The divine rasa

[1]

J.S. Neki [1]

In a forest in South India, there stood a hermitage occupied by Bharthari yogi and his ascetic followers. Guru Nanak and Mardana, during their travels happened to pass that way and decided to stop for the night a short distance away from that hermitage. Early next morning, as was their usual practice, they began to sing hymns in praise of the Lord.
Some ascetics who were passing by heard their soft and heart-warming music. They became so peaceful that they altogether forgot what they had come out for. They stood there spellbound. Another group of ascetics that followed them were also similarly drawn to the holy lilts of that music. The crowd went on increasing and the hermitage got almost emptied.
Bharthari then came out and wondered what had attracted his followers so much that they had gotten glued on to the spot. Wading through the crowd that had gathered there he approached the singers and was charmed by the holy radiance that their faces emitted. Yet he picked up courage and asked, “Who are you and what have you come here for?” Mardana looked at him and said, “I am the bonded serf of my mentor Guru Nanak who is going around in the world to enlighten ignorant people and inspire them to remember their Creator, seek his benevolence and then be able to meet him”.
Bharthari had already heard about Guru Nanak. In reverence he bowed to him and invited him to his hermitage. “Not now,” said the Guru, “maybe sometime later.” Bharthari bowed again and took leave of the Guru but returned the next day with some of his choicest followers and repeated his request. The Guru benevolently consented.
In the hermitage the Guru was given a befitting high seat and in a silver platter offered some wine, hashish and opium as was customary with those ascetics. The Guru politely declined to accept any of those intoxicants saying, “I remain fully intoxicated all the time with the rasa, i.e. the essence, of the Lord’s name. I don’t use any of these minor and mean intoxicants.”
Bharthari: How does one find the Lord’s name?
Guru Nanak: From a real Guru by earning his favour.
Bharthari: What benefit does remembering the name of the Lord provide?
Guru Nanak: In the beginning, for many people, it might appear a relatively boring exercise, but if one perseveres and also dwells on the decorous qualities of the Lord along with repetition of His name with devotion, an unforeseen joy begins to emit from this practice. Should one persist further, repetition of the Lord’s name becomes mental rather than verbal and eventually becomes supra-mental. Then one begins to know the Lord first-hand. Every hair of the aspirant’s body then repeats the Lord’s name automatically and the aspirant gets drenched in its rasa. Eventually, the soul of the aspirant merges with the Supreme Soul and becomes endowed with cosmic vision.
Bharthari: Sir, it appears, you do not approve of Hath Yoga that is our practice.
Guru Nanak: Yoga, you must be aware, means union and implies man’s union with his Creator. Forgive me when I say that Hath Yoga merely prescribes physical exercises that go on getting harder and harder till they begin to appear miraculous. That is nothing more than physical culture. My kind of yoga is Sahaj Yoga, i.e. effortless yoga. For this, one does not have to be an ascetic; one can continue to live with one’s family, and carry out the chores of a family person. Yet while his hands are busy with worldly duties, his mind uninterruptedly remembers the name and benevolent characteristics of his beloved Lord and dedicates all he does to his adorable Lord. He surrenders his ego and willfully submits to how the Lord wills to keep him. That way he goes up the steps of spiritual progress and achieves the bliss of merging with the Supreme Soul that is eternal bliss.
Bharthari touched the Guru’s holy feet and became enlightened. The Guru blessed him and along with Mardana left for his next sojourn.

J.S. Neki, a psychiatrist of international repute, was director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. He also received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his contribution to Punjabi verse. Currently he is professor of eminence in religious studies at Punjabi University, Patiala.