The Heart of Bhakti-Yoga.

The following short article is lifted from the teachings of Srimad Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Goswami Maharaja, a close friend of our Srila Prabhupada: 

The peculiar power in love is this, that the high is controlled by the low. Just as when a boy catches the finger of his father and draws him to some quarter and the father goes. The father is more powerful and the boy’s power is very less but the father is defeated by the power of affection. So, where there is love and affection, there we find that the big is controlled by the small. Similarly, the Absolute can be controlled by the relative. The infinite by the finite. How? Through loving devotion, bhakti. We should try and understand what is this bhakti that can control the Absolute. What is this wonderful thing? This subtle power. How to acquire it? What should be the price? How deep should be the transaction? 

The answer is – sacrifice. Die to live. We must invite that sort of death which will kill death itself. We shall have to give our very selves as a price to purchase this most valuable thing. The infinite is indeed the friend of the finite. But when the finite wants to show its sham tendency to become big, the infinite doesn’t like it.  

Don’t aspire after anything. Don’t hanker after any position, power, prestige or respect. Instead, give all respect to others. Relinquish all power, position and prestige for others.  And tolerate. If anyone or anything comes to attack you, don’t hinder or oppose them. Don’t disturb the environment, and if the environment comes to oppress you, then simply take the course of toleration.   

Don’t waste energy trying to fight the environment for anything in an attempt to control or covet. Get out of this entanglement. “I am to enjoy. I am to utilize whatever I find around to satisfy my senses.” This attitude, this ego, the centre of such experience should be totally abolished. Dissolved. Become free from the illusion and clutches of a separate existence. Make no special endeavour for yourself. See the divine arrangement for everyone, including the last grain of sand. Then it will become very clear, “I have got my duty in the universal flow and I am one of them. I am a particle in the infinite and what is feeding the infinite will feed me also.  Automatically I’m handled by universal force in such a way.”   This is what is necessary. No calculation, no self-interest, just completely surrendered to the universal cause.  Not that “Everything will serve me and come to please me.”  Instead, we are encouraged to accept the humble mood and mentality of a servant. “I am the servant of the servant. I am the lowest of the low. All good around, I am bad.”   
 

With such an attitude, chant the mantra – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Throwing your own self into the whim of the infinite. A very courageous step we are going to have to take. How the infinite will deal with us – whether we will be totally ignored or I will be adored, no guarantee.  By the wave of the infinite power, I may be lost. Yet, I surrender. This is the key to our success, our way to be happy.