Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Different devotees

(Teachings from the Gita) There are four different kinds of devotees of God. Ranked from lowest to highest they are:
  1. Arthaarti (अर्थाती): Those who believe that God is the only one who can fulfill their worldly desires; be it desire for wife, children, money or anything else. Since such people also believe that these worldly pleasures will be means for happiness, they are far away from understanding the essence of God. Hence they are ranked the lowest.
  2. Aarkt (आरक्त): Those who believe that only God can save them from their fears, humiliations, etc. Since they do not believe in worldly pleasures, they are above arthaarti; but they still are attached to the world.
  3. Jigyasu (जिज्ञासु): Those who want to know the essence of God. They are no longer attached to the world, hence they are above arthaarti and aarkt but they want to get nirvaana hence they're below the Gyaani.
  4. Gyaani (ज्ञानी): Those who know the essence of God and are in unison with him. They believe he is the only one and think of no one or nothing else. Hence they are the most superior of all devotees.
However, ranking the devotees does not mean that some achieve freedom from this cycle of birth and death and others don't. If anybody is a devotee, they will sooner or later achieve it.

4 comments:

Viji said...

Nice post to be followed. Viji

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing it. With time, if not revised, memory starts losing on it.

I remember that one line of Gita - Jau mujhe jaise bhajte hain, main bhi unko vaise hi bhajta hoon

It is about building a relationship with him/her and then obeying, respecting it.

Smriti said...

@Viji, Thanks!

@Peeyush, yes I remember that shloka. I've mentioned it in my earlier post.

Anonymous said...

@Smriti
I read that earlier post.

I should have met you earlier. I feel lucky and blessed to have known you. And I owe it to Shashwati. Thank you, both of you :)

God is my buddy (he/she is my everything no matter what I call him/her). At times I feel guilty that I haven't put my complete trust on him/her. But I know he/she is there and he/she is always with me. He leads my way when I get lost.

I draw my inspirations from this story told me by mom during childhood. There is this small boy who is supposed to go to school on a trail that goes through jungle. Everytime his mom used to take him to and from school. One day she is unable to. When son expresses his fear to go alone, she says "You call for Gopal. The moment he hears you he will come to you. You will find him in jungle with herd of cows.". Son believes his mother and treads on his own all alone. At some point when he feels too scared, he shouts for Gopal and he finds him.

I know you would be knowing this story. So am not narrating it here. This is one of my favorite tales. The next one I love is "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde.

In the journey of life, he comes when we call for him. Just that we call for him quite late. Very very late.