After reading my regular Muktiveda in Purvaveda (Hosea chapter 6), when I was reflecting on verse 4, I wrote the first two stanzas. Then, in the night when I was sitting for meditation and prayer, I recalled that verse and the first two stanzas. I took the paper and continued to write the poem. After writing the first six stanzas, overwhelmed by my own wretchedness as tears began to flow, I continued to write the rest of the song. But before closing the song, I stopped writing and said to the Lord, ‘After knowing my adamant nature, there is no use if you further delay. In the end, I will be profited—whether you take me to hug or continue to give spanks by your hands. Because either way, you will continue to touch me, and that is more than enough for me. Being a God of mercy, how are you going to understand this calculation?’ Then I began to laugh and wrote the last two stanzas, closing my prayer by reading this song as my prayer. As God, He can give grace and show mercy. But as He cannot receive, as there is no need for that He cannot even experienced it—even in His flesh as the Lord. The life of the Lord clearly demonstrates, He suffered a lot but never received any mercy even from His OWN FATHER.
For me, bhakti is not merely a ‘cerebral theological understanding about the grace of God’. Unless it touches our senses and makes our hearts melt through outward expression, we will remain ‘cerebral theologians’. Others may call me over-emotional. What is wrong with that? Suppose can you love someone and talk with her/him without even giving a small smile, keeping a rigid face with an intellectual understanding of that love. The other person may adjust to your nature, but she/he cannot enjoy your company for a long time.
The same is true with bhakti. It expresses not only intellectual understanding about grace but also demonstrates through feelings and emotions. Though ‘dveshya bhakti’ [bhakti of hate] is not included in the ‘navadana bhakti’ [nine kinds of bhakti], Hindu bhakti tradition includes it. As Sisupala and Hiranyakasipu continuously remembered Krishna and Vishnu because of their hate for them, in the end, they too were saved. Similarly, the grace of ‘punishment’ called ‘marak karunai’ in Tamil is part of bhakti—as a bhakta realizes even the love of God in such punishment.
Gurukulam
8-6-2024
1. The writer David Lodge wrote a powerful novel on this theme, entitled *Thinks…*. The heroine eventually discovers the answer: humans can weep, and humans can forgive. These are two very powerful and central human activities. They take place in a dimension quite different from anything a computer can do. Without them, we would be less than human. — Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, New Delhi, ISPCK, 2015, 4.6b-11, p. 47 [no bibliographic reference is given for Lodge—db]
2. We have deemed tears to be childish, whereas in fact they are childlike, and Jesus told us to be childlike. We have allowed our proper dislike of emotionalism to deceive us into trying to ignore our emotions. But if Good Friday and Easter don’t stir our emotions, then the tyrant has indeed enslaved us. We have become like a garden paved over with stone slabs. Many people like that; God help us, many of us even choose it rather than face the terror and the joy of our own hearts, let alone of Calvary and Easter. — N. T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship, (England, SPCK, 1994), New Delhi, ISPCK, Indian edition 2015, p. 48
After reading my regular Muktiveda in Purvaveda (Hosea chapter 6), when I was reflecting on verse 4, I wrote the first two stanzas. Then, in the night when I was sitting for meditation and prayer, I recalled that verse and the first two stanzas. I took the paper and continued to write the poem. After writing the first six stanzas, overwhelmed by my own wretchedness as tears began to flow, I continued to write the rest of the song. But before closing the song, I stopped writing and said to the Lord, ‘After knowing my adamant nature, there is no use if you further delay. In the end, I will be profited—whether you take me to hug or continue to give spanks by your hands. Because either way, you will continue to touch me, and that is more than enough for me. Being a God of mercy, how are you going to understand this calculation?’ Then I began to laugh and wrote the last two stanzas, closing my prayer by reading this song as my prayer. As God, He can give grace and show mercy. But as He cannot receive, as there is no need for that He cannot even experienced it—even in His flesh as the Lord. The life of the Lord clearly demonstrates, He suffered a lot but never received any mercy even from His OWN FATHER.
For me, bhakti is not merely a ‘cerebral theological understanding about the grace of God’. Unless it touches our senses and makes our hearts melt through outward expression, we will remain ‘cerebral theologians’. Others may call me over-emotional. What is wrong with that? Suppose can you love someone and talk with her/him without even giving a small smile, keeping a rigid face with an intellectual understanding of that love. The other person may adjust to your nature, but she/he cannot enjoy your company for a long time.
The same is true with bhakti. It expresses not only intellectual understanding about grace but also demonstrates through feelings and emotions. Though ‘dveshya bhakti’ [bhakti of hate] is not included in the ‘navadana bhakti’ [nine kinds of bhakti], Hindu bhakti tradition includes it. As Sisupala and Hiranyakasipu continuously remembered Krishna and Vishnu because of their hate for them, in the end, they too were saved. Similarly, the grace of ‘punishment’ called ‘marak karunai’ in Tamil is part of bhakti—as a bhakta realizes even the love of God in such punishment.
Gurukulam
8-6-2024
1. The writer David Lodge wrote a powerful novel on this theme, entitled *Thinks…*. The heroine eventually discovers the answer: humans can weep, and humans can forgive. These are two very powerful and central human activities. They take place in a dimension quite different from anything a computer can do. Without them, we would be less than human. — Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, New Delhi, ISPCK, 2015, 4.6b-11, p. 47 [no bibliographic reference is given for Lodge—db]
2. We have deemed tears to be childish, whereas in fact they are childlike, and Jesus told us to be childlike. We have allowed our proper dislike of emotionalism to deceive us into trying to ignore our emotions. But if Good Friday and Easter don’t stir our emotions, then the tyrant has indeed enslaved us. We have become like a garden paved over with stone slabs. Many people like that; God help us, many of us even choose it rather than face the terror and the joy of our own hearts, let alone of Calvary and Easter. — N. T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship, (England, SPCK, 1994), New Delhi, ISPCK, Indian edition 2015, p. 48
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