When devotees leave the body, do they also have go through the process which they withdraw various elements inwards?
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So when devotees use the body, do they also have to go through the process which, say, is describing the Bhagavatam about how they withdraw various elements in words. Like, Indrishtama also does that. So two things. First is that there is within the Bhagavatam, the Bhagavatam Gandhi is timeless principles of bhakti. But at the same time, they are spoken at a particular time, in a particular place.
And because of that So so the Bhagavatam is spoken at a particular time. That’s why there’ll be certain practices which were happening at those times. But it is not necessary that those practices have to be followed now. So for example, we may say, Kalautha Drikirtanath, that is the recommended process for kalyuga. But in the itself, because there is not much.
You can say, of course, hearing Krishna is also klypta on there. That’s true. But singing is not there in the. Not my main response because the Bhagavatam is spoken at the start of Kala Yuga, and then we we would have for Kala Yuga is not what was practiced Mhmm. Before Kala Yuga started or just in Kala Yuga started.
At least not in all its forms. So in many ways, the Bhagavadam is doing something quite remarkable. It is taking the existing schools of thought and showing how they culminate in Bhakti. So for example, we take Sankhya, and then it shows how Sankhya is not just analysis the material world. It analysis the material world that culminates in devotion to supreme lord.
Similarly, it takes the process of yoga. Similarly, it takes the Virayan trouper. So all these are existing branches of knowledge at that time. And the Bhagavad Gita is showing how all of them are pointing toward Krishna or pointing towards the ultimate reality. Then how they’re ultimately meant to help us move towards our progress towards the ultimate reality of Krishna.
So from that perspective, the seekers are shown to be seekers or seers, perfected beings are also shown to us that they take the practice of yoga as it was prevalent at that time, and then they adopt it and it culminates in Bhakti. And this is seen even in Bhishma’s past time. That Bhishma could have departed at any time. But it chooses to wait till an auspicious time comes. And then at that auspicious time, when he departs, there is the There is his devotional is the devotional setting is clear.
So from that one perspective, the devotional setting was there, then from the perspective, it is always auspicious no matter what the time was. Mhmm. But the point is Mhmm. That Bhagavatam through his device is also depicting how for a devotee there is success in terms of the definition in yoga terms also, not just in bhakti terms. So similarly, the idea that various paths it’s rather saying this bhakti is just one path among many paths, but it’s two at one level.
But another level is also that another understanding is also that bhakti is is the culmination of various parts, and that is also shown in the Bhagavata. So we don’t need to follow those parts. We our focus is on, the ultimate conclusion. So for example, today what might happen is if somebody is already a yoga practitioner, and maybe their yoga practice is helping them to calm their mind or focus. Then maybe they could adopt some of those yoga practices in their bhakti practice.
Not necessary, but that is that is fine. So in today’s world, for example, if somebody is a established yogi, yoga teacher, say, or yoga practitioner, and then that person, they comes to bhakti. Then if we also wanted to attract the yoga crowd, we would focus more on they would depict how not just a person. If our purpose is to attract the yoga crowd, we may not show a person, say, worshiping deities. We may show a person sitting in yoga posture and then we chanting some mantras or something like that.
The idea is that there’s a there’s a target audience. So often those who perform, those who will attract to started audience are what are depicted primarily in the Bhagavatam. That’s how most of the most of the sages or most of the kings who eventually take the take to the to the down sword or retired order, and then they meditate in the words to go toward the lord. They are shown to attain bhakti through the yoga path. Not that they become yogis in the sense of technical sense of adopting the philosophy or the worldview of Ishtanga yoga, but they’re using yoga more as a process, as a physical process and a contemplative meditation to draw their consciousness inwards towards Vishta ultimately.
So if we could say that the Bhagavatam is depicting it all like Yuktava, Ragya. It’s like you may use technology, but through the technology, we are focusing on Krishna. Same way.