________________
THE BRAHMANICAL DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION
Kṛṣṇa. When it comes to describe devotion, the virtues of knowledge and action seem to recede into the background. Loving devotion to God (bhakti) emerges as the best road to liberation.
"Of all the yogins, he who is full of faith worships Me, with his inner self abiding in Me, him I hold to be the most perfectly disciplined."70
151
Thus God prefers a devotee to a yogin. In other words a bhakta is the best yogin. He who combines devotion with yoga is superior to all other seekers. Devotion to God is the surest way to reach God. The Lord says,
"By devotion one comes to know Me, what My measure is and what I am in very truth; then, knowing Me, in very truth, he straightway enters into Me."71
The devotional path is open to all, men as well as women, high born as well as low born. Compared to the paths of knowledge and action, path of devotion is easy and simple. Even sinful men and women can attain liberation through devotion. It has been said that no devotee of God is lost.
Perfect devotion to God demands full faith in God, intense love for Him and absolute surrender unto Him. In one of the crucial verses in its eighteenth chapter, Lord Kṛṣṇa asks Arjuna, to leave everything else and take refuge in Him only. He says, "I will deliver thee from all sins, do not grieve." >>72 Thus the doctrine of mukti through prapatti and bhakti may be said to be the culminating point of the Bhagavadgitä.
Commenting upon the fusion of different paths in this text, Franklin Edgerton has made the following observation:
"Gita's religion is a compromise between the speculation of intellectuals and the emotionalism of popular religion. So the notion of bhakti, devotion, enters into its scheme of salvation by a side door, without at first displacing the old intellectual theory of salvation by knowledge. At least it is rationalised in this way. It is represented that by devoted love of God one can attain knowledge (of God), and so indirectly the salvation which comes. through this knowledge."
9973
70.
Gītā, XII. 2. Tr. by Edgerton. 71. Ibid, XVIII. 55. Tr. by Edgerton.
72.
Ibid., XVIII, 66. Tr. by Edgerton.
73.
The Bhagavadgītā, Translated and Interpreted, p. 173.
Jain Education International 2010_03
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
