Ascension Research Center does not guarantee the accuracy of any content on this site or on any external sites linked to us.
The Word of the Ascended Masters is the ultimate Authority in any question relating to Truth.

Bhakti in Hinduism

With reference to the Bhagavad Gita and at least one sampradaya, belief in
reincarnation and karma together with the practice of bhakti are the core of Hindu tradition

by David Tame

INTRODUCTION

The ‘Hindu tradition’ has proven difficult to define, and ‘Hinduism’ itself has been demonstrated to be a Western reification of most (not Muslim or Buddhist) of the various hues and styles of belief found on the Indian subcontinent (cf. Jackson, 55-59). Both Western academics and Hindus themselves do however generally agree today that Hinduism is a ‘tradition’ of sorts, having some commonalities wherever it is found.

Adherence to and honour for the Bhagavad Gita (hereafter abbreviated to ‘Gita’) certainly tends to be among these commonalities among many Hindus. While it is not an absolutely foundational scripture for Hinduism such as the Bible is for Christianity or the Q’uran for Islam, nevertheless the Gita has over time come to be regarded as the most fundamental and expressive of the entire Hindu canon of scripture. It is therefore the ideal single text to consult on ‘Hindu’ beliefs, and we shall take the Gita as being as good as any single text can be in being representative of Hinduism - at least of the ‘theological’ Hindu tradition, if not as it is always lived in real life.

ARE THERE OTHER EQUALLY VALID ‘CORES’ TO HINDUISM?

Are there other beliefs and practices within Hinduism that we could offer as being absolutely ‘core’ to the tradition such as reincarnation, karma, and bhakti may be?

Beliefs in particular gods are widespread though not upheld by absolutely all Hindus. We might cite a large pantheon including names such as Brahma, Krishna, and Kali, yet none of these gods – whether viewed as deities or as ‘energies’ – are important to all Hindus. Practices such as puja may not be discovered among jnanis or yogis.

One other aspect of Hinduism might be said to be a commonality, being almost always found in one form or another, and that is the belief in an ultimate spiritual goal which can be attained through living life, or lives, in a certain manner. This goal may be a certain state of consciousness such as samadhi, or, what is not quite the same thing, it may be a higher state of being or existence, as in one having attained moksha or liberation.

But in fact this does still bring us back to the suggested commonalities of karma and reincarnation. For, if one is to be liberated, then liberated from what? Again, the answer is liberation from karma and from the rounds of rebirth. So in virtually all cases, when Hinduism has as a core belief that there is an ultimate goal we can all strive toward, this is actually just the other side of the coin to the state we are in before we attain that goal, this state being that we are ensconced within the maya of karma and prey to rebirth. These do seem, then, to be worthy concepts to suggest as being at the core of Hinduism.

HINDUISM ‘AS IT IS LIVED’

But have we so far only discussed the ‘theology’ of Hinduism, and not ‘real’ Hinduism as it is often lived, believed in and practised? A twenty-year-old Gujarati Brahmin man living in Britain, when asked about his views on the connection between karma, reincarnation and caste for an ethnological study, admitted, ‘to be honest, it’s the first time I’ve actually thought about it in about ten years’. As Eleanor Nesbitt, the author of the study notes, ‘Few were sure of the meaning of the term karma. ‘Oh, you mean Kamasutra’ was one response.’ And a thirteen-year-old Punjabi girl in Britain reported learning about reincarnation from religious education: ‘When I heard it at school I believed in it.’ (Nesbitt 1997, no pg. no.).

