Spiritual Love making

http://www.hinduism.co.za/bhakti1.htm



Spiritual love, or bhakti, is directed only to God, whose effulgence puts to shame ‘a million suns, a million moons, and a million gods of beauty.’ He is the Personal God, or the spirit in the form of a person. One of the bhakti scriptures says: ‘The sages who are satisfied with the Supreme Self and who are free from all the tie of the world, show to the Personal God a love that knows no reason; such is the greatness of God.’ ‘He, the Lord, is of His own nature ineffable love.’

God, the object of the devotee’s love, is sometimes described as a projection of the human mind. Hinduism emphatically repudiates this view. According to non-dualism, it is Brahman which, through Maya, its own inscrutable creative power, appears as God. If the form of God is a projection of the mind, it is Brahman itself that projects this form for the purpose of creating the universe and helping the devotees. Therefore, from the non-dualistic viewpoint, the Personal God is as real as the universe and living beings. When the universe and living beings ultimately merge in Brahman (Supreme Reality), God too becomes one with it.

According to the qualified non-dualist Ramanuja, the ultimate reality is the Personal God, which is non-dual but admits of the distinction of inanimate nature and living beings, both of which form part of Him. According to the dualist Madhava, the Personal God, the universe, and living beings are all real. To return to the non-dualistic position; the Personal God is the highest manifestation of the Absolute in the relative universe; as from the relative standpoint the creation is without beginning or end, so is He without beginning or end.

When a man obtains love of God, he loves all, hates none, and becomes satisfied forever. It is that same intense love which non-discriminating persons have for the fleeting objects of the senses. When love of God is fully developed, the lover forgets both the world and the body, so dear to all. This love cannot be exploited for any worldly purpose- neither for health, nor for wealth, nor for longevity, not for happiness in heaven. It cannot be genuine if the lover shows the slightest attachment to the world. In it there is no room for jealousy or hatred, because the devotee sees everything as the manifestation of God. Bhakti is both the ideal of spiritual life and the means to its attainment.

The discipline of bhakti is the easiest and most natural of all spiritual disciplines, because it does not demand the suppression of normal impulses; it only tells the devotee to turn them to God. Thus he is asked to feel passionate desire to commune with God, to feel angry with himself for not making spiritual progress, to feel greedy for more spiritual experiences, and so on. But without the most rigorous training, love of God may degenerate into dangerous emotionalism, manifestation of which is bigotry. The narrow-minded worshipper often measures his devotion to his own religious ideal by the amount of dislike he shows for the religious ideals of others. In the history of religion nothing has been more directly responsible for cruelty, hatred, and bloodshed than fanaticism.

Ramanuja, a great teacher of bhakti yoga, speaks of the preparations necessary for the development of genuine love of God:

One wishing to cultivate love of God should discriminate about food; for, as the Upanishads say, when the food is pure the mind becomes pure. The gross part of food helps to build up the body, and the subtle force lodged in it manufactures thought. The influence of food on thought is easily observed; a heavy meal induces mental indolence; and after drinking a large quantity of liquor one finds it difficult to control the mind. Certain kinds of food excite the mind and the senses, and other kinds dull them; a vegetarian diet is helpful. Dirt and dust must be removed from food, which also should be free from any contact with the saliva of another person. Lastly, food cooked or served by an impure person adversely affects the devotee’s mind. Therefore a lover of God who develops a sensitive mind should be careful about food.

(Sankaracharya gives a wider meaning to food: it means not only what goes into the mouth, but also what is taken by the other sense organs besides the tongue. The objects of the senses should be conducive to the cultivation of the spiritual life; therefore discrimination should be applied to what we see, touch, hear, smell, and eat.)

Second, the devotee should control extreme desires for material objects. Objects are helpful only in so far as they further the spiritual life. They are means to an end, and not an end in themselves. The desire to possess them should be suppressed if they lead to enlargement in the world.

