Darshan On Bholo, The Innocent One
June 03, 1977 am
Bapuji says, I have written one bhajan before I started for America.
I will sing it for you when it is convenient.
[Bapuji chants Bholo]
[Gurudev translates]
The title of the bhajan is Bholo, means the innocent one.
One who is free from cunningness, simple.
In this bhajan it is describing Lila.
Means the divine play of the Lord.
The bhajans that are of lila they are used differently than other bhajans.
In the bhajans of lila you can meditate on God.
In that you have to think of nothing else.
Whatever are the words, they are creating the picture of God.
All you do you is involve all your imagination and your mind into that picture.
Here is the combination of the three.
One is the devotion of a bhakta or a devotee.
Second is the poetry in a bhajan which creates the word picture.
The third is the sweet music.
Any bhajan can only be effective if it is chanted with quiet and still mind and practiced with that mind and understood with a still mind.
The beginning of this bhajan is done by some devotee of Lord Shiva.
He is opening his heart to his friends or to his satsangees.
Now he begins to say that in my heart the Lord Shiva, known as Bholo the innocent or pure one has taken hold of my heart.
The meaning of the name of the Lord, which is Har which means he is the one who takes away all the sufferings of mankind on all levels and of every kind.
The word bholo is very famous and known of all his names.
Lord Krishna’s body is like a baby, small.
The nature of Lord Shiva is innocent like a child.
The devotee said that bhagwan Har, Shiva has already taken his place in my heart.
The truth is that we cannot bring the Lord to sit and take his seat in our hearts.
The Lord himself comes and takes a seat in our hearts.
Whenever you say that I love the Lord or I am bhakta and am performing puja and bhakti to the Lord, all that means is that Lord has graced upon us, not that we are doing.
It is his grace, this is why we can do all these things.
I just gave you the simple meaning of the first line.
Now there is a description of the Lord, how he looks.
Just as the dancer creates an image through different mudras and gestures, so also the devotee is creating the word picture of the Lord.
Now he begins to describe the Lord’s appearance, beginning from the head.
The meditation can begin from the feet of the Lord or from the head.
When you begin with the head you begin with the head and gradually go down to the feet.
When you begin with the feet you gradually go up to the head.
It is described that the Lord has long and big, heavy locks of hair that have been wrapped just like, on the top of the head [laughter], yes, just like Devaki has.
And from that head, from the locks of hair, the river Ganges is flowing.
In front of the head there is the moon which is of the second day after the full moon, which is very beautiful line, almost is radiating the beauty in front of his face.
Now the devotee created the picture as to how beautifully from the big locks of hair the river Ganges is flowing and how the beautiful moon is giving the whole radiant and beautiful quality to his face.
He’s the devotee of God and he’s really being enchanted by the hair and the flow of the river and the moon.
When any individual looks at her first-born baby, the highest form of meditation that takes place.
She looks at the forehead and the eyes, at all other details with such beauty, such love, that she goes so deep into it that she forgets everything else.
Same way, the devotee looks at the Lord.
Lord Shiva has three eyes, the third one on the forehead, and only one who has a third eye can burn the lust and he has burned the lust.
One who becomes urdhvaretas, means one whose all energies are going upwards, and no more falling down.
Then he becomes one with Lord Shiva.
One with Lord Shiva, he is no
longer a drop, he has merged into the ocean.
Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva, both are urdhvareta yogis, one who has absolutely mastered the lust.
Both are masters of music and masters of dance.
It is very firmly believed in India that without music and dance it is impossible to attain the Lord.
This is why in the path of bhakti yoga, chanting and dancing have been given the utmost importance.
He has the third eye in his forehead and he has earrings in his two ears.
They are not ordinary earrings, they are snakes.
So he has very small snakes here but on the neck where there is more room, he has a very big cobra.
These are all symbols, the snakes and all the other things, the moon, the river coming out.
They are not just simply as if in India people live a wild life or they have wild imaginations of snakes and the rivers and all that.
It is very highly symbolic.
You introduce this picture, this description of Lord Shiva, into the highest kind of meditation.
Means, it is an experience, a true experience of meditation.
Any yogi who has reached the highest, no matter where he is, he is not of any one land or any one country.
If he sees a picture of Shiva, he would say ‘I have seen him’.
Means it is a common experience of all men regardless of country or civilization they are brought up in.
This word picture of Shiva and the regular picture is symbolic.
It is seen by any yogi when he reaches a very high stage of meditation.
