Srimad Bhagavatham

Srimad Bhagavatham – A Spiritual Insight – Ananya Bhakthi (one-pointed devotion)

Bhakthi as has been mentioned earlier is not a time pass activity of just visiting temples or singing his names at particular time – but it is constant remembrance of the ultimate reality. This ultimate reality need not be a form God, but it can also mean formless Brahman or the Self of the nature of Consciousness. God, in reality, is without form because any form is subject to change which will make such a God non-eternal.

Sri Krishna in Gita Chapter 9 says beautifully about Bhakthi
ananyAschintayanthomaa ye janaah pari upaasathe
Teshaam nitya abhiyuktaanaam yoga kshemam vahaami aham

Those who worship me (without any other thought) and seeing me everywhere – I take care of all their actions and good & bad.

This is not a mere statement of the form of Krishna, but is the statement of the ultimate reality of God or Brahman which has been maintained by the Lord till today (and which will be maintained in future also).

What is ananya bhakthi or ananya bhajanam?
Ananya means without any other thoughts. Thus ananya bhakthi is thought of God alone and nothing else. Whatever a person does, he remembers God. Whatever action is being done, thought of the Lord should be there. Thought of the Lord will become like breath which even though is natural and happens at all time, one is not at all aware of the same. Here Lord doesn’t mean just the form of Vishnu or Siva, but Lord is the ultimate reality on which all the other things depend (any dependent object is only an illusion in the independent object – therefore the objects except the Lord are all illusions. The ultimate reality is one’s own real nature of God – the Lord is not different from the devotee but is the very nature of the devotee. When the devotee thinks only of the Lord, he merges into the Lord and what remains is the Lord alone.

Let us today see some of the stories for ananya bhakthi and how the Lord helped or reached out to such a bhaktha.

We find in the Srimad Bhagavatham the story of King Ambariksha and his meeting with durvaasa. Ambariksha was a great Brahmajnaani who knew the ultimate reality but still was working in the kingdom and as the ruler – as an actor acts in a drama knowing the ultimate reality that there is no character there but only the actor. Once, Ambariksha was fasting for some days – for the welfare of the people. At that time, Durvaasa came to meet him. Ambariksha welcomed him, washed his feet etc. Durvaasa then went to have a bath & told Ambariksha that after the bath, he will have food. Ambariksha thus was waiting for Durvaasa to have food. The priests there told that the shubha muhurtha or good time for breaking of fast has come – one should not falter in these as these are enjoined by sruthi. Ambariksha did not agree to eat without durvaasa. Then the priests told that the fasting can be ended with a sip of water and thus Ambariksha ended the fast by having a sip of water. After this, Durvaasa came. He came to know what happened – and got very much angry as to how Ambariksha could do this without durvaasa coming (as a king should have food only after the sage or guest has arrived after bath or other activities). He started getting very much angry. But Ambariksha remained without any change – he was always steadfast in Brahman. At that time, Durvaasa took a hair piece of his & then hit it on the ground – that hair turned into a demon. This demon now progressed towards Ambariksha to kill him. The earth itself was shaking but Ambariksha was unaffected (Bhagavatham explicitly and beautifully mentions this). When the demon came near Ambariksha – Vishnu’s sudharshana chakra came and killed the demon. The chakra then went towards durvaasa to kill him. Durvaasa ran for his life – but Ambariksha then started looking into kingdom activities. Durvaasa ran to brahma, siva – none could help him out. He then went to Vishnu for help. Vishnu explained – Ambariksha is a devotee of the ultimate reality which is not different from me, hence my chakra was at his service without even his knowledge. I am as helpless as the chakra. Vishnu said that I am a mere servant of my devotees and told Durvaasa that only Ambariksha can help him out.

Durvaasa then went to Ambariksha and told about it. Ambariksha asked “Is the chakra protecting me, I did not know”. He was ever the same – no anger, no aversion, no happiness but only bliss of the Self. Then Ambariksha told the chakra to go away & then called Durvaasa to come for food. They both had food & Durvaasa left the place.

