighty. In a fraction
of a second, there came a big noise in the form of thunder and for this
sound, a snake that is behind the huntsman on the branch of the tree had bit
him out of fear. The huntsman wanted to throw the arrow on to the snake but
in confusion threw it on to the lion and the lion died instantly for the
poison that was applied to it. In this chaos, the bear out of hunger, it
grabbed the fox and ran into the forest. In a fraction of a second, the deer
escaped from all the dangers. We all face this kind of situation at some
point or the other in our lives and the lord in some form or the other saves
us.
Bhakti is the idea given to us to escape from all kinds of dangers in life.
To give us this idea in our lives, lord Dattatreya descended in the form of
Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji and to purify us, He is performing this
Jna Na Bha Yoga conference.
May pujya Sri Swamiji bless us with the complete result of today’s Vishnu
sahasra Nama parayana to all of us.
Jaya Guru Datta !
Compiled by Bala Aati