These are examples of Hindus in modern-day England, but Sri Ramakrishna often found confused thinking or a lack of knowledge about basic Hindu belief among the ‘Hindu’ followers who came to him in India in the nineteenth century (Nikhilananda, trans., 2002). The teenage boy who was to be Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, Vivekananda, was an agnostic when he first met Ramakrishna, and thought him ‘mad’ (Isherwood 1965, 192, 196). It may therefore be necessary to keep somewhat in mind that theological Hinduism is not necessarily always the same as Hinduism ‘as it is lived’, though it may indeed be the intellectual background from which the ‘lived’ Hinduism derives.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA

As a bridge between theological Hinduism and real-life ‘lived’ Hinduism in its diverse forms, Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) provides as good an example as anyone could. Illiterate, he didn’t actually read any scripture himself, yet he embodied and understood Hindu and even broader spiritual principles to a rare degree, and was exceedingly eloquent in his expounding and explanations of them. He also experienced a tremendously varied series of spiritual life-episodes, living the Hindu way through many of its religious forms rather than one, and even spending time as a Christian, as a Muslim – and dressed as and living with women! A common man and not a scholar, he could relate to all kinds of people and all castes (Isherwood 1965). So if we have reservations about the degree to which the Gita and other scriptures represent ‘real’ lived Hinduism, touching base with Ramakrishna’s viewpoint will be useful, to see whether or not he agreed or disagreed with the Song.

KARMA AND REINCARNATION IN THE GITA

Arjuna rides between the two armies arrayed upon the battlefield, and is feint with emotion at the loss of life about to ensue. But almost from his first words, Krishna reassures him with the bird’s eye view perspective of reincarnation: that the apparent end of life is not the end. ‘Because we all have been for all time . . . Never-born and eternal, beyond times gone or to come, he does not die when the body dies’ (Mascaró trans., 2003, 2: 12, 20).

[I am choosing here to deal with karma and reincarnation together. All Hindu scripture upon the subjects agree that unwholesome karma is the reason we must reincarnate: without the karma the rounds of rebirth are completed. The only variation upon this would be that it is desire that causes reincarnation, but desire is still the result of decisions (karmas) to desire this or that, sown in this life or a previous life. Karma and reincarnation are therefore two sides of one coin, two aspects of the same phenomenon.]

A simple understanding of karma and reincarnation is quite widespread today among Hindus and even, relatively, in the West, this being along the lines that negative thoughts, words, or deeds create negative karma and thus prolong the rounds of rebirth. In the Gita, however, we encounter the deeper, more positive, and original meaning of karma, which has to do with all Creation, all activity, and all that occurs: ‘Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life’ (Mascaró ibid., 8: 3). Given this deeper meaning of karma, it can certainly be said that karma is at the core of Hinduism: nothing would exist without the first action of divine origin, which propelled all activity into action from the still, homogenous, primordial ‘sea’ of prakriti. The initial activity of karma according to the Gita, and in Hinduism in general, is paralleled by the Bible’s Genesis in which God says, ‘Let there be light’ (Gen. 1:3) and all of God’s other Creative acts in Genesis. These are the initial inception of karma into the world, all other actions or karmas stemming from them. The Gita is here referring, if not in explicit detail, to this Hindu concept of karma as being at the core of all.

But if by action (karma, which can be ‘positive’ as well as ‘bad’) we are conceived and born, and if we find ourselves immersed, seemingly, within a universe of constant karma, how can we ever be free? How may we ever escape the rounds of reincarnation and render them finite? Even non-action is an action, as it has repercussions too. ‘Not even for a moment can a man be without action’ (Mascaró ibid., 3: 5). But in the Gita, Krishna points to two methods by which karma as a negative force can be dealt with. One is ‘Karma Yoga, the path of action of the Yogis’ (Mascaró ibid., 3: 3). The modern concept of a yogi as one who sits still for untold hours in meditation is not entirely correct: ‘yoga’ simply means ‘union’, and he/she who applies any conscious method toward union with the divine is by definition a yogi.

