Bhakti is deep affection towards Lord with a sense of respect towards His superiority .Sneha with gaurav is Bhakti. Bhakti also gives rise to surrender. What is surrender , it means complete knowledge of the fact that Lord Krishna is supreme ,we all are completely dependent upon Him.Our actions are on account of his inspiration and will. With this sense when we perform our duties , it augments bhakti.Duty as ordained by the God. Bhakti is different with different people/jeeva/soul. This difference is what determines the gradation of souls.
Bramha and vayu have superior bhakti than shiva.Shiva has higher bhakti than Indra.Indra has more bhakti than Surya and so on.we humans have very ordinary bhakti on the Lord.
Since vayu has highest bhakti ,he is called jeevottam. He never ever goes against the wishes of Lord. others' have their bhakti intermittently cease ,in this period devotee goes against Lord and subsequently gets punished. example Vali is Indra. Sugreeva is Surya .so technically vali is greater bhakta than sugreeva. but as his bhakti is temporarily eclipsed , he sides with Ravana , and antagonizes Sugreeva , a bhakta. Lord Rama does not come before Vali , instead kills him without appearing before him. One who sides with Hanuman his bhakti will always be intact. one who goes against Hanuman , his bhakti may lapse. for such people Rama does not show himself.
Bhakti also means voicing your resent against those who are against Rama. Rama always bestows them with HIS grace : example ; jatayu, sugreeva,vibheeshana etc. another example is Vidura . He voiced his protest in cheeraharan , He shouted "Adharmam yesh vartate" and walks away . Krishna preferred to stay in his house though Born to Sudra , rather than other elite Kshatriyas like Bheeshma etc, though they were equally good bhaktas ,but failed to voice against Adharma.
to be continued....................................
krishnarpanamastu
