Category:Contemplation of a Devotee of God
Theme Analysis
This article analyzes the highest form of spiritual contemplation, known as smaraṇam (remembrance), which is the third stage of bhakti-yoga. For the devotee, contemplation is not a vague mental exercise but a fixed, personal meditation that naturally follows the successful stages of hearing and chanting.
- The Progression of Devotion: Contemplation is defined as the natural step after becoming expert in śravaṇam (hearing) and kīrtanam (chanting), ensuring the mind is absorbed in transcendental, not material, sounds.
- The Subject Matter: The object of contemplation for the devotee is always the personal names, forms, and pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, or His expansions (like the Viṣṇu-mūrti).
- The Result of Fixity: Constant, fixed contemplation transfers the devotee to the transcendental platform, granting relief from material miseries and fulfilling all spiritual desires contemplated during life.
- The Proof of Purity: This spiritual absorption is so complete that the devotee feels distaste for the illusory, transient pleasures derived from material society, friendship, and love.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Smaraṇam - The Devotee's Fixed Contemplation.
Pages in category "Contemplation of a Devotee of God"
The following 17 pages are in this category, out of 17 total.
A
- Akrura sat on his bed and began to reflect that all the desires he had contemplated while coming from Mathura to Vrndavana had been fulfilled
- As soon as you become expert in hearing and chanting, then the next stage is smaranam. Smaranam, thinking of. Anything you speak or hear, later on you contemplate, you meditate, smaranam. So smaranam is the third stage
I
T
- The assembled cowherd men and ladies began to contemplate how this thing (the collapse of the handcart) had happened. "Is it the work of some demon or evil planet?" they asked - SB 10.7.9
- The cowherd men began to contemplate: It is very astonishing that although this boy Krsna has many times faced many varied causes of death, by the grace of the SP of Godhead it was these causes of fear that were killed, instead of Him - SB 10.11.55
- The devotee contemplates, "Persons unaware of the supreme reservoir of pleasure falsely engage in deriving pleasure from sense gratification, but this is transient and illusory"
- The devotee contemplates, "Since You (Lord) are present, what is the use of the transient pleasure derived from society, friendship and love"
- The sincere devotee who associates with devotees gets the opportunity to hear and contemplate this subject of the pastimes of the Lord, and the result is that he feels distaste for so-called happiness in this or that world
W
- When Krsna left Vrndavana, Subala, His intimate friend, decided to leave also. While leaving, Subala was contemplating that without Krsna there was no longer any pleasure to be found in Vrndavana
- While Brahma was guessing about the appearance of the Lord's incarnation as a boar, the Lord confirmed Brahma's contemplation by roaring with His gorgeous voice
- While the cowherd men were thus contemplating, the small children who were playing there informed the men that the trees had fallen because Krsna had pulled the wooden mortar with the rope binding Him