Book Title: Tulsi Prajna 2000 01
Author(s): Shanta Jain, Jagatram Bhattacharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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Page 94
________________ Tot ug 31 108 engaged in coming in contact with His devotees; his nose is engaged in smelling the sweet scent of tulasī (sacred basil) leaves placed at the lotus feet of the Lord; his palate is engaged in tasting the offerings made to Him".33 Again, there is the evidence in an aphorism quoted in "Bhaktirasāmrtasindhu" of the fact that spiritual success can also be attained by using only one sense organ. S4 According to this, we are told, Parīksit. Sukadeva attained the final spiritual goal respectively y hearing, singing the praise; and so did Prahlāda by remembering respectively of the divine name, quality and playful activity of Lord Visnu, Laksmi by serving His divine feet and Prthu offering worship to Him. Almost all Vaisnava saints of the Middle Age recognised that Kirtana or singing the praise of the Lord's name, quality etc. was the best form of bhakti. For Brhadbhāgavatāmrtam it has been said: "The ambrosial Name by being pronounced in the organ of speech completely submerges all other sense organs in the flood of its sweetness."55 How all the sense organs were involved in Lord Krsna can be shown from the literature of the Vaisnava saints of the medieval period: Vaisnava poet, Lilāśuka Bilvamangala of the South has said in his Krsnakarnāmrta: "Hail! Hail! all Hail! Thou Child God Krsna! incarnate on earth to furnish the crown of sweetness into ear, mind and eye." 56 But we find in his writings that he speaks of the "delight of the eye and the mind"57 regarding that which the ancient sages called Brahman 'where eyes, mind and word could not reach'.58 Not only this but also the vision of beauty in the state of meditation dissolves all other senses of the poet in the one sense organ i.e. the sight making the soul-vision supreme. Ragarding this state of poet's creative consciousness Sri Aurobindo said: "It is sufficient that it is the soul which sees and the eye, sense, heart and thought-mind become the passive instruments of the soul. Then we get the real, the high poetry."54 Similar instance of high or real poetry is found when wonder-struck Bilvamangala says: "Beautiful; beautiful is the Lord's form;-beautiful, beautiful His face--and His sweet smiles, with honey- drops fragrant, how beautiful, beautiful, beautiful all round!"60 Of course, the transformation of this divine delight of the senses found in the Paramāmrta of Marathi saint Mukundarājā belongs to the first part of the 12th century. He has mentioned there "how the senses are filled with joy even where there is no physical enoyment" (XII.6).“! 88 AM W H 4311 312 108 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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