Here, durvaasa was a great sage who had got siddhis or powers – who was a great devotee of Devi but still hadn’t conquered anger. Such a person can never touch a devotee of the Lord who is always protected by the Lord – unknowingly also. This is the very effect of having ananya bhajanam where the devotee is ever established in the Lord and hence the Lord protects such a devotee.

A critic might say that these stories are myths in scriptures only and not real. For such a person, here is presented the real life incident of how Lord Krishna helped out Swami Vivekananda (which is not a myth but appears in his complete works & life histories).

Swamiji was once traveling in a train. The co-traveller was mocking at Swamiji. It was almost afternoon and Swamiji did not have any food till then and hence was feeling hungry. The co-traveler now took out a packet of food – and again mockingly ate the food. He was commenting about Swamiji also. But Swamiji remained the same – without any change in face or attitude – even though he was feeling hungry. Then station came & swamji got out & sat in the station on the bare ground. This co-traveler also got out & again sat near Swamiji and started mocking again. Then suddenly a person came running with food for a person in hand. He then gave all the food to swami (serving him). After eating, Swamiji asked him how he know Swamiji & why he came to the station with food. The person told “I don’t know you Swamiji. I was sleeping this afternoon at home. I am a Krishna Bhaktha. Then suddenly somebody hit me in the head. I opened my eyes and saw Lord Krishna standing. I thought it is a dream and hence slept again. Then somebody hit me again in the head. I opened my eyes and saw that it was Lord Krishna itself who was standing in front of me. I was speechless. Then Lord told me that one of his devotees wearing a saffron cloth was waiting in the station without any food & hungry. Lord then told me to take food for that devotee and give it to him. Thus I came to you Swamiji”. Seeing and hearing all this, the co-traveler fell at Swamiji’s feet and begged pardon. Swamiji was ever immersed in the Self forgave him.

This incident clearly shows how the Lord protects his devotees.

We will lastly see one beautiful incident in the life of Jayadeva – the great devotee of Lord Krishna. Jayadeva was once writing Krishna’s story – he was writing the part where Raasa leela of Krishna was present (Krishna and Radha’s love). At that time, the situation which he thought was Krishna kneeling before Raadha to put the ornament in her feet. But suddenly he got a thought as to how can the Lord bow before Radha. He couldn’t thus write the part. He was utterly confused now. At that time, he told his wife that he is going to have bath & to keep food ready once he returns. He went out. Suddenly after a few minutes itself, he returned back. His wife asked how come you returned so soon. He replied that he had to write out the story which was uncompleted & he had to do it now itself. He wrote few lines, had food & then went to sleep in his room. After some time, Jayadeva returned back to his home & then asked his wife for food. She said “you have already had it, you came just after you started for bath”. Jayadeva was startled. He then went to the palm leaves which he was writing. There the portion which he did not want to write was already written. Jayadeva understood that the Lord himself had come and written the portion.

This story shows two things. One is if the devotee is totally devoted to the Lord, the Lord comes to solve his problems. Jayadeva had the problem of writing down some lines – which was solved by the Lord himself. Similarly whenever a devotee has any sort of problem, the Lord helps out the devotee from that problem. Second is that the Lord is not superior to the devotee neither is the devotee inferior to the Lord. Since the devotee is constantly thinking of the Lord, the devotee becomes one with the Lord – there remains no difference between a ananya bhakta and the Lord. Thus, Lord did not find any difference between himself and Radha – so that he may not bow down to her.

Thus, the Lord helps out whoever seeks his with devotion and surrender by making them realize that there is no difference between the Lord and the devotee. Both are of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. There is no difference at all between the Lord and the devotee. For the devotee, there is nothing but Lord alone who is omni-present, omni-potent and one without a second.

And such a devotee who has ananya bhakthi rejoices in the eternal bliss inherent in the Self which is one and the same with the Lord.
Let us try to be get such ananya bhakthi wherein there will be no sorrows or sufferings but only Bliss, Bliss and Bliss alone.