Third, the devotee of God should practice devotion unflaggingly. As progress is never made at a constant level, he should remain undisturbed by the ebb and flow of his spiritual life. During the period of ebb, he must hold to the progress he has already made, and during the flow he should move forward swiftly. What a person does or thinks now is the result of his past practices, and thus he can build for the future through his present practices. By practice the mind can be made to flow uninterruptedly toward God, as oil flows uninterruptedly when it is poured from one jar to another. Love for the ideal makes practice easy and pleasant. If the devotee feels dryness of heart, he can remove it with the help of devotional music.

Fourth, one should learn unselfishness by doing good to others. The selfish man can never cultivate divine love. The Hindu scriptures speak of five unselfish actions, called the ‘fivefold sacrifices,’ to be performed by a pious householder. The following are the five great duties of a householder:

1. 
   [*]The study and teaching of the Vedas
   [*]Daily worship of the gods through appropriate rituals
   [*]Gratification of the departed ancestors by offering their spirits food and drink according to the scriptural injunctions
   [*]Kindness to domestic animals, and
   [*]Hospitality to guests, the homeless, and the destitute.

Fifth, one should always practise purity, which comprises truthfulness, straightforwardness, compassion, non-injury, and charity. God is truth and reveals Himself to the truthful; it is said that if one never deviates from the truth for twelve years, one’s words become infallible. Straightforwardness means the simplicity and the guilelessness of the innocent child, who is specially favoured of God. By means of compassion, a man controls his greed, and selfishness. A devotee abstains from injuring others by thought, words, or deed. There is no virtue higher than charity; he who goes to the extent of hurting himself while helping others receives divine grace.

Sixth, one should avoid despondency. Religion is not gloominess; one does not find a melancholy saint. The cheerfulness of a devotee comes from his faith in God.

Seventh, a devotee should avoid excessive merriment, which makes the mind fickle and is always followed by sorrow. Laughter and tears are inseparable companions.

The devotee who practices these seven disciplines acquires genuine love for God. (Continues on the page)
http://www.hinduism.co.za/bhakti1.htm

 

vaisnava ducks with sikhas

 

Why do u trivialize his post with this 'vaisnava ducks with sikhas'..

I dont understand?

 

I thought this thread was going to be about Tantrism...'Love Making' usually refers to someting sexual.
Need to be careful with this, because it might appear that you've taken a leaf out of the book of advertizing and used the suggestion of something sexy as a hook to draw people into something quite different. Like using glamourous models to promote cars.

 

It's just Molly having fun - and maybe saying something oblique......

 

I thought that's what this thread was about also BBB....like how can sex be spiritual...that sort of discussion...

 

lol gotcha, well for me real love is between God and Soul, the way we relate love making to sex... or "making love" to "sex", just shows how far we are away from divine consciousness... bah , there i go again.

 

Haribol!

 

the key line here is "well for me" which i give you credit for... but for me, the divine very much resides in the body and beingness of my lover or "eternal beloved squeeze" as is known... and i think if one is to have any happiness or bliss in one's relationship, i think such devotions needs consideration

ramakrishna had such considerations with his wife, sarada devi whom he offered puja to

 

animals have not forgotten their dharma or nature, its us humans who have become a little lost... we can learn much by observing and appreciating their ways as the great devotee steve irwin has taught

most of us just hear a duck saying "quack" but jedi in cultivating his divine consciousness, hears the duck say "haribol" as i've discerned from his post... truly inspiring

 

"By the process of executing regulated devotional service, one is actually

elevated onto the transcendental stage, beyond the material modes of nature. Atthat time one's heart becomes illuminated like the sun. The sun is far above the planetary systems, and there is no possibility of its being covered by any kind of cloud; similarly, when a devotee is purified like the sun, from his pure heart there is a diffusion of ecstatic love which is more glorious than the sunshine. Only at that time is the attachment to Krsna perfect. Spontaneously, the devotee becomes eager to serve the Lord in his ecstatic love. At this stage, the devotee is on the platform of uttama-adhikari, perfect devotion. Such a devotee has no agitation from material affections and is interested only in the service of Radha and Krsna."​

From Nectar of Devotion, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's summary study of Srila Rupa Goswami's Bhakti rasamrta-sindhu, Chapter 17: Ecstatic Love.

