God and the human situation

DIMENSIONS OF BHAKTI MOVEMENT IN INDIA: Dr. H. M. Marulasiddhaiah - Editor; Akhila Bharata Sharana Sahitya Parishad, J.S.S. College Complex, 38th Cross, Eighth Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore-560082. Rs. 200.

BHAKTI OR devotion to a supreme power, called God by Christians, Allah by Muslims and a variety of names like Narayana, Parameswara, Parabrahman and others by Hindus is one of the most popular, because the easiest means of defining and determining one's attitude and relationship to the universe, human life and the power or powers, is beyond one's known and limited range of critical activity. There are many modes of manifesting this devotion, some outrageously crude, some not so crude but not quite free from distressingly incompatible elements and some which make it seem that the Almighty is a power or force requiring or seeming to require offering in kind, including living creatures. Popular superstitions abound and proclaim that the Supreme is desperately fond of appeasement and gratification.

The disgusting crudity of this kind of anthropomorphism has alienated many healthy minds into a mood of rank atheism or more exceptionally, agnosticism. But there are great teachers who tell us God needs nothing from us except devotion. Why does He need even this? The answer usually is that it is for the good of mankind itself that God is offered gifts and devotion. We conceive of God as one who would lavish wealth on us if we approach Him with the right intensity and sincerity of devotion. Others regard Him as a kindly dictator who would feel grateful only if one abases to the point of throwing oneself at His mercy. The general prayer of the Christians takes account of some aspects of the human situation and offers God the hallowing of His name, the execution of His will here below even as it is in Heaven, and a request to Him to give us this day our daily bread and forgive our debts even as we forgive those indebted to us.

Hindus at their most sublime mood of devotion, regard God as ``Avyada karunamurthi'', a Supreme Being whose mercy knows no particular motivation from its recipient. There are, indeed, among those who call themselves orthodox Hindus, who have a firm notion that the gods above may not need anything from us but will be pleased by gifts offered from those below and respond generously conferring various forms of material satisfaction. There are quite a few to whom devotion is an end in itself, a unilateral offering of all that one is to the Supreme Power without the faintest expectation of any earthly rewards or satisfaction.

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord bids Arjuna to abandon all the dharmas of Varna and Ashrama and surrender himself to Him, promising in return liberation from the miseries of earthly existence. In the Bhagavata Purana, Prahlada identifies nine modes or nine stages of devotion culminating in ``Atmanivedana'' or surrender to the Supreme Being. We have Robert Ingersol saying ``an honest God is the noblest work of Man,'' which one fears is as yet an unachieved or possibly even unachievable feat of human activity in this sphere. The Bible calls the person a fool who hath said to himself, ``There is no God.'' What has been said above is merely to make a somewhat imperfect survey of the way in which devotion manifests itself in various groups of people.

The collection of papers and addresses in the book under review represents a reasonably wide ranging variety of modes of devotion. The editor says that some are descriptive, some analytical and some even iconoclastic. Some survey devotion from a regional point of view and speak of it as it manifests itself in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Assam and other areas. One notes vividness and scholarly accuracy in most of the papers but one notes also a certain incoherence of presentation.

Dr. Marulasiddaiah looks on Ramanuja and Sankara as opposed to caste, since Ramanuja took to sannyas in protest against his wife's discourtesy to a non-Brahmin guest and Sankara affirms in the Manisha Panchakam that he would regard even an untouchable as his preceptor if he were a ``Brahmajnani''. Ramanuja made converts to Vaishnavism of his brand from all classes of people but caste did not subside or disappear among the Vaishnavites although there were non-Brahmins like Nammazhwar, the greatest of all Azhwars, who plumbed the depth of godliness in his resolute pursuit of the exhilarating experience of Sri Narayana. Sankara defines bhakti as ``Swaswarupa anusandhana'', exploration of one's innermost being and contemplation of its significance.

``Nishkamya bhakti'' is as profoundly moving as it is rare. ``Kamyabhakti'' is as common as the lily in the countryside. But the question remains unanswered, why devotion at all? It is a fundamental and crucial question - provoking thought and stimulating curiosity. The various papers serve to stimulate serious condemnation not merely of the varieties and modes of devotion but of its necessity, validity and utility in a non- secular sense.

The great South Indian composer thrilled himself and millions of those who sang and sing still those wonderful kirthanas which hail Sri Ramachandra as the Supreme God. The Dasas of Karnataka hailed Krishna in the Pandharpur form of Panduranga as the Supreme Spirit. Tukaram and his group of Maharashtrians lived on the exquisite spiritual diet they prepared for themselves, singing the glories of Lord Panduranga. North Indian saints like Surdas and Mira never worried about even their body and its needs and ailments - so absolute was their devotion to Lord Krishna. Rama and Krishna were meat and drink to them. The disciples of Ramana of Arunachala, Chandrasekarendra Saraswati of the Kanchi Kamokoti Pitha, Satya Sai Baba, numbering millions all over the world, see a living and loving God in all these great manifestations of the compassionate Supreme Being.

The story is told of a young child which had answered a question about the capital of France at a school test, prayed to God to make London the capital of France. But the story is also told of a person accused of murder crying aloud, ``Oh God, if I am really guilty of this murder, strike me down dead this minute.'' The Judge in the court paused for a little while and said, ``Since God has unfortunately failed to intervene in your case, I have no option but to do my duty and sentence you to be hanged until you are dead.'' But Nandanar's devotion was so intense that overnight the harvest he had been ordered to complete before leaving for Chidambaram for darshan of Nataraja, was completed in a single night. The Azhwars found Him in their company during a rainy night.

S.R.

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