In the beginning, he talked about big locks of hair tied up on the top and the river flowing from it, and the moon, and the third eye and the earrings made of snakes and the garland of a cobra.
Now he is describing that he has a trident in his hand which has three points.
Three shula, means three pointed edges, trident, have you heard?
That trident is kept to destroy the demons of disturbance of lust and desires.
He has a little drum that is played, just like that.
The horn from which it makes a sound, which looks like that, and Bapuji says this is a horn too.
(makes a sound through it).
The horn is slightly curved and you make a sound from it like a conch.
He plays the drum with one hand, he holds the trident in another hand and he’s also blowing the shringinada, means the sound from the horn which signifies the anahat nad.
Such a Shiv has taken his seat in my heart.
He has tied the tiger skin on his waist.
You see Lord Shiva sitting on a tiger skin or a deer skin.
For the sadhaka of a very high stage sitting on this tiger skin is a great help.
From it he receives a kind of electricity.
Due to that the kundalini remains constantly alert and active.
But ordinary sadhak should not sit on this skin, it is likely to hurt.
He has tied the tiger skin to his waist, then he has applied ashes over his body.
These ashes signify something very secret and sacred.
It is not an ordinary ash, it is symbolic.
The devotee Kripalu is saying to the Lord, he says, O merciful one, your devotee Kripalu is enchanted by looking at the beauty of your form.
Another name of Bhagwan Kripalu is Brahmeshwar.
He is supreme most, there is nothing beyond that.
That is the stage he is in.
Whatever are the powers and energies, he is higher than them because he is the source or the ocean of such highest energies.
Such a Shiv is dwelling in my heart.
The form of the Lord Shiva is symbolically represented in such a way.
It is represented in such a way so that when it is experienced on a very high stage, but when another yogi, he reaches to the similar high stage, all this symbolism unveils to him.
Until then it looks like a strange looking God who wears snakes and all those strange things.
Now I will chant dhun because the explanation is finished.
[Bapuji chants Om Namah Shivah]
I was telling Guruji that some of the people have felt like they feel really sleepy in the presence of Bapuji.
How many of you really distinctly felt it right at that time you feel and it wasn’t there before and it’s not thereafter, how many of you felt that way?
Quite a few.
Bapuji says the trouble is maybe I am the sleep myself and I come into you.
This is just a joyous answer just to make you laugh.
Now I will give you the true answer.
You might be surprised that first wrong answer, then right answer.
But you all know that I am your grandfather.
All the grandfathers that are in the world are not true grandfathers.
In order to keep happy their children, they always tell a lie.
They have kept a big storage of lies, just for their grandchildren.
When he comes in touch with their grandchildren and grandsons and granddaughters and then he begins to draw upon that treasure of lies, just to please them, they just keep on showering upon them.
Really the grandfather in the family has to become the joker.
So this old man he gives just joy to them, so that they may forget their pain and suffering.
This is just an introduction.
Now comes the answer to your question.
When you come in touch with a loved one, and when you become in touch with him with the different senses, each one experiences a different experience.
When the eye becomes concentrated and eye contact happens, gradually thoughts begin to reduce and as a result, the goddess of sleep begins to come in.
It is possible that you might not have made your eyes steady on the loved one and yet if your mind becomes one channeled, then also you begin to feel such an experience.
There are reasons for sleep.
Or you can say that there are two kinds of sleep.
One sleep that is the result of happiness.
Another sleep is a result of unhappiness.
You might be surprised that, “Can pain bring sleep? Unhappiness bring sleep?”
So when you have not slept for a long time.at the end you get tired and fall asleep.
Also, when you have tremendous amount of pain, then you begin to feel tired and you begin to faint almost.
But it feels like sleep and that is also.
Sleep is there in that manner also.
But the sleep that you describe, that you feel here, is a very special kind.
It is called yoga nidra.
The sleep that comes as a result of yoga that is called yoga nidra.
In hypnotism and mesmerism there is artificial sleep.
I think hypnotism means artificial sleep and mesmerism comes from Mesmer, the one who invented or expounded it.
Here, sleep is like lying down by keeping your head in the lap of grandfather.
Now the answer is complete.
[Gurudev: Bapuji says they really planned it properly.
They keep a bigger spoon for prasad and a smaller spoon for washing the hands.
[laughter] Know that grandfather is really working as a joker.
[Bapuji chants Shiva bol]
Little children can fall asleep any time.
For grandfather we are all children.