Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Doubting Where Is the Devotion

Toronto, Ontario

Praveen is an avid attendee at the early morning sadhana, spiritual gathering at 4:30AM. He enjoys the walking, as I do, when we allot ourselves time for mantra meditation. Serene would be a word to describe the world at this time of day. By 7:30 AM Praveen leaves for work. It’s a routine.

Then as is customary, the few of us ashram monks sit for a hearing of the Bhagavatam discourse. We are extremely fortunate to take ear drops of philosophy. But today is different.

As I turn a knob to have the fan run overhead for air circulation I think not of the fan’s revolving motion. It’s nothing new. That’s what fans do. Their propellers spin. My next move was to sit down to hear one of the monks speak from Canto 5 under that fan. Yes, that segment of the multi-volumed Bhagavatam which is highly technical, not philosophical, and discusses the revolutions of the sun, the moon’s movement and other orbital and heavenly bodies that revolve, something like the movement of the fan. There are chapters which delve into Vedic cosmology and the structure of the universe, some of which run parallel to modern science and some of which bear no synthesis whatsoever to current testimonies.

The Bhagavatam is said to be a literary masterpiece of exclusive devotion, therefore, certainly the mind wanders to question about tracing bhakti, or devotion, out of such a mechanistic rendering as found in Canto 5. I had to search for an answer. And here, in brief, is what was revealed (and I say that with no mystical innuendos intended).

When we read of the Vedic version of the universal makeup, we find that inhabitants from any sphere described have their established deity such as Indra, the sun, the incarnation Rama, etc. It appears that no place is divested of devotion. All persons honour and center their lives around some divinity.

And then we read of the sun god, Arunadev, and how with the aid of a mammoth wheel’s axle lodged into a majestic mountain time is told. All this effort which is quite an endurance test is also a matter of devotion.

There is one more thing. When we look at such complexities as planetary workings, it certainly puts you in awe and triggers the question, “What intelligence brought this all on?” And that response leads to bhakti.

So when we peruse through this great book Bhagavatam, it’s like a sugarcane, “wherever you bit is sweet”, our guru used to say. Wherever there is Bhagavatam wisdom, from any page, you will find devotion.

7 KM