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Sanatan Dharm - Part III
(Part I,
Part II)
The Divine teachings of the Upnishads, Gita and the Bhagwatam
(as followed and expounded by all of the Saints and the acharyas).
The Upnishads.
The famous “Purush Sookt” of
Rigved (10/90), that describes the Divine greatness of God, starts
with the word purush (पुरुष)
which means ‘the Divine personality of God’; and the very first
Upnishad in the list of 108 Upnishads starts with the word
Ishah (ईश:)
which also means the same. In general, teachings of the Upnishads
relate to the personal form of God Whose path of attainment is
bhakti. We can see how it is worded in the Upnishads.
We get three prime statements in
relation to God realization:
(1) “उपासते
पुरुषं ये ह्यकामा: । ” (मुं. 3/2/1)
(2) “यदा
सर्वे प्रमुच्यन्ते कामा येऽस्य हृदिश्रिता: । ” (कठö.
2/3/14)
(3) “यस्य
देवे परा भक्तिर्यथा देवे यथा गुरौ । ” (श्वे.
6/23)
It means that only those people
realize God: (1) Who selflessly adore God in His personal form; (2)
whose all the desires (along with their subtle forms) are totally
removed from their heart; and (3) who wholeheartedly worship and
adore a personal form of God and the Divine Master with equal
reverence.
The first statement clearly
asserts that selfless bhakti to a personal form of God is the
means of God realization. The third statement further clarifies the
situation and says that for the steady progress in devotion, during
the devotional period, a devotee needs to surrender to a
knowledgeable Divine personality (श्रोत्रिय
ब्रह्मनिष्ठ )
and, accepting him as his Divine guide and Spiritual Master,
he should lovingly and wholeheartedly follow his instructions and do
the devotions. Then, with the Grace of his Divine Master, the
devotee will receive the knowledge, vision and love of God.
The second statement literally
means that ‘when the desires are absolutely eliminated from the
heart,’ only then the practitioner receives liberation and
experiences the omnipresence of God. This statement refers to the
gyani and yogi practitioners, because their
style of practice is based on total renunciation and the removal of
all the desires.
But the practical difficulty is
that ‘desires’ originate in two ways: (1) By observing the world and
then desiring for it; and (2) by the subtle instincts of the old
karmas that are stored in the mind. Such instincts in a very
subtle form emerge from the unconscious section of the mind (where
all the karmas are stored) and then appear into the conscious
mind in the form of a desire. Thus, as long as the karmas are
stored in the mind, the desires cannot be totally eliminated, and
such karmas, which are called the sanchit karmas (sanchit
means accumulated), are uncountable. So, they cannot be destroyed by
any means. Even the highly evolved state of yog could only
eliminate the apparent desires but not the internal inherent
instincts of the desires.
Thus the Upnishad further says, “क्षीयन्ते
चास्य कर्माणि तस्मिन्दृष्टे परावरे ॥ (मुं. 2/2/8) The (sanchit)
karmas of a person are destroyed with the Grace of God upon
God realization when he receives the Divine vision (दृष्टे) of his beloved God.” It means that a yogi,
with his sincere and prolonged yogic practices, eliminates
his worldly desires and attachments, and then, when he devotionally
surrenders to a personal form of God, His Divine Grace destroys all
of the sanchit karmas of the yogi and thus his total
desires are absolutely eliminated. Then he crosses the effects of
maya and the omnipresent form of the impersonal aspect of God
(called nirakar brahm) is revealed to him (अथ
मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्यत्र ब्रह्म समश्नुते ॥ कठ. 2/3/14).
It is thus established that the
prime theme of the Upnishads is
 devotion
(bhakti) to God, but they also describe about the path of
gyan, yog and the good karmas.
The Gita.
Krishn Himself summarizes the
teachings of the Gita in one verse and says,
“सर्वगुह्यतमं
भूय: श्रृणु मे परमं वह: ।
इष्टोऽसि मे दृढमिति ततो वक्ष्यामि ते हितम् ॥
मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।
मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥ ”
(18/64,65)
“O Arjun! You are very dear to Me.