The widespread concept today on ‘balancing karma’ tends to be that negative karma may be balanced and ‘paid’ for by good karma. But actually, the Gita’s concern is what is in the consciousness, or what may be the motive, when any action is performed: ‘Let thy actions then be pure, free from the bonds of desire’, and this is ‘the path of Karma Yoga, the path of consecrated action’ (Mascaró ibid., 3: 7, 9). This also resolves Arjuna’s dilemma: bloodshed may on the surface appear quite wrong, but may not be so if performed for the correct reason and in the correct frame of mind. And later on Krishna explains how through the doing of good, a person progresses from life to life, and may begin to be born among yogis (meaning people purer than average in consciousness). The propensities of one life carry over to another (Mascaró ibid., 6: 40-44), and eventually one ‘attains perfection through many lives and reaches the End Supreme’ (Mascaró ibid., 6: 45).

KARMA AND REINCARNATION ACCORDING TO RAMAKRISHNA

Karma and reincarnation are discussed by Ramakrishna, but only in passing. There is no systematic theology from him, but then this holds true of all that we have from him. Little would be recalled today of the teachings of Ramakrishna were it not for his disciple Mahendranath Gupta (known as ‘M’) who wrote down Ramakrishna’s words from memory after each meeting and later published them, eventually as a book (Nikhilananda, trans., 2002). Ramakrishna’s ‘Gospel’ is therefore not systematic, but consists of his various responses and promptings in speaking moment-by-moment to those around him. It seems reasonable enough to assume that Ramakrishna had no requirement to teach deeply on karma and reincarnation, or hardly to even mention them, since to his disciples, being Hindus, such concepts were a ‘given’. This in itself may be taken as evidence that these are core beliefs within the tradition.

Alan Hunter, a lecturer in Peace Studies at Coventry University, associated with the Ramakrishna Order and co-founder of the Ramakrishna-oriented Sarada Devi Centre in Coventry, further points out that Ramakrishna was very liberal in his acceptance of what might or might not be ‘truth’: ‘But then Ramakrishna would say that everything in the universe was the play of the Mother anyway, and so who really knows what is real? And who really knows, or how much does it matter, if there is reincarnation?’ (Hunter 2005).

Ramakrishna nevertheless clearly did accept karma and reincarnation, since they are spoken of by him. On one occasion the talk turns to a boy who had committed suicide, and the Master says: ‘He was a pupil in a school and used to come here. He often said to me that he couldn’t enjoy worldly life. He … used to meditate in solitude … Perhaps this was his last birth. He must have finished most of his duties in his previous birth. The little that had been left undone was perhaps finished in this one’ (Nikhilananda, op. cit., 187).

From the account of Vivekananda of his first astonishing meeting with Ramakrishna, we also hear of reembodiment. Taking Vivekananda privately aside, the Master grasped him, ‘raving and weeping’, saying, ‘I know who you are, My Lord. You are Nara, the ancient sage, the incarnation of Narayana’ (Isherwood 1965, 197). Ramakrishna also fully agreed with the Gita that, ‘You must surrender the fruit of your action to God’ (Nikhilananda op. cit., 334).

The key to understanding how little Ramakrishna taught on karma and reincarnation is that they are in a sense relatively intellectual concepts with little bearing upon how one can deal with a problem in the absolutely immediate moment. Ramakrishna was extremely practical in his teaching, and would ‘problem-solve’ for people the immediate and practical situations they faced. Further, as we shall see, he overwhelmingly placed his emphasis not on the ‘problem’ of being mortal or bound by karma, but on the ‘way out’ and into union. The very fact that he taught this path to union indicates that he also recognised the present mortal state of being ‘bound’.

BHAKTI IN THE GITA

As we have seen, one of Krishna’s solutions in the Gita to the problem of karma and of being bound to the rounds of rebirth was to consecrate actions correctly, to not perform them with wrong motive or desire. But he also has a second solution: ‘He who in this oneness of love, loves me in whatever he sees, wherever this man may live, in truth this man lives in me’ (Mascaró op. cit., 6: 31). This solution is love toward ‘Krishna’, the solution of bhakti. To comprehend this it is necessary to understand that here in the Gita ‘Krishna’ may be taken as being a representation of the entirety of the Divine, not an individual nor even, arguably, an individual deity. To ‘live in’ Krishna, then, is to attain union with the Divine and to be free.

