The Bhakti Ripple Effect

John is trying to understand the ripple effect. 

He reads in a book - The Ripple Effect is a common term these days. It just means that if you drop a drop of water in a utensil full of static water, you will see ripples. It will create one wave, that wave will create a second one and then a third one and so on. You are not really creating waves. You are just dropping a drop of water. So, this is ripple effect in simple language.

John is not satisfied. He tries to search for a suitable example. His elder sister Corie gives him a real life example.

Corie - Listen John! When you eat food, the food goes inside your stomach.  That is all what you do. But listen what all that food goes through. It goes through 3 processes.

Process 1 (One-third)

• The food is churned and creates a juice (Rasa)
• Then it creates blood cells.
• Then it creates flesh.
• Then it creates blood serum (the water in the blood)
• Then it creates the bone marrow
• Then it creates the bone
• Then it creates the energy which helps you to work.

Process 2 (One-third)

• The food creates thoughts in the mind.
• The thoughts could be Satvik, Rajasik or Tamasik depending on the type of food we ate.

Process 3 (One-third)

This is the waste created from the two processes and is excreted.

Corie - Well John! You are just eating but that eating triggers so many other processes. Do you get it?

Mary was listening to John and Corie and she joined in.

Mary - I can give an example of a ripple effect too.

John and Corie - Yes Mary, what is it?

Mary - We do our devotion by remembering God every day and that is all we do. The ripple effect is that this devotion automatically generates knowledge of God and detachment from the world. We do not have to work separately on the latter two.

This is a spiritual ripple effect.

 

Moral of the Story

Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj explains from the Bhaagwat how this spiritual ripple effect functions. Bhaagwat says that Bhakti is the mother of the two twins - Knowledge of God and Detachment from the world.

Something can be learnt from this ripple effect -

Devotees can emphasize more on the Bhakti rather than Knowledge or Vairag because these will come automatically.