Excerpt from "Sathakopa's Conception of Bhakti"
by Dr K.C. Aravinda RajaGopal
The AcharyaHridayakara explains certain points regarding the psychology of Bhakti in Sathakopa.
Firstly, the Alwar lays great emphasis on the point that mind abandons the individual and clings to God from the first moment of the dawn of Divine Grace.
This is the Divine sankalpa whose dawn is heralded by the stirrings of the heart towards God-devotion.
Secondly, Bhakti has 3 prajna-avasthas. Prajna means
in this context the awareness of one's relation to God.
This has 3 stages namely sambandha-jnana which begins as the feeling of companionship with God.
It develops into the state of Adhyavasaya Jnana Rupam typified by the feeling that God is acting as the Mother inducing in the soul the optimism in respect of attaining the God-head.
The last is tvara avastha or impatience and urgency or intolerance of delay. This condition is of the girl in love who has begun to feel the immediate vicinity of the beloved or God.
These three stages of the Prajna-avastha are not called jnana-avasthas or jnana-bhumikas because Prajna is 3-fold (Prajna trai-kalika rnata).
This obviously has reference to the conception of the 3 avasthas - jagrat, svapna and sushupti of the Shree Mandukya Upanishad. These 3 stages as referred to by the AcharyaHridaya as exemplified in the
- Tiruvaimoli 6-5-1 (Sakhi bhava),
- Tiruvaimoli 6-7-1 and others as Mother or Matr-Bhava, and
- Tiruvaimoli 6-8-1 and a host of others as Daughter-putri-bhava.
This shows that the growth of the Seshaiva as Prajna proceeds from the deep unconscious faith that companionship entails (sushupti), to the waking awareness of the Divine nearby before oneself in Jagrat-putribhava through the mediating Matr-Guru-bhava of the Svapna.
This is expounded by the Pranava itself.
AcharyaHridayaKara also mentions in his work the mystic symbology of the Alwars generally but more especially of Sathakopa (see graph - graph backup on box, dropbox):
The Hymns of the Alwars are modelled on a pattern of concentric meditation or dramatization. The individual soul is taken step by step on the pattern of beginner who wonders at the Divine.
Their mind is always focused on the object of devotion, as the Highest Godhead, the causal primus or beginning, the Perfect Omnipotent creator.
All those that help the worship and attainment of that object (Upadeya) are sought to be gained and all those that hinder are renounced (Tyajya).
This is the basic psychological and practical necessity not only with regard to mundane affairs but also in regard to God-realization, which is an awakening awareness of the necessity or imperative of one's spiritual life.
One seeks the society of those like-minded souls and renounces the company of those who are asleep to the need to know their future happiness.
The second stage is when one fixes the goal (goptrtva varanam) and has faith that it can be attained. Though God is far and distant and is everything that one is not, the faith as mother sustains the whole journey.
Maha Vishwasa develops slowly nourished b the mother-counsel and the Guru's skill in training the mind to attach itself to God or the goal. The mind is then followed without hesitation till God is attained.
The third stage is when one is ready for the total surrender of all one's parts to God who is recognized as one's Lord and husband. This is Alma Nikshepa.
One's extreme urgency of impatience is shown by the collapse of the individual falling at the feet for mercy of God - The Beloved.
This is the consummation of the ego-lessness (karpanya) or one who has made God one's very life.
These 3 stages covered by Shree PanchaRatra in its 6-fold or 6-limbed Sharanagati are revealed by the Alwar as stages of Prajna.
This approach is characteristically the contribution of the Anubhava of the Alwar in regard to spiritual Religion and Poetry.
NammAlvAr is the culmination of this poetic revelation of the Bhakti as God-given Gift (Divya-Prasada).
Cited from
"Sathakopa's Conception of Bhakti"
by Dr K.C. Aravinda RajaGopal
