Bhakti Yoga – The Ultimate form of Yoga
What is Bhakti Yoga?
Bhakti Yoga is a Sanskrit term which translates to ‘love’ or ‘devotion’. It’s an ancient yoga form, which is also known as the Yoga of Devotion.
“Bhakti yoga is done on very personal level as it can be only experience but hard to explain others.”
Bhakti yoga is not at all the subject of intellect. It requires one to become innocence and pure from within to experience the Bhakti. It is not difficult, only faith is required to do it. A person without the faith is a person without devotion. Once you have discovered this faith within yourself you can immediately start practicing bhakti yoga. Faith cannot be imported from outside through books or holy associations. It is dormant potential lying within you.
You can understand in this way – when mother says the child something, the child naturally believes without questioning on mother at that moment. In this no logic, no intellect and no analysis are required. Bhakti Yoga is beyond your intellectual mind and logics.
Understanding the Practice and Philosophy of Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti Yoga is quite easy to incorporate in daily life, as long as you have an open and loving heart. There are 9 principles of bhakti that you can follow to practice and reach the ultimate bliss in your life. Once surrender yourself completely to God, you will experience it.
Bhakti Yoga is one of the 4 main paths of yoga- Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Gyana (Jnana) Yoga, which aims to unite the yoga practitioner with the divine.
This is the easiest path to spiritual enlightenment and can help practitioners to achieve a union of their body, mind, and soul. It is quite different from the other 3 yogic paths as it only requires an open and loving heart for the practice. It complements the other paths of yoga and can help a person achieve true knowledge by involving in the Bhakti yoga practice.
Bhakti Yoga is a great way to get rid of anger, jealousy, ego, etc. and can fill you with joy and positivity. It helps the devotee get free from the materialistic attractions and allows them to differentiate between the real and the unreal, quite efficiently.
The ultimate goal of this yoga style is to achieve a state of complete blissfulness by devoting yourself fully to the divine.
You don’t have to practice all these methods together but practicing even one or two of these methods is a great way to reach the path of spiritual enlightenment.
There are nine different methods of performing Bhakti Yoga. A practitioner may practice any method of Bhakti which suits him best. These nine Bhakti Yoga are as followings -
1.Sravana – Sravana is hearing. In this Bhakti yoga practice, students need to listen to songs and stories about God and their deeds from a teacher.
2. Kirtana – Kirtana is singing. This method requires the students to chant and sing about God lovingly and praisingly.
3. Smarana – Smarana is remembrance. This Bhakti yoga method requires you to remember God at all times and always keep him foremost in your conscience.
4. Archana – Archana is worship. In this method, you purify your heart and devote it to God and do by visualizing God’s image or by worshipping God through external images.
5. Vandana – Vandana is prayer. This form of Bhakti yoga requires you to lie down and pray so you aren’t self-absorbed anymore.
6. Padasevana – Padasevana