Bhakti toward ‘Krishna’ may in fact be viewed as a refinement to his instruction to consecrate all actions or karma-creations. Action is liberating when done in the spirit of bhakti: ‘Those who set their hearts on me and ever in love worship me … these I hold as the best Yogis … But they … who with pure love meditate on me and adore me – these I very soon deliver from the ocean of death and life-in-death, because they have set their heart on me’ (Mascaró ibid., 12: 2, 6, 7). And again: ‘Whatever you do … suffer it for me. Thus thou shalt be free from the bonds of Karma’ (Mascaró ibid., 9: 27, 28). (This is in fact instruction in the practice of consciously-directed mindfulness such as is found in most religions including Buddhism and Christian mysticism.) We might summarise the profound yet simple formula rendered here as: bhakti frees from karma and from reincarnation, thus leading to moksha. ‘For this is my word of promise, that he who loves me shall not perish’ (Mascaró ibidt., 9: 31).

By love toward Krishna there is darshan of the soul, even apparently without the visual image being necessary. Through this bhakti-darshan a union occurs between the God and the mortal, which is liberating since the mortal is at-one with the immortal: ‘By love he knows me in truth, who I am and what I am. And when he knows me in truth he enters into my Being’ (Mascaró ibid., 18: 55).

Is Krishna talking here of some level of samadhi experience? This would be easy to assume at first sight, but it appears that the Gita actually puts more stead in actions being consecrated through bhakti than in even any yogic practices of meditation, pranayama, and so forth. For these may become dry, lacking bhakti, and thus the motivation behind them as questionable as that behind any other action: ‘but higher than meditation is surrender in love of the fruit of one’s actions, for on surrender follows peace… [In] this Yoga of union . . . this man loves me, and he is dear to me’ (Mascaró ibid.,12: 12, 14). The union, according to the Gita, is clearly achieved by love, and not by jnana, for in fact jnana simply lends one the wisdom to know to love.

We can certainly conclude then that in the Gita karma and reincarnation (though sometimes described in other words) is defined as the main problem of life, and the solution to that problem is the motive or consecration of one’s actions and consciousness, which should be bathed by constant mindfulness in bhakti. Bhakti is the solution according to this, the most important of all Hindu scriptures. But what did the more recently-living sage, Ramakrishna, who did not even read scripture, have to say?

BHAKTI ACCORDING TO RAMAKRISHNA

In his ‘Gospel’ of Sri Ramakrishna, ‘M’ plunges without fanfare straight into his initial encounters with the Master, for Ramakrishna’s words and deeds are the sole interest of the book. On the very first visit M asks a follower, ‘Does he read many books?’ and is told: ‘Books? Oh, dear no! They’re all on his tongue’ (Nikhilananda op. cit., 3, 4). So in Ramakrishna we have an example of the Hindu tradition as it truly is lived, at least as it was in Ramakrishna’s case, and these are not just the recited words of a well-read pandit.

Ramakrishna’s ability to convey teachings in story and by anecdote was wonderful, and in this sense he was himself very capable and ‘wise’, but he advised against wisdom or discrimination themselves as the only and chosen paths to liberation. On the one hand, on choosing a path to liberation he was liberal and practical, saying, ‘But the Reality [of God] is one and the same, the difference only in name. He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and Bhagavan to the lovers of God’ (Nikhilananda ibid., 107). But on choosing a path to union or liberation, the Master’s message can be well summed up in his words one day to members of the Brahmo Samaj, a semi-political organisation for Hindu reform:

Karmayoga is very hard indeed. In the Kaliyuga it is extremely difficult to perform the rites enjoined in the scriptures. Nowadays a man’s life is centred on food alone. He has no time to perform many scriptural rites . . . In the Kaliyuga the best way is bhaktiyoga, the path of devotion – singing the praises of the Lord, and prayer. The path of devotion alone is the religion for this age. (To the Brahmo devotees) Yours is the path of devotion. Blessed are you indeed that you chant Hari’s name and sing the Divine Mother’s glories. I like your attitude. You don’t call the world a dream, like the Non-dualists. You are not Brahmajnanis like them; you are bhaktas, lovers of God (Nikhilananda ibid., 121).

