Monday, June 7

The Three paths to Divinity


The very first article in the inaugural issue of Sanathana Sarathi was Bhagavan's 'Prema Vahini', or the 'Stream of Divine Love'. What else could it be, when Bhagavan has declared that if you ever want to give Me any appellation, call me "Premaswarupa or the Embodiment of love", for "Love is my form; Love is my instrument." And each devotee's life is a testimony to this unconditional all-encompassing love of Bhagavan.
For twenty-five months till February 1960, Swami assiduously penned for mankind the challenges and characteristics, norms and nuances of Divine love. Once and for all, Bhagavan settled the age-old controversy on the relative status of the three paths - Bhakti, Karma and Jnana (Devotion, Action and Knowledge) - that lead to God. He explained,

"I do not agree that Bhakti, Karma and Jnana are separate. I do not place any one before the other, nor will I accept a mixture of the three. Karma is Bhakti; Bhakti is Jnana. A piece of candy has taste, weight and shape; the three cannot be separated. Each bit has all the three; we do not find shape in one bit, weight in another and sweetness in the third. When the candy is placed on the tongue, the taste, the weight and the shape are simultaneously experienced. Similarly, Jnana, Karma and Bhakti may be truly experienced only as one whole."

Karma is love in action, Jnana is love experienced and Bhakti is love universally shared. Thus, Baba dismissed in one stroke all disputations about the superiority of any one of these disciplines over the other.
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