So, for your own good, I am telling you the greatest secret of the
Divine world. Listen carefully. If you or any soul of the world
desires to come to Me and be with Me forever, the easiest path is
that he should worship Me, love Me, remember Me all
the
time and dedicate his life for Me. Then surely he will come to Me.
It’s My promise.”
The Bhagwatam.
Although the Bhagwatam also
teaches selfless bhakti to God, but the Divine Bliss that it
describes is something very special and has no compare. It amazed
the foremost gyani-bhakt Saint of his time, Uddhao, who was a
friend of Krishn in Mathura and had closely experienced the
Blissfulness of Krishn’s almighty glory which is especially seen in
Vaikunth abode. Now see what happens to Uddhao.
Uddhao comes to Braj, sees the
Gopis, and receives their greetings as he had come from their
beloved Krishn. During the conversation he recognizes the Divine
warmth of Krishn love in the behavior of the Gopis which he
had never felt before, although he had loved his friend Krishn very
dearly. In a while, Uddhao is seen drowned in the excitedness of
such a Krishn love which is overflowing from the heart of everyone
around him. In such a state, he deeply desires for a favor from the
Gopis so that he could also taste the real sweetness of
Krishn love; and, with the Grace of Gopis, Uddhao begins to
perceive the unsurpassing blessedness of Braj in which the leela
Bliss of Krishn love is permeated everywhere. Uddhao begins to sing
the glory and the greatness of Gopis’ love and says,
“नायं
श्रियोऽङ्ग उ नितान्तरते: प्रसाद:
स्वर्योषितां निलनगन्धरुचां
कुतोऽन्या: ।
रासोत्सवेऽस्य भुजदण्डगृहीतकण्ठलब्धाशिषां
य उदगाद् व्रजवल्लवीनाम्
॥ ”
“वन्दे
नन्दब्रजस्त्रीणां पादरेणुमभीक्ष्णश: ।
यासां हरिकथोद्गीतंपुनाति भुवनत्रयम् ॥ ”
(10/47/60,63)
“The Bliss of Krishn’s intimate
Divine love, which Gopis received during maharas, was
so special and limitlessly sweet and charming that even Maha
Lakchmi, the eternal consort of Maha Vishnu and the goddesses of the
celestial abodes, could not receive that; then what to talk of the
others.” Uddhao further says, “I adore the foot dust of the Gopis
and put it on my forehead. They are so Divinely great that the songs
of the Krishn leelas and the Krishn love which they have sung
purify the whole world.”
This is the Bliss of the Bhagwatam
which is the essence of all the Divine Blissfulnesses. The Bhagwatam
contains the substance of all the philosophies, Divine and
devotional, along with the description of Krishn love whose
lusciousness surpasses all the Divine experiences. This is the
reason that after tasting the sweetness of the charming leelas
of Krishn love as described in the Bhagwatam, the dry philosophies
and other Divine descriptions become tasteless (सर्ववेदान्तसारं
हि श्रीभागवत-मिष्यते । तद्रसामृअततृअप्तस्य नान्यत्र स्याद्रति:
क्वचित् ॥ 12/13/15).
In the light of the above facts it
is clear that, in general, the religion of Sanatan Dharm is the
wholehearted devotion (bhakti) to God Who is kind, Gracious
and omnipresent in His Divine personal form. The good karmas
including social philanthropic deeds with pure sattvic
motivation, Vedic rituals, religious fasting, general worship to any
form of God, recitation of scriptures, pilgrimage to the holy places
of India, pious charity, study of Vedant with a humble heart and
sincere yogic practices are the means of improving the
sattvic qualities of the doer. Once the mind is established in
piety, a humble desire to see God develops in the heart of the doer.
