1018. Two varieties of Devotees.......One God!!!

Tattva Jnana (Philosophy) has its foundation on Tarka (Inquiry) which is based on Nyaya (Logic).  If there is no inquiry there is no philosophy at all, and if there is no logic in that inquiry it is just Vitarka (Argument). The most prominent and important inquiry that every philosopher has tried to cover is the relationship between the Bhagvan (God) and Bhakta (Devotee). The theories and thesis over this are many and all are different. One common feature among every philosopher’s thought is that the trait of Bhagavan is same. Hence it is the characteristics of the Bhakta which makes the theories and thesis look different.

To understand the difference in the characteristics of the Bhakta let us peep into the Nyaya Sutras of Rishi Aksapada Gautama, the proponent of Nyaya Darshana (School of Logic). Nyaya Sutras is a scripture dealing mainly with Tarka Vidya (Science of Debate) and Vaada Vidya (Science of Discussion) focusing on Jnana (Knowledge) and Nyaya (Logic) at the same time.

According to this scripture Bhaktas are of two types, one who surrender the entire responsibility to be taken up by Bhagavan, the Lord Himself.  They have attained that higher level through Sadhana where the Lord does not want to miss them!  He takes up the full responsibility and is at their beck and call. Such kind of Bhaktas are termed as Maarjaalanyayi Bhaktas. While the rest of the Bhaktas  keep running behind the Lord to please and appease Him. They always want to draw His attention so that He takes up their responsibilities. These are Markatanyayi Bhaktas.

In Sanskrit, Maarjaala is cat and Markata is monkey. To understand this better we need to observe how cats and monkeys handle their little ones. There is a vast difference between how a cat handles its kittens and a monkey takes care of its infant. Though when seen from the mothers point of view both appear to be the same, the difference is very clear when we closely observe them.

When a kitten strays away from the vicinity of its mother, the mother cat fetches the young ones by its jaws. Cats have sharp canines and holding the kitten by its neck can result in serious injury to the frail kittens, yet there is a firm and gentle way the mother cat adapts to hold the kitten. Here the kitten has no responsibility of its own. Mother cat automatically assumes all the responsibility and goes behind it. This is Maarjaala Nyaya (Logic of the Cat).

In case of an infant monkey we observe that it is always holding the belly of its mother tightly. The mother monkey keeps moving, running and jumping from one tree to the other as if it is alone. It is the responsibility of the infant monkey to clutch and hold firmly to avoid falling down and getting seriously injured. Here the mother monkey is not as responsible as the mother cat while the infant monkey takes the responsibility to be with its mother. This is Markata Nyaya (Logic of the Monkey).

If we start as Markatanyayi Bhaktha today, some day with His grace we can attain the level of being a Maarjaalanyayi Bhaktha........What say???