The Hindu : God-love must be pure and natural

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 19, 2002

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

God-love must be pure and natural

CHENNAI Feb. 19. An exhaustive treatment of the topic on "Devotion" and its further development in the form of pure "Love" will be found in the scriptural work — the Bhagavatam. Narrated to a group of ardent devotees by Sage Sukha, this glorious Puranam brings out the significance of God-love, which should be pure, natural and spontaneous. It is of the nature of direct immediate experience of Divinity, providing inner light to those who wish to pass through and beyond darkness. Its study brings God at once into the human heart, keeping Him permanently there. As against some who hold the view that the acquisition of spiritual knowledge and thereby removing ignorance will lead them to the goal of salvation, others are holding the path of Devotion as the practical side of the path of knowledge (Jnana). The Bhagavatam points out, in brief, that the supreme happiness as the culmination of all types of spiritual efforts lies in the devotee's love for and service to Lord Krishna and that He stations Himself in the hearts of virtuous listeners of this Puranam. The quintessence of all Vedic thinking is found elaborated and systematically inculcated in it as exemplified in the lives of Incarnations, religious teachers and other torchbearers. The way to gain "Moksha" is revealed in this Divine work. The unsophisticated, illiterate cowherd population, more so the women, poured out their Divine love at the feet of the Supreme Being, who had appeared in their midst just as a cowherd boy.

In a lecture, Sri Agnihotram Ramanuja Thathachariar Swami said the secret of "Krishnavataram" is presented in the "Sruthi Gita" in the Bhagavatham, clearly addressing the God in human form. "You have all the six outstanding qualities indicated by the term Bhagwan — power to know, to support, to control, freedom from fatigue, the capacity to carry out anything and the power to burn up all the opposition. They are not gifts from anyone but they belong to You by nature." Nameless and formless nature will not satisfy a common man's thirst. To enjoy God through the sense organs and especially to recite His name and think of Him, there ought to be a form. The Upanishads have presented Him in a "Raasa Roopa" so as to enable devotees to derive enjoyment. The episode of Gopis approaching Krishna brings out the grief from being kept separated from Him and the basic idea of Divine, Infinite Beauty, which has its own metaphysical significance.

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God-love must be pure and natural

This day that age: dated 19th February 1952

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