 

Very powerful way of putting it spook, thank you!

 

No, I disagree. you see, any animal you take lives to do certain things, namely eating, sleeping, mating, defending and doing things that are pre programmed sometimes with little or no hope for an intelligent choice, these things sometimes go against dharma. For instance, if a tiger is hungry, it hunts and eats, it does not care to see if the thing that it is hunting is very young like a baby or a very old like an old and almost dying horse something... it does not have the capacity to judge these things, all it cares is that it gets its meal. If another tiger comes along, it does not share its meal neither does it think about spiritual things. Now, I am not saying there are no socially inclined animals but when you really examine their behavior, much of it is pre programmed and very species biased. The same is true for human beings who have forgotten their dharma, they try to just feed their bellies, they don't care about the environment and even if they do , it is very species biased, they want to ensure their constant survival, as long as they survive everything is peachy, this is not really dharma.

Dharma is divine duty, the real duty of a human being is to get out of this miserable existence and meet the divine. It is to do everything for God, the creator, it is in knowing that all - not just humans are part of God and show love to everyone that way and finally reach that source of supreme love. It has nothing to do with what animals do.

And you mention worshipping one's wife and importance of marital relationships... I guess you make sense at one level, loving and even worshipping one's wife is one's dharma because krishna exists in her and really God is the one who is showing you love through her. However, that does not mean you should be attached to her body because then you will suffer when she finally leaves that body. The key I guess, is to realize that she belongs to krishna and not to you, and love her that way.

 

Jedui, I'm happy you liked it. Another one of my alltime faves, from Bhagavad-gita As It Is:

Chapter 6, verse 20-23

The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.

I know these verses are familiar to anyone who's read any version of the Gita but I think Prabhupada rendered them very eloquently in his version.

 

Why can't sex be that? I can understand when sex is for pleasure's sake...how it might be far from divine consciousness....but with the right frame of mind, detachment, offering all to God (as Krishna mentions in teh Bhagavad Gita) couldn't even this act be holy and divine? Just curious to your thoughts....that's what I was thinking this thread was about, btw.

and as to bhakti and its pure love aspect...that is the most beautiful and profound thing about it, imho. There is something about love, pure and beautiful, that makes bhakti yoga the leader in my spiritual journey (the other yogas not neglected, nor forgotten, just bhakti as the driving force. )

 

Yes i guess you are right, everything can be offered to God. But over indulgence in anything is not good. Its like eating food, in the scriptures it is said that if you like to eat something do it but first offer it to God, but then some people with diabetes start offering chocolates to God and start munching away one after the other, then that would mean that they are attached to eating chocolate and do not really care for God... nothing wrong with that, except the one eating will just ruin his own health. I think same can be said about "sex" or any other thing.

 

Amen to that .

 

Thing is Jedi, that without sex, the race would soon cease to exist.
It is as usual, a question of balance. Obsession with sex isn't good, and likewise obsession with most things.
Also sexual repression is a well known path to instability and other negative consequences.
I really don't see the need for celibacy - and as I say, it couldn't work for everyone anyway.

The main thing I'd say on this is that it is possible to love God and love one's partner. There is no contradiction. Perhaps a lot of the anti sex thing in religions comes from fear and superstition.
I've even heard of some who have abandoned wives and children thinking that was the way to God. IMO such actions are self centered and show a kind of uncaringness towards one's legitimate responsibilities.

 

It's not a hard call; a very few people are suited to monkhood and/or celibacy, most aren't...we each know the honest answer for ourselves.

I agree with Bill, you can have a full relationship with your partner and a spiritual life as well. In the Vedic varnasrama system, it's called grhastha asrama, which means marriage and sex, but with a spiritual attitude and an eye to the inevitable day when the things of the body will be set aside.

St. Paul said the same thing..."It is better to marry than to burn", and he wasn't talking about hell. He was saying it's best to get partnered up than be a horny celibate.

But, Paul also said "if you can, abide (be celibate), as I do", indicating that if you can handle it, go for it.

 

bill, nowadays, we can embrace celibacy without the fear we are not doing our part to propagate the species as we are now able to reproduce through cloning