Ramakrishna returns to this conclusion again and again, which is all the more pointed coming from him as he had experienced most of the different styles of yoga, from tantra to discrimination, and many of the various Hindu paths such as Kali-worship and asceticism. Being a Hindu, even though illiterate he will have heard the Gita quoted over and over, and indeed he did say, ‘Yes, the Gita is the essence of the scriptures’ (Nikhilananda ibid., 386). But Ramakrishna appears to be talking from direct experience and not as a pandit when he says, ‘In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a ‘love body’, endowed with ‘love eyes’, ‘love ears’, and so on. One sees God with those ‘love eyes’. One hears God with those ‘love ears’ (Nikhilananda ibid., 75). This surely echoes the instruction of Krishna to attain union with him through the constant consecration of one’s actions to him in bhakti.

Just as in the Gita, Ramakrishna also states that love is supreme above any and all practice. Asked, ‘Sir, what is the way?’ he replied, ‘ . . . love for Him. And secondly, prayer.’ But he was pressed further: ‘Which one is the way – love or prayer?’ – to which he replies, ‘First love and then prayer’ (Nikhilananda ibid., 193). Many who came to Ramakrishna were learned men, scholars or students, and so he had to be clear in his instruction to these. He acknowledged that all paths lead to God, including the jnani’s path of knowledge. ‘All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth’. But to this he added, ‘But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love’ (Nikhilananda ibid., 55).

THE RAMAKRISHNA ORDER: PRACTICES AND BELIEFS

It would be difficult indeed for any devotee or member of the Ramakrishna sampradaya to emulate the Master utterly! So how do we find his followers acting and practising today?

The present writer has been a regular attendee at the pujas and meetings of the Ramakrishna-oriented Sarada Devi Centre in Coventry, has attended major pujas at the Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order in Britain at Bourne End, and has spoken to a number of Indian monks of the Order. From this my impressions, still as a partial ‘outsider’ to the Order, are that the actual main spiritual practices of members, whether lay-members of monks and nuns, are threefold. There is karma yoga in the form of many humanitarian endeavours, a practice initiated by Ramakrishna’s main disciple, Vivekananda. Secondly, initiated members meditate daily including to the use of a personal mantra given to them by their Guru within the Order.

But thirdly, the most obvious and frequent practice, at least for lay-members and visiting ‘outsiders’ are the regular pujas that are indeed very devotional in nature. These largely consist of devotional hymns to Ramakrishna and to his wife, Sarada Devi. And the Order’s altars almost always have pictures upon them of Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, and Vivekananda, for the purpose of darshan.

In all, one would describe the Order as a whole as more devotional and inclined toward bhakti than toward the more non-devotional and systematic forms of yogic meditation, though meditation is practised. In the pujas it is typical for there to be a scriptural reading, and this is frequently from the ‘Gospel’ of Sri Ramakrishna, so that his words and teachings are borne in mind.

CONCLUSION

The life and teachings of Ramakrishna are most vividly captured within M’s ‘Gospel’, for he wrote down on the very same evening all that he remembered the Master saying and doing. This then is the authentic life of a chief exponent of the Hindu tradition as he lived it. But apart from the Gita’s use of ‘Krishna’ as (arguably) a personalised representation of any aspect of the Godhead, the two sets of instruction – ancient scripture, and more recent and ‘as lived’ – are in accord.

