Bhagavatam-daily 244 – 11.12.01 – The primacy of bhakti is not exclusive but is inclusive

Thank you your institute has a monopoly on the entry of students into the college say for cracking JEE and entering into IIT or is it that you are just making false propaganda but if you truly find that actually it is only through that particular coaching institute alone that people can get into IIT then there will be a rush for that institute everybody would want to go into that because they understand how valuable and how vital getting into that institute is for their career and whatever it takes they are ready to do it which includes registering for that institute they will register also similarly when we turn towards Krishna at one level we acknowledge that there are many different paths that lead to Krishna not to speak of the Vedic paths even the non-Vedic paths the Brahmic religions can also help people to move closer to God and Krishna himself in the Bhagavad-Gita rejects all religious formularies when he says sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja he says give up all varieties of religion and surrender to me what this means is that we needn’t have to worry about this or that specifically this formulary what we need to focus on is mam ekam sharanam vraja surrender to Krishna on developing our hearts love for him and if we do that then we are surely steadily marching towards him so the contrast between dharma sarva dharman and sharanam is that sharanam is the para dharma it is the essence essence of the human hearts longing and love to harmonize with the Supremes heart that is expressed through the mood of surrender and the action of surrender and when a person recognizes that we are all at our core ultimately seeking the same thing we are seeking love we are seeking happiness we are seeking reality and the way we may seek it may vary from person to person from situation to situation from disposition to disposition and the overall Vedic path is so inclusive that it accommodates this variety in individual dispositions while at the same time stressing the commonality of the ultimate destination and the core that drives us ultimately whatever we do is love and that longing for love is fulfilled most completely in loving relationships with the Lord and with this Lord as the center with other relationships also so the path of bhakti which is the path of the heart is the path that can take us to the ultimate perfection of life it can take us to the super most destination it can enable us to recognize that there is ultimately nothing beyond our specific situation in life but ultimately there is ultimately we just need to live into love this is not an exclusive statement that bhakti is the only way rather it is a inclusive statement because it recognizes that love includes all our all other aspects of our being and in that sense celebrating the centrality and the ultimacy of love is a celebration of all aspects of our being because the head the hands they all follow the heart and thus when Krishna says over here that it is the path of bhakti which is the path to the ultimate enlightenment he is stating that it is the innermost core of our being which directs and encompasses all aspects all other aspects of our being also it is that innermost core which will take us when we learn to dovetail it in devotional service it can take us towards the ultimate enlightenment and the super most liberation. Thank you.