If it doesn’t happen, one should know that his good deeds are
blemished because of his mayic desires and weaknesses.
However, when a sincere desire to see God is developed, the person
should follow the guidelines of single-minded devotion to his
beloved God Who is his true friend and Who is
eternally
waiting
for him to Grace him with the Divine vision and the Divine love.
The outcome of various paths and practices, and the effects of
spiritual transgressions.
God is kind and Gracious. He is
not an impersonal energy. He has His Divine personal form and with
that personal form He is omnipresent. So you have to desire to meet
Him in His personal form. You must understand this very clearly that
‘impersonal form’ has no Grace and no kindness, so that ‘form’ can
never help you in any way. It’s only a fancied imagination if
someone thinks that his impersonal God communicates with him or
could communicate with him.
When a person sincerely begins to
desire God and truly longs to meet Him in His personal form, no
matter wherever he is or which country he belongs to, God surely
helps that person and he finds the true path of God realization. But
still, there are a lot of practitioners in the world who follow a
path of their own liking and observe a religious practice of their
own choice.
There are only two fields: The
field of maya and the field of God’s Grace. All the
thoughts, faiths, actions and practices that are in some way related
to any kind of personal benefit, gratification of personal ego,
psychic field, yogic field, social welfare or celestial
dimensions, relate to the mayic field only. The outcome of
such practices is received according to the doer’s good and bad
karmas and motivations, and according to the quality of the
consciousness of his mind at the time of death. God’s Grace,
although omnipresent, is received only through wholehearted devotion
to the personal form of God where the prime aim of devotion is to
receive the vision and love of God.
There is one most important thing
which the spiritual practitioners mostly forget, and that is the
spiritual transgressions. The follower of a faith or a path
should know that the universe is running on definite principles and
fixed laws of karmic consequences; and it is governed by the
Divine power of God Who is omnipresent. So, for his own good, a
person has to follow the rules of devotion as advised and prescribed
in the scriptures (the Upnishads, the Gita and the Bhagwatam) which
were revealed by God Himself.
One may create a dogma according
to his own imagination and whim and add the name of a fictitious God
to it. He may create a group (or even a religion) and befool others
with that ideology. But that has no concern or consideration in
relation to the laws of the karmas of this universe. The
person following that dogma will have to be punished or rewarded
according to the rules set down by the Divine scriptures. You should
know that God Himself has revealed the simplest path of bhakti
for His realization, descended on the earth planet in His absolute
Divine glory, and revealed His loving leelas for the
devotional remembrance of the devotees; for such a kind and Gracious
God, even the slightest disregard is a grave transgression. God is
always kind. He never looks to the wrongs of any soul who comes to
Him; but such transgressions come under the category of bad
karmas, and thus, the doer is punished according to the
karmic laws of this universe.
Any kind of disregard for the
supreme personality of God is a spiritual transgression. Thus, such
thoughts, actions or writings that disregard, disrespect, criticize
or allegorize His leelas, His descensions, His personality,
His abode, His Divine love, His scriptures, His eternal Saints and
His true bhaktas (Devotees), are called the spiritual
transgressions (नामापराध ). Misrepresentation of the true philosophy of
Bhartiya scriptures (the Upnishads, Gita and the Bhagwatam) and
using religious oratory to please the audience and entertain his ego
by receiving the compliments of his followers are also spiritual
transgressions. The negative effect of such transgressions on the
doer’s mind is much greater than other sinful deeds. For
example: a person is following a path. He is doing all the rituals,
fasting, worship, recitation, meditation and
jap, whatever he likes. (Repeating the name of God while
counting it on the bead-chain, which the doer holds in his right
hand, is called ‘jap.’) But, in the presumptuousness of such
doings, if he even ignores to accept the greatness of Divine love or
bhakti or the supremacy of God’s personal form or he
disregards the other acharyas and Divine personalities, he is
committing a spiritual transgression that will further multiply the
negativity and the vanity of his mind. It means that as a result of
his spiritual practices whatever sattvic quality he would be
earning, on top of that, as a result of his transgressions, he would
be adding much more negativity in his mind. It would be like a
businessman who earns ten thousand dollars and loses twenty thousand
dollars every day. Imagine what would be the fate of his business.