The Gita is specific in the highest goal of life as being freedom from the rounds of rebirth, and in that bhakti toward ‘Krishna’ is the path to this ultimate emancipation. There are sufficient references from Ramakrishna to know that he also accepted the reality of karma and reincarnation, and certainly to him also the goal of life was union with God. And he too advocated bhakti as the best path to take, at least in this Age of Kaliyuga.

Finally, there is another perspective from which to view this ‘problem’ (negative karma) and ‘solution’ (bhakti), a perspective described in both the Gita and by Ramakrishna. This is that human individuality, when it is infused with egocentricity (of even a subtle kind), and actions performed for self, and performed from a motive of personal desire, ‘separate’ the self from God and/or Reality. And bhakti is the process through which, by a form of internal darshan, the self-limited self and the illimitable ‘Krishna’ or God re-unite.

The Gita expresses this in Krishna’s words that ‘The man… who has no thoughts of ‘I’ or ‘mine’, whose peace is the same in pleasure and in sorrows… [has] this Yoga of union, ever full of my joy’ (Mascaró op. cit.,12: 13, 14). And in the words of Ramakrishna:

Why does a vijnani keep an attitude of love toward God? The answer is that ‘I-consciousness’ persists… In the case of ordinary people the ‘I’ never disappears. You may cut down the asvattha tree, but the next day new sprouts shoot up. (All laugh.)

Even after the attainment of Knowledge this ‘I-consciousness’ comes up, nobody knows from where. . .

Once Rama asked Hanuman, ‘How do you look on Me?’ Hanuman replied: ‘O Rama, as long as I have the feeling of “I” I see that Thou art the whole and I am a part; Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant. But when, O Rama, I have knowledge of Truth, then I realize that Thou art I, and I am Thou (Nikhilananda op cit., 58).

Through the process of bhakti the individual part, the person, becomes suffused with the Whole; and this Divine Whole is not prey to, but is the Master of karma, and knows no end. Few knowledgeable Hindus could be found who would disagree with this conclusion.

References:

1. Hunter, Alan (2005) Personal communication to the author
2. Isherwood, Christopher (1965) Ramakrishna and His Disciples (Hollywood, California: Vedanta Press)
3. Jackson, Robert (1997) Religious Education, An Interpretive Approach (London: Hodder & Stoughton)
4. Mascaró, Juan (trans.) (1962, updated ed. 2003) The Bhagavad Gita (London: Penguin Books)
5. Nesbitt, Eleanor (1997) ‘Reincarnation: Some Reflections on Fieldwork among Young People in Britain’, in Hindu Mission of Canada, Diwali Silver Jubilee Edition, (Montreal: Hindu Mission of Canada)
6. Nikhilananda, Swami (trans.) (2002) The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Chennai, India: Sri Ramakrishna Math) abridged ed. (full orig. ed. 1942)

David Tame lives in England and is the author of The Secret Power of Music (Destiny Books, USA, 1984), Beethoven and The Spiritual Path (Quest, USA, 1994) and Real Fairies (Capall Bann, UK, 1999). He first discovered the stream of Ascended Master Teachings while in India in 1975, and in 1981 became co-founder of the English registered charity, The Summit Lighthouse (UK). He is presently associated with The Temple of The Presence. David welcomes correspondence, which should be directed to him through the webmaster of this site.

	Search Ascension Research Center       powered by FreeFind    Ascension Research Center http://www.Ascension-Research.org Ascension Research Center is run and maintained by students of the Ascended Masters, and is not sponsored by any organization. Ascended Master Teachings on Facebook   Home Books Contact Us Current Messengers Index Search What's New?
Copyright © 2014 by Ascension Research Center - with the exception of credited quotations. Third party material used on this website is quoted for the purposes of scholarship and research from sources which are either in the public domain, or within the bounds of fair use. Disclaimer: This website has not been endorsed by any author or copyright holder of the works discussed. No connection is implied nor should be inferred.