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Coordinator’s View
Bhakti and Shakti: भक्ति और शक्ति ?
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Having come across people of different mindset, during seven decades of life, every individual is seen to be living with some kind of belief. Believes of individuals are at times contradictory across different religions, sects, societies, and inter and intra family. An honest introspection even by an atheist will reveal that he believes that God does not exist. These believes develop a kind of following and a brand of likeminded people playing a rhetoric contradicting people of other belief. They do it in the same tone and tenor. Is it different than religious fanaticism?
(Bhakti, Shraddha and Shakti are the words that are frequently used in this article. These are Hindi Words derived from ancient language Sanskrit. Their dictionary equivalent in English are devotion, respect and power respectively. Yet these meanings do not convey true sense of the words in Hindi.)
Bhakti (devotion) is one of the way of life prescribed by each religion and sect, and it
is known with different name. Religion is implementation aspect of spiritual experiences of seers, monks and brahmarshis revered as prophets or incarnation of God. Spiritual experiences are universal; it is in fact realizing as to how nature works. Aim of science is to discover the nature and provide an explanation to the observations in the nature. Whereas, humanity is another natural experience. Experience of any happening if painful to one cannot be a matter of pleasure for the other, and vice-versa. Thus humanity is based on basic principle of
coexistence of all lives in nature. Any behaviour in contradiction to the basic principle is depiction of aberration in thought process of the person(s) practicing it. Such a behaviour is practiced against weaker and deprived ones. It is an attempt to overpower the target for the personal pleasure or gain and is totally unspiritual as well as unethical. There is a shloka in Marathi, which is generally recited before every meal, it is a self-reminder to the need of survival, and that one lives for the larger good of life in coexistence. The shloka reads as under –
वदनि कवळ घेता नाम
घ्या श्रीहरीचे । सहज हवन
होते नाम घेता फुकाचे
।
जिवन करि जिवित्वा अन्न
हे पूर्णब्रह्म । उदरभरण नोहे
जाणिजे यज्ञकर्म ॥
It means that we take meals to fulfill our needs of survival, where one life is food for the other. But, the survival has to be for the larger good of nature and coexistence with it. Such an action is called यज्ञ (Yagya – acts of sacrifice, oblation). As a corollary, anything consumed more than the needs of survival is detrimental to self as well as the nature.
Thus, neither the science nor the humanity is in conflict with the spirituality; they are just the human understanding of the nature to the limit of realization and its validation. The nature does exits universally, it is for us to believe it or not. In fact, principles of science, humanity and spirituality were evolved by different persons at different point of time, place and circumstances. Yet, they are so harmonious and consistent with each other and the nature that if meaning of any one of its parameters changes the whole world will assume different meaning. This truth is excellently depicted in a mathematical equation known as Euler’s Identity.
Therefore, right from the Hindu philosophy, known to be the oldest, to the communism and many others in contemporary world are explanation of nature, human behavior and spiritual experiences. Descendants of these philosophies have fragmented the society in different religions and sects, and each is identified distinctly with suffix ‘-ism’. Thus each of the –ism is an explanation of the nature, as experienced by its founders, to justify needs of survival according to the place and contemporary circumstances. Yet, as per communication theory, with the passage of time and number of transponders in the chain, each message develops faults, errors and failures based on understanding, belief and concern of each of the transponder. In its final form the message have a very different meaning to an extent that it may even contradict the original. Thus basic essence of spirituality is jeopardized. This is what has happened to different religions. Each of them
evolved from nature, but with the passage of time and with the expansionist approach many aberrations, dogmas, orthodoxies have crept in.
In this context, Bhakti (Devotion) is a derivative of every religion or ism. It thrives on the belief that one nurtures. It instills a hope in every person to acquire Shakti (power) to live on despite adversaries. It thrives on unquestioned following. The source of power in Bhakti is a belief which need not be a self-experience. A video, received on social media is cited here without claiming its authenticity. But, it very nicely conveys the impact of power derived from belief and/or experience, which could be a matter of circumstantial coincidence. But, in Bhakti, any argument contrary to experience does not deter belief of its practitioner.
Another kind of Bhakti, in and beyond religion. It is called Shraddha (Respect) which is a derivative of conviction arising out of personal experience. An excellent example of this is Shraddha that of Narendra Nath Dutta, a young inquisitive student of science, with Swami Ramakrishna Paramahans. Until then he considered the Swami to be a cryptic person. It is one of the most cited experience passed on by the Guru which turned Narendra into Swami Vivekananda. The experience created a complete transformation of Narendra into Swami Vivekananda. The latter, out of Shraddha, became the most ardent disciple of his Guru.
Bhakti and Shraddha is generally construed as one and are used interchangeably, yet they are distinctly different in characteristics.
It is very natural and psychological for each one of ours to search a place of solace in the event of distress and circumstances beyond control. They are the intellectuals whose Shraddha, based on their personal experiences takes form of Nirgun-Nirakar bhakti. It is a transformation of conventional bhakti into belief in existence of spiritual power that is showered by He on all and equally. Sources of spiritual power can be Sun, Wind, Rivers, Mother Earth, Mountains, Trees, Animals and their human forms in the form of idol.
Conclusions: The main purpose of perpetuation of Bhakti and Shraddha is to derive Shakti (power) of survival to overcome circumstances that are beyond control and, to the possible extent, complement efforts of coexistence, peace, harmony and prosperity. It creates a ray of hope. The wisest part of practicing Shakti and Sharddha is to deploy emotional power derived from it to live and grow in peace and harmony with the nature. Experience of the power so derived is phenomenal and helpful to achieve at times unsurmountable.
There seems to be no reason as to - why are there inter-religion, inter-sect, inter-nation conflicts? Why is there temptation to abuse science and technology? Are such acts meant for the larger good and growth with coexistence? Why are there, time and again, threat to the humanity driving it to the flash point of extinction?
None should remain complacent, else survivors of our misadventure, if any, would consider us to be demon;, irrespective of our being complicit to it or not. They will not pardon us for betrayal and breach of humanity. But, by then irreparable damage will have been done There is no place for complacency. Therefore, three is an urgent need of collective wisdom of the human race to ponder upon the questions and analyze the happening to evolve and implement solutions that are sustainable on the ground, and does not create another ism. It is big responsibility of we elites to proact, and it must start somewhere.
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