The Four Divine relationships

Namaste! Many of you may have heard that there are four main paths to God and divinity or approach to God, as enumerated by the ancient rishis. These are:

1. Bhakti (The path of devotion, prescribed for those who love God and have an emotional nature)
2. Gyan (The path of knowledge, prescribed for those who possess a good intellect)
3. Karma (The path of action, for those who are energetic and workaholics)
4. Raja (The royal path of meditation, for those who have an introspective soul)

While all these paths either singularly or in a collective mix are efficacious in leading the seeker to the Ultimate Goal of meeting God, they too, like any other path, have distinct stages in their journey.

These four stages have been very interestingly charted out by the  Upanishadic Rishis as under:

Saloka: which means, a proximity to God In the same Plane as Him, or living on the same planet ( which can be earth, because God takes avatar here)

Samipa: which means nearness to, or  physical proximity to that God

Sarupa: which means a likeness to that God Himself

Sayuja: which means complete union with that God.

Now, interestingly, the rishis of ancient India, not only knew that there are many paths to God, so also, they understood that many relationships could be shared with Him.

There were the Dasa Marg, those who thought of themselves as God’s humble servants, and they corresponded to Saloka.

Next was the Satputra marg, these bhakts thought of themselves as children of God, and indeed felt Him in their physical proximity, like a protective and Caring Father, or Mother.
The Sakha Marg bhakts went a step ahead, they loved God as a friend, and to their surprise, found that their own persona started matching with their beloved, as friends often do.
Finally, there was the San marg illuminated rishis, those that found they had, in fact, completely merged into the God they loved. First as a dasa, then as a child, then as a friend and finally complete merger of individual personality into the Universal consciousness.
There remained no two, only one! Only God remains right at the end, as only He is right at the beginning of the Universe and time itself.

To the Rishis, these four relationships were the sign of where a seeker had reached in His search for His Divinity. Though not a hard and fast rule, ultimately this was thought of as a gradation even in the meeting of God. All love for God, beginning with the duality of a servant and a master, ends ultimately in a perfect Non-duality of Only God. The great saint  Paramhans Ramakrishna, who was the master of Swami Vivekananda, would often tell a short story and laugh about this phenomenon to describe the stages of God realization:
“Once, a salt doll went to measure the Ocean.” That is all He would say and laugh at what the obvious result would be:  No doll, Only Ocean. Read more ...