This is the reason that a lot of such practitioners and religious
preachers and teachers, instead of coming close to God and improving
their humbleness, they only multiply their vanity and become more
and more attached to their worldly possessions.
The Puranas tell that such people
are in abundance in kaliyug, and in fact, they are the ones
who represent the evils of kaliyug in the name of God. The
Bhagwatam says, “धर्म
वक्ष्यन्त्यधर्मज्ञा अधिरुह्योत्तमासनम् । (12/3/38) In kaliyug
the anti-God elements appear in the form of such so-called religious
preachers and sadhu sanyasis (the people who wear the
appearance of a monk and do the religious preaching) who, holding a
prestige in the society, speak on the Hindu religion while sitting
on a high
seat
on a stage as a guru, but their speeches despise the truth of
Sanatan Dharm and bhakti.”
The recognition of a true devotee of God (gyani or
bhakt), be he a sanyasi or a family man.
It is explained earlier that God
is realized through bhakti, whether nirakar brahm (the
nirakar aspect of God) or a personal form of God. Shree
Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji has clearly stated that ( हरेर्नामैव नामैव हरेर्नामैव केवलम् ।
कलौ नास्त्येव नास्त्येव नास्त्येव गतिरन्यथा ॥)
in the age of kaliyug the remembrance of the Divine name of
Hari (Krishn) is the only way to receive God realization, and the
promoter of advait vad (absolute monism), Jagadguru
Shankaracharya, has himself declared that (शुद्ध्यति
हि नान्तरात्मा कृष्णपदाम्भोजभक्तिमृत ॥ प्र. सु.)
without the bhakti of Krishn the heart of a spiritual
practitioner can never be purified. In that case there seems no
reason as to why a seeker of God should follow the extremely
difficult path of gyan instead of bhakti. However, for
any of his intellectual reasons, if a sanyasi
(who has renounced his family) or even a family man is trying to
follow the path of gyan, he should know that these are the
indications of a true follower of that path: (a) He should be
away from all kinds of social and religious functions and
activities; (b) he should be resorting to his practices of
samadhi, according to the instructions of the Yog Darshan, for a
major part of the day and night; (c) he should not have any
attachment to his property and his physical comforts, he should not
desire for his name and fame in the society and he must be truly
humble and forgiving (not having any arrogance or a show of pride in
his behavior); and (d) he must be having a true regard for all the
forms of God with a feeling of self-surrender to a particular form
of God (Vishnu, Shiv, Durga, Ram or Krishn).
The indications of a true devotee
(bhakt) of God are: (a) He should be humble, forgiving
and having no arrogance in his behavior; (b) he should be fully
dedicated to a personal form of God and, regarding Him to be the
true beloved of his soul, he should be yearning for His Divine
vision and love; (c) while lovingly remembering his beloved God all
the time, he should be doing his regular devotions and should be
away from the attachments of the
world;
and (d) he should have a regard for all the acharyas.
The consequence of various paths and the practices that are
followed by the people of the world.
The aim of human life is to
receive God realization while living in the world by following the
guidelines of bhakti as described in the Gita and the
Bhagwatam. But the people of the world engage themselves
in various worldly activities, and even those who seem to be
following a path, a majority of them observe non-Godly practices in
the name of God and very few follow the true path of God realization
which is bhakti. A brief review of such practices is as
follows:
General practices.
(1) All kinds of intellectual
and technical meditations where a meditator tries to enter into
a thoughtless state of the mind.
(2) All kinds of dogmatic and
non-dogmatic religions of the world where God is impersonal or
of a celestial nature.
(3) Practices that are of the
psychic nature, or they are supposed to give any kind of energy
to the practitioner to heal or to work a small-time miracle.
