Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Baba's Storytime - Narada's Bhakti Sutras

 


Nârada asked Vishnu once: "The rishis or sages who had attained the purest wisdom relating to the universal âtmâ, could not win Your grace; but the illiterate milk-maids of Gokul who were charmed by Your beauty, Your sport, Your music, Your prattle, Your sweetness, Your inscrutable novelty - they won Your grace. How did this happen?"

But Nârada himself came to know later that the gopîs had Krishna (the Lord) as the very breath of their lives, as the very sight of their eyes, the very sound of their ears, the very taste of their tongues, the very touch of their skin. While tending the cows and calves, attending to their husbands and children, doing the thousand and one chores of worldly life, they lived in Krishna, with Krishna, and by means of Krishna only; sarvada sarva kaleshu Hari chintanam - under all conditions, at all times, in all places, their minds dwelt on Hari (Krishna, the Lord, the Supreme Personality). How then can God deny them grace?

When Nârada went to Gokul and called the gopîs to gather around him so they could listen to his teachings about the attainment of jñâna, the gopîs gave no heed; they said, they did not like to waste precious minutes: "The hours of day and night are not enough for us to dwell on the name of the Lord. We do not require your verbal acrobatics to convince us that God is sat-chit-ânanda-swarupa; we know, we feel, we experience the bliss every moment". 

It was after this revelation of the supremacy of bhakti that Nârada composed the Bhakti Sutras, which have become the guiding lamps for aspirants.


(From the Divine Discourses of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)


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