Garga: Love of Sacred Stories
The sage Garga holds that bhakti is found in the delight of hearing and telling the stories and glories of the Lord.
In Sutra 17, Narada presents Garga's view: 'Kathadishu iti Gargah' — 'Bhakti is fondness for sacred stories and the like, says Garga.' For Garga, the heart of devotion lies in katha — the hearing, narrating, and reveling in the divine lila (play) and qualities of God. The stories of the Beloved feed and inflame love, drawing the mind again and again to its object. This view exalts the power of sacred narrative to transmit devotion across generations. It anticipates the modern recognition that human beings are storytelling creatures, who form their deepest values and loyalties not through abstract argument but through the stories that capture their imagination.
Bhakti is fondness for sacred stories and the like, says Garga.
Garga's view that love grows through sacred story resonates with narrative theology, which holds that communities form their faith and identity primarily through the stories they tell and retell.
Narada Bhakti Sutras
Written about in
- What is bhakti? Narada's definition of devotion
Garga locates it in the stories, in the hearing and telling of what God has done. Devotion on this view is the appetite for the narrative.