This audio tells you about - 1. Why it is important to know about the greatness of Bhagavan 2. How to know whether you have bhakti 3. How bhakti is an obsession about Bhagavan.

Quiz

Who gave birth to Lord Krishna ?

जन्माद्यस्य यतोऽन्वयादितरतश्चार्थेष्वभिज्ञः स्वराट् तेने ब्रह्म हृदा य आदिकवये मुह्यन्ति यत्सूरयः। तेजोवारिमृदां यथा विनिमयो यत्र त्रिसर्गोऽमृषा धाम्ना स्वेन सदा निरस्तकुहकं सत्यं परं धीमहि॥ The first shloka of Srimad Bhagavatam, we....


जन्माद्यस्य यतोऽन्वयादितरतश्चार्थेष्वभिज्ञः स्वराट् तेने ब्रह्म हृदा य आदिकवये मुह्यन्ति यत्सूरयः।
तेजोवारिमृदां यथा विनिमयो यत्र त्रिसर्गोऽमृषा धाम्ना स्वेन सदा निरस्तकुहकं सत्यं परं धीमहि॥

The first shloka of Srimad Bhagavatam, we are seeing the meaning of this.

In the earlier episode, we have seen up to- मुह्यन्ति यत्सूरयः.

The mirage or the heat haze in the desert when the air is heated, the light passing through gets bent, and from distance it may look like there is water there or the reflection of the sky appears as if it is there in water.

This is an illusion.

A glazing surface like a floor may look like there is water there, like what happened to Duryodhana.

Or absolutely still water may appear like glass.

These are all illusions.

In the same way, this world is an illusion, which appears when we look upon Parabrahma, Paramatma, through the glass called maya.

Just like when we look through a yellow glass everything appears yellow, the world as it appears is not real.

Who is behind this illusion?

Parabrahma, Paramatma himself.

It is not separate from him, that is also his own making.

But that Parabrahma alone can make this illusion to go away because he is the only ultimate truth.

Upon that ultimate truth, we meditate- सत्यं परं धीमहि

This is the meaning of the second part of the shloka- तेजोवारिमृदां यथा विनिमयो यत्र त्रिसर्गोऽमृषा धाम्ना स्वेन सदा निरस्तकुहकं सत्यं परं धीमहि

Now we will take a little more deeper look into this shloka which is very interesting.

It will reveal several adhyatma-tatwas.

We have already seen the connection between Gayatri, Veda, and Bhagavata.

Gayatri is the seed of both Veda and Bhagavata.

Gayatri is the essence of both Veda and Bhagavata.

The term dheemahi in this first shloka is reminding us of this fact.

Sage Vyasa in his state of samadhi, experienced three things: the nature of man, how he gets bound by maya, and how through bhakti he can get out of maya.

What is bhakti?

To have bhakti, you should first know about the greatness of Bhagavan, then only you will have bhakti.

If you go to a temple and do all the routines, even with appropriate body language, without knowledge about the greatness of the divinity in that temple, then it is of no use.

That even a robot can be programmed to do.

99% of us who go to a Devi temple don’t know whether it is Durga, Lalitha, Lakshmi, Kali, or which form of Devi it is.

99% of us who go to a Krishna temple do not bother to find out which form of the Lord it is: Gopala, Radhesha, Balakrishna, we are not bothered.

When it comes to this we talk Vedanta; they are all the same, we say.

But if you don’t go into specifics, if you don’t go in-depth, you can not develop bhakti.

Bhakti is always wavering.

Every challenge in life, every adversity in life, we start doubting divine providence.

Bhakti goes away.

Maintaining bhakti day in and day out is difficult.

This is why when someone does tapas and God appears, the first thing they ask for is achala-bhakti; bhakti that is firm, that doesn’t diminish, that doesn’t go away.

For this, to know the mahatmya, greatness of Bhagavan is very important.
Without that, the bhakti will not stay.

Whenever there is a threat to your bhakti, it is with this knowledge of Bhagavan's greatness that you fight it.

Without knowledge about Bhagavan, bhakti is weak.

Then what exactly is bhakti?

Bhakti is love for Bhagavan, more than anything else.

If you make a list of everyone and everything that you love, if Bhagavan's name is on top of that list, then you can say you have bhakti.

Otherwise, no.

If you are willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to retain Bhagavan, then you can say you have bhakti.

A boy falls in love.

His family objects.

He gives up his family, their love and affection, wealth that he would inherit, house, property, relationships, social position, still he goes ahead and marries that girl.

Nothing else matters.

This emotion, when it is directed towards Bhagavan, then it is called bhakti.

But for this, you should have knowledge about his greatness.
This is essential.

There is a story.

There was a man.

He used to visit a courtesan every Purnima night, for years together.

Once on a Purnima, there was a storm.

It was pouring heavily.

He had to cross a river.

It was flooded, turbulent.

He found a log of wood, sat on top of it, rowed with another plank of wood, and somehow managed to reach the other bank.

Then he suddenly realized that it was not a log of wood, it was a crocodile.

By taking many more risks and facing challenges, he went ahead.

He had to pass through a forest.

A tiger chased him.

Somehow he managed to reach the courtesan's home.

She was on the first floor.

The doors were closed.

He found a rope hanging from her window.

He held on to that rope, climbed up, and got inside through the window.

Then he realized that it was not a rope, it was a python.

So many similar dangers he had faced throughout.

He narrated all that to the courtesan.

She said, if this kind of obsession, if you had towards God then you would have got moksha by now.

We all have these strong emotions.

We all have capability of being obsessive.

But we apply them on wrong things, on wrong objectives and goals.

This is because we don’t have knowledge about the greatness of Bhagawan.

This knowledge is what Bhagavata would give us.

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