The BHAGAVATA DHARMA

The

BHAGAVATA DHARMA

the easy path to reach the Lord

After the Universe was created the Lord entered it together with Jivas and charted out the course for them through myriads of lives and worlds, into countless species, births and rebirths. We are all immortals  born along with the creation, have not yet died nor shall we ever die. In Him do we live, into Him all eventually enter. He is the life of this universe, playing His wonderful game of love in the presence of everybody in so many hearts and forms, but no one has the power to realize it. Due to ignorance we think to be separate from Him.We must lose the body feeling which separates us from Him, see everything as one Atma, as there is only one Atma – Paramatma. 

This Atma Bhav must be strong. The cause of our present misery  arose because we forgot our real home and His sweet face which awaits us when we return back to Him. Prema is eternally existing in everyone, it only has to be evoked by chanting, repeating His Name and  hearing His Leelas. Through constant Nama Japa body, mind and Name become one. Then Nama and Nami become one and manifest themselves in the heart. Name is the best form of Mantra; it alone begets Prema. We need not good advice but strength and power to follow it. Name is that something. We Jivas were created as so many vessels to contain His Rasa . Out of His infinite love for us He manifested himself  in human form expecting the reciprocal of  love, free, unalloyed love, to be His equal in it. One-sided love has no sweetness. We exist not for our own sake but for the Lord. Love Him without any expectation of return.If true love awakens in the heart He is no longer considered as God but looked upon as the most intimate, as one’s own. Solely depend on Him like a child. Once Prema fills the heart all distinctions between God and man are effaced .Only those who fully realize that they exist not for their own enjoyment but for His sake think rightly. They see the Lord as soul of all souls, don’t distinguish betweendevotees and non-devotees but see everyone in His service.
Man has always eternal ecstasy in his heart but chases after unreal, slight pleasures, binds himself into births after births. We are His servants, sent by Him to do His biddings. Sensual pleasures are hollow and fleeting. Being together with wife, children etc is no more than a brief association of members of a Caravanserai. Just as relatives change in dreams from sleep to sleep so do family members from life to life. Those who understand this live at home like a guest with no feeling of possessiveness to any person or object.  Who does not seek God will not find true awareness of the Self. He will continue identifying himself  with the body and to be enslaved by every kind of desire and attachment .The creation is His field of work, His playground. We are born of Divine parentage and by right of this inheritance entitled to the wealth of Prema which is the exclusive property of the Lord. Undying joy is our natural inheritance.

We are never apart from  Him, not now, not in future. May we satisfy Him by playing our roles as He desires. He delights only in disinterested love and devotion. May we come back through a succession of lives as one of His people. This life is not our own, protect it carefully as His. We exist not for our own sake but for Him. He is an ocean of compassion, omniscient, and has taken upon Himself the entire responsibility for us. Let us be cheerful  in whatever way He keeps us, don’t lament. He stays where He gets joy.The Lord alone performs all actions, we are mere spectators. Let us make the Indriyas perfect instruments for Him and empty ourselves of egoism. Then we will feel the lightness of the work and that God works through us. If He follows us we can’t go out of line. It is He who deepens our faith, purifies our hearts, increases our yearning. Who depends on the benign grace of the Lord ever experiences supreme bliss. For one who is far we must call aloud, whisper to one who is near, but for one who is in the heart it is enough to think once. True bliss is within us and is everlasting. The Lord is like the sun and Maya, the illusory material energy, like darkness. Whosoever is constantly in the sunshine of the Lord cannot possibly be deluded by darkness.

Self-surrender pleases the Lord immensely. Let us depend on Him in every way, make thoughts, words, deeds entirely sweet and attractive to Him. Love Him with all sincerity, contemplate on His diverse sports, let Him know every thought, good or bad. He ever hears us from a place of concealment, and prompts us when we forget. Make every work – divine or ordinary – a sacred offering, a love-expression. He wants to see our yearning, intense longing. Our ardency must be constantly on the increase. The Lord is infinite bliss – Sat, Chit, Ananda – and the one who can set men free from the bondage of Samsar and fear forever. In Him we all live, into Him all eventually enter. 

As soon as we unite with the Lord the Ego dies and we move about the daily concerns of life mechanically. The Self in us becomes separated from the body like a dry coconut from its shell. Then commences the real transformation of the inner man. The outer world loses its hold over us. Unpleasant things make – if at all – a very temporary, light impression on us. The  I-ness that remains then is His. He is in me and outside of me. The body is His toy through which He plays for His happiness and ours. Lord Haranath declared  that He will  pursue us in order that we can never go out of line. It is by His grace that we have entered His fold. He deepens our faith, purifies our hearts and leads us on the swiftest and surest path to salvation. He pulls the strings on which we move, act, think and surrender. He exclaimed  ’I don’t leave you even for a moment, you will feel my constant presence. Would that I become yours and you mine in every life. Offer body and soul to me and see if I can save you or not. You are my own, my only hope.”

The afore said  introduction will help us to understand the paramount importance of what Lord Krishna advised us to practice – the Bhagavata Dharma of Glory - .Imbibe it and live up to it, for if a man follows it with Bhakti he shall conquer Samsar, which is otherwise impossible.This wonderfully effective Dharm, when put into practice implicitly has the power to consume the sins of millions of lives, to bestow untold fortune. To read this Dharma means being with the Lord.

THE BHAGAVATA DHARMA OF GLORY

Think of me always, consciously and deep in your heart subconsciously. Believe in my Bhagavata Dharma and offer your entire life and Karma to me. A pure-hearted Bhakta sees me everywhere pervading the Universe and himself as Akasa does – unrestricted, unhindered. Know the illumined man to be the one who sees all beings as my manifestation and is even-minded to them all. He that constantly seeks my presence in every human being ceases to compete with his equals, to envy his superiors, to be free from disrespect of his inferiors, and in general to be self-conscious or Self-regarding. He ignores the ridicule of friends and relatives, does not see anyone as being great or small, but worships every being, Seeing just me in them all and prostrating before them like a piece of wood. Gradually he trains himself to see Atman everywhere and gains the know- ledge where he sees nothing but Brahman and no other presence.

When we live the Bhagavata Dharma without any desire for its fruit everything becomes sacred. No thought, word or action is wasted for they are spiritual now, immortal, and shall lead to evolution in this life or the next. If we surrender our life to the Lord the most mundane acts like running in fear or crying from sorrow will become sacred and spiritually potent.

Using this paltry mortal body to attain Me, the undying Truth, is the highest wisdom of the wise and the finest skill of the skilful. Just as after drinking Amrita there is no superior drink  to be had there is no higher teaching to know after one hears this one.
  
Jai KUSUM HARA Jai
15^th May 2016
Ruth Baur