(They are all related to the rajogun and the tamogun
of
maya.)
(4) Those religious practices
where “absolute nothingness (शून्य ),” or just a soul-like energy, is the ultimate
truth.
(5) Observing rituals,
religious fasting and general worship to any form of God (as
described in our scriptures) in order to receive His boon for
family welfare. (They relate to the sattvagun of maya
if sincerely practiced.)
(6) True yogic
practices. (Yogic practices according to the rules of Yog
Darshan relate to the sattvagun of maya.)
The first four kinds of practices
have no concern with God or the apar or par dharm of
Sanatan Dharm (explained earlier). However, all of these practices
relate to the mayic field of sattvagun, rajogun and
tamogun depending upon the practitioner’s bent of mind. The
practices which are done with a sincere and sattvic mind may
produce sattvic results. But, being related to the mayic
field, all the karmas of these practitioners are
classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and thus they are fructified
according to the karmic rules of the universe.
Wholehearted devotion to God.
(1) Devotion to Vishnu alone
or Lakchmi Vishnu.
(2) Devotion to Shiv alone or
Parvati Shiv.
(3) Devotion to Goddess
Durga.
(4) Devotion to Ram alone, or
Sita Ram, or Sita Ram with Lakchman Bharat and Shatrughn also.
(5) Devotion to Krishn alone
or Rukmini Krishn.
(6) Devotion to Radha and
Krishn, alone or together.
(7) Devotion to Radha Krishn
of Divine Vrindaban.
Wholehearted and single-minded
devotion to any of these forms of God (or any of the affiliated
Divine powers of Vishnu, Shiv or Durga) with a desire to receive the
Divine vision and the Divine Bliss relates to the power of Grace.
This is called bhakti or divine-love-consciousness which
reveals all the exciting Divine experiences of the Divine abodes
from Vaikunth to Divine Vrindaban according
to
the form of God a devotee is worshipping.
Saints, acharyas and their religion.
The Saints and the acharyas
of Bharatvarsh have always established and expounded the devotional
and the philosophical themes of the Upnishads, Gita and the
Bhagwatam which form the body of Sanatan Dharm. There are no
discrepancies in their descriptions. If any discrepancy is seen in
their descriptions, it is only the lack of correct interpretation by
the reader, because every Saint describes the Divine theory in his
own style and so you have to understand the style of his writing.
The common source.
One thing you must know, that
it is God Who reveals the scriptures, directly and through Brahma;
it is God Who sends the Divine personalities from His abode to come
to this earth planet and to establish the Sanatan Dharm; and it is
God Who Himself descends on the earth planet to reveal His absolute
Blissfulness through His leelas and to show the path of
bhakti, which is the soul and the essence of Sanatan
Dharm and all of the scriptures. Thus, the eternal Sanatan Dharm is
produced by God, represented by God, and established, promoted and
promulgated by the eternal associates of God.
This is the reason that all the
Divine writings of the acharyas and Saints are in perfect
coordination with the Upnishads, Gita and the Bhagwatam. All the
names and the forms of God and the philosophy of God realization
that they have described are already in the scriptures. But they
have further simplified the path of devotion to God and expanded the
devotional material by revealing the leelas of Radha Krishn a
lot more than they are described in the Upnishads, Puranas and the
Bhagwatam.
The Divine forms of one single God.
The difference which is seen in
their writings is the representation of the form of God, and this
difference relates to the actual Divine status of that Divine
personality. It also represents this fact, that one supreme God has
all these forms.
Ramanujacharya came from Vaikunth
abode, so he emphasized on the bhakti of God Vishnu but he
also described about the worship of Bhagwan Ram and Bhagwan Krishn.
He wrote about Ram in his book Ram Patal and Ram Rahasya.
Nimbarkacharya came from Golok abode, so he represented the loving
devotion of Radha Krishn. Shankaracharya was the descension of God
Shiv Who is God of yog and liberation and also an ardent
devotee of Krishn, so Shankaracharya explained about gyan and
yog but he inserted bhakti in the very end of
Aprokchanubhooti (गुरुदैवतभक्तानां
सर्वषां सुलभो जवात् ॥) and described Krishn devotion in the Prabodh
Sudhakar. Goswami Tulsidas is an eternal devotee of Bhagwan Ram so
he extensively adores and praises Bhagwan Ram in all of his
writings, but at one spot he also writes in the Vinay Patrika (मैं तोहिं अब
जान्यों संसार । ...जेहि हृअदय न नंदकुमार ॥) that
maya cannot do any tricks upon him because he has Nand Kumar
(Krishn) in his heart. These references represent the Divine status
of that Divine personality and, at the same time, they also
represent the internal self-submissiveness of all the Divine forms
of one single God.
Clarification of the philosophy of soul,
maya,
and God.
The differences which are seen in
the bhashyas (commentaries on the scriptures) of the
Jagadgurus are not substantial differences. They are the
descriptions of the same Divine substance in a different manner and
with a different approach, and sometimes they are further
clarifications of the same Divine truth.
For example: (a) Shankaracharya
said in his bhashya that God is impersonal (nirakar)
and maya is only an illusion. Ramanujacharya did not
reject the existence of nirakar brahm and the illusive nature
of maya, but he further explained that nirakar brahm
is an aspect of purushottam brahm (the supreme personality of
God) and is established in Him, and maya itself is not an
illusion, only its effects are illusionary, whereas maya is
an eternal and lifeless power.
(b) The other Jagadgurus
said that soul is an infinitesimal part of the chit shakti of
God. Jeev Goswami further unfolded this situation and explained that
there is a power called jeev shakti which is an affiliate to
chit shakti. Soul is actually an infinitesimal part of
that jeev shakti.
(c) Nimbarkacharya and
Vallabhacharya established the Divine supremacy of Krishn but they
did not fully describe the Divinity of Radha Rani. Jeev Goswami and
Roop Goswami, further explained that Radha Rani is the soul of
Krishn and the absoluteness of the hladini power which is the
main personal power of supreme God Krishn. They wrote the detailed
descriptions of the Divine love states and the ecstasies of
Gopis,
Krishn and Radha as they are seen in Golok and Divine Vrindaban, in
the Krishn Sandarbh, Preeti Sandarbh and Ujjwal Neelmani. Thus we
see that there is no substantial difference in the writings of the
Jagadgurus and the acharyas. They are the descriptions
of the same Divine existence in their own style of
writings
and according to their own Divine experiences.
The gist of their teachings.
Now we can have a glimpse of the
prime theme of the writings of our Saints and the acharyas:
Nimbarkacharya showed the path of selfless devotion to Radha
Krishn; Shankaracharya (509-477 BC) talked about yog
and brahm gyan but his sachchidanand brahm was Krishn
Whom he himself adored (प्र.
सु. 195, 200, 250); Ramanujacharya
stressed on humbleness and total self-submission (प्रपत्ति) to God Narain (Vishnu); Madhvacharya said
that the only goal of a soul is to selflessly and wholeheartedly
love and surrender to God; Vallabhacharya propounded the path
of
pushti (पुष्टि)
which is total submission to Krishn with a real humble desire of
receiving His Grace; and Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji said that a
devotee should desire for the Divine love of Krishn Who is seen
playing in Divine Vrindaban.
There were some gyani
Saints like Kabir (b. 1398) and Guru Nanak (b. 1469) whose
teachings relate to the realization of God in His impersonal form,
but there are expressions of self-surrender to God to receive His
Grace in their writings which is bhakti. Kabir writes that
God Hari is his Divine beloved and he is His sweetheart ( हरि मेरो पिउ...).
Srichand who was the son of Guru Nanak taught the general worship of
all the forms of God in his religion.
The bhakt Saints
like Tukaram, Guru Ramdas, Daduji, Narsi Mehta, Goswami Tulsidas,
Ramkrishn Paramhans, Swami Sahajanand and many more, sang the glory
of their beloved God in their writings and showed the path of
bhakti to their followers.
During the same period, around the
fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, there were a number of
rasik Saints and acharyas like Swami Haridas,
Hit Harivansh, Surdas, Nanddas, Dhruvdas, Roop Goswami and Sanatan
Goswami etc., who lived in Braj and enlivened the heart of every
devotee with Radha Krishn love, whoever came to them. So we see that
all the acharyas and Saints represented bhakti which
is the central theme of Sanatan Dharm.
These Saints and the acharyas
had their own followings which later on took the shape of a religion
in which a particular form of devotion was introduced as taught by
the originator of that religion. In this way, in different
periods of time, several religions were formed all over India. But
the beauty of these religions was that, when they started, all of
them represented pure bhakti which is the central theme of
the scriptures (the Upnishads, Gita and the Bhagwatam) and which
was expounded by all of the Saints and the acharyas. Just
like the fingers of a hand appear to be separate, but they are not;
they are together. Similarly, all the religions of India are
initially tied up with the string of bhakti as if they are
all one single religion of bhakti which is appearing in
several forms.
The absolute, omniscient,
omnipresent, omnigracious, all-Blissful, all-beautiful and all-kind
God has interrelated and intersubmissive five main forms (Vishnu,
Shiv, Durga, Bhagwan Ram and Bhagwan Krishn), Who have Their own
Divine abodes that represent sweeter and sweeter manifestations of
the Divine Bliss. (This philosophy is described in detail in “The
Divine Vision of Radha Krishn.”) They are all various forms and
abodes of one single God. Souls who reach these Divine abodes enjoy
the absolute Bliss of a non-ending and ever-increasing nature every
moment. Your Beloved God, in the Divine abode, gives His personal
loving care of such an unlimited limit that drowns a soul in the
sweetness of His loving association forever. All of these abodes
are attainable through selfless bhakti.
This is Sanatan Dharm, the
eternal Divine religion, which represents all the aspects and forms
of God, from the absolutely dormant nirakar form to the
absolutely amazing most intimate Divine love form of God which is
only seen in Divine Vrindaban. Another amazing thing is that the
path of attainment of any of these forms of God is only one, and
that is bhakti, which is the loving remembrance of your most
beloved God with a yearning heart and a desirous mind, aspiring for
His vision and love.
Sanatan Dharm represents God in
totality through its scriptures (the Upnishads, Gita and the
Bhagwatam) and tells about His Divine virtues like: His
Graciousness that eliminates maya and reveals the
Divinity; His kindness that brings forth His supreme
Blissfulness and unveils His absolute beauty; and His lovingness
that reveals His unlimited personal love which is described as
rasah in the very first chapter of the Bhagwatam.
Thus we have described the
authentic form of Sanatan Dharm which also includes the sanatan
(eternal) history of Bharatvarsh. It is the universal religion,
eternally existing in all the brahmandas of this universe in
the same form, because the general configuration of every
brahmand is the same. In this book whatever Divine facts we have
discussed, revealed and expounded, they are the manifestation of
only a ray of the Gracious gift of the supreme beloved of my heart
and soul, Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj. (गुरु:
कृपालुर्मम शरणं, वंदेऽहं सद्गुरुचरणम् । अशरणशरणं गुरुचरणं वंदेऽहं
सद्गुरुचरणम् ॥)
We must know that the history of Bharatvarsh is
the description of the timeless glory of the eternal Divine
dignitaries who, not only Graced the soils of India with their
presence and Divine intelligence, but also showed and revealed the
true path of peace, happiness and God realization for the souls of
the whole world which remains as a sole guideline for the true
lovers of God who desire to taste the
sweetness
of God’s love in an intimate style.
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