Devotion and Spiritual Practice
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Words are a means of expressing one’s devotion – it could be through
songs or poems – and these words come straight from the heart, these words come
with their own energy.
Words cannot describe the Supreme Being, but we like to show our
devotion, so we describe to the best of our capacity. Music is an
intrinsic part of bhava and bhakti, and
it goes beyond all words. If you listen to Beethoven’s music, there’s something
going on inside. That is why from ancient times the great sages,
the great teachers introduce music.
Kabir said - A heart which has no love, no affection, no devotion, no bhav is equal to a cremation ground, there is nothing there, it’s all burnt, finished, nothing is left. There is no life out there. He gives an example of saying that it’s the bellows of a blacksmith also breathe because they also go up and down like our lungs but there is no life.
A common question is – how to create bhav? We can teach all the
ways leading to it. Yes, but what it is, it can’t be taught. One day, suddenly
the seed sprouts, we don’t know how. There is no single way by which it comes.
Suddenly something sprouts because it takes time and then the heart opens.
There is no explanation for it. We believe that perhaps it comes through the
grace of the Supreme only. Also, through the grace of the Guru.
Inside the mind of the human being is divinity and when anybody seeks that
treasure, then he or she becomes a bhakta and therefore
to say that I’m going to find the Truth without any bhava or bhakti is
absolute nonsense, it cannot be done. We can learn all the Upanishads,
we can practise ashtanga yog, we can sit and breathe
up and down but if the heart has not melted, nothing will happen.
So, music becomes the bridge from the known to that which is unknown.
That which is unknown, who can define the Supreme! True divinity
can be known only when the mind becomes pure and divine by itself, then it has
realised that it can’t be described logically; it can’t be put in words.
The most interesting thing is, if someone who we consider to be the
spiritual Master, has touched it then the presence of that Master can make the
seed grow inside us. Suppose there’s a big magnet, we take an iron piece near
it. The closer it goes to the magnet, the more magnetic it becomes. The
cleaner it is, the more magnetic it becomes because usually iron has rust on it.
So, spiritual practice, our devotion, bhakti, bhava is the clearing of all the rust that is on the iron piece. When the rust goes the iron then behaves exactly like a magnet.
This is the importance of a teacher, a Guru,
a real Saint, a real teacher. When there are real teachers, it happens. The
seed is sown and then you hear the music of the bansuri, as
Krishna plays it in Brindavan.
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