Bhakti of what/whom and when

 Topic : Bhakti of what/whom and when

*Bhakti of what/whom*

Bhakti imo is not about a particular being or person, it should be about praising and seeking the qualities of that great person.

One way to remember good qualities is by remembering the incidents that the great person was involved in that reflected their good qualities.Look up Tirthankar Charitra for understanding their journeys and qualities. We go through these levels

a. We remember that person by loooking at their picture or pratima.
b. We recall their incidents.
c. We recall their qualities that were reflected in those incidents.
d. We end up praising and seeking those qualities.
e. We praise and understand those qualities with such truthfulness and  conviction that we end up sprouting those qualities in ourselves too.

I think most of us are clear with the fact that past tirthankars and other siddh aatmas are inert and they would never interact or come down to help us, they are literally inert, and hence would never act or do anything.

But we hear about miracles all the time that bhakti does, and that is because of the sahayak devtas that are those tirthankar/siddh aatma's bhakts. When we do bhakti, those devtas (who can act) try to help us coz they see us doing bhakti of their ideals. Seeking helps from Devtas is a double edged sword, coz they can't gift us good stuff, they can only shuffle or transmute our very own karmas.

They can prepone good karmas(btw preponing any karma lowers its original intensity that it would have had down the line during maturity, that's why doing tap is considered good coz we prepone bad vedniye karm, and seeking fortune is equationally speaking a loss deal), and postpone bad karmas (btw postponing any karma increases its intensity when it eventually fruits up) or they can transmute our good karmas from one form to another(I think there must be some conversion cost as well, not sure tho).

So basically, miracles can happen due to bhakti, even when you go to level "a" and "b" of bhakti.

But that is not the actual benefit of it! I mean its fine if you just want to get out of an extremely bad situation or need help asap, treating it as last resort (btw it takes a lot of wisdom, and self constraint to know when its time to go to the last resort). But the true value of bhakti lies in level c, d and e.

So my suggestion is to be very clear of the intent of bhakti and not be satisfied at the superficial levels (which at times look like they are beneficial), we have to go past that to get the actual benefit of it!

Sometimes the rituals at superficial level become so complicated and time consuming that doing just that itself gets time consuming and mentally draining. I think it does have psychological benefits and other hidden benefits but no matter how you go about bhakti, do not forget to dive deep into the levels.

*When to do Bhakti?*

At my current understanding, I feel that the feeling of bhakti  ignited out of fear should be toned down coz that is a bad feedback loop that we end up associating bhakti with.

We end up convincing ourselves that bhakti is a thing to do in distress and it even helps sometimes so we conclude it as a miraculous last resort.

(I find literary works like doha, songs, shlokas, or even AMVs and shorts at times to be good motivations to remind me of things that I want to ideally do. Sometimes they are not even related to jainism but I can draw paralells and recall the intent. Will dropping in some of those here, in case you guys relate to it too.)

* Remembering to do bhakti even in good times is difficult, but a good reminder is very well relayed in this doha/song

दुख में सुमिरन सब करे, सुख में करे न कोय।

जो सुख में सुमिरन करे, तो दुख काहे को होय!

* When the bad falls upon us, as I said above, I want to disassociate bhakti with being the last resort miracle.

* Instead I should focus on how the bad thing is basically my karm coming to fruition, and psychologically speaking how this bad situation would enhance my character and capabilities when I overcome it down the line.

* And seeking divine help would only weaken me.

* I need bhakti not because I am weak and I need help, but because I geninely see the qualities of Siddh and Arihants as worthy of inheriting.

This great piece reminds and strengthens me for this intent. - https://youtu.be/-Mcm-iJ-Umg

* This shlok also helps me rebase and remember this intent :

लाभा लाभे सुहे दुक्खे जीविए मरणे तहा

समो निंदा पसंसासु तहा माणावमाणओ !

*So in conclusion,*

Bhakti should be done whenever possible with pure and genuine intent of sprouting the good qualities within ourselves. We can leverage siddh aatmas, and their stories to recall those qualities. And we should avoid doing bhakti only when we are in distress.

Update

[19/07/26, 1:46:30 AM] ऋत्विक: When I wrote it I was mostly battling around how in my family our kuldevi is often reached out for help
[19/07/26, 1:47:29 AM] ऋत्विक: and how my dad and I refrain from it, we respect her and we appreciate the fortune of having an option, but we understand the inner working of teh concept
[19/07/26, 1:48:04 AM] ऋत्विक: Also a lot of our family members are into hanuman ji ke kirtan and stuff, so It was written from that pov
[19/07/26, 1:49:01 AM] ऋत्विक: mostly trying to wake up people stuck at level a and b.

And this is prolly a toned down version, where I have not called it out as a tool and alamban
[19/07/26, 1:49:32 AM] ऋत्विक: I have not referred to Bhakti being raag that held gautam Swami from moksh, etc.
[19/07/26, 1:50:05 AM] ऋत्विक: these blogging for me is not to share my thoughts or learnings, but to log my understanding at different points in time
[19/07/26, 1:50:27 AM] ऋत्विक: Rn it appears so superficial coz I can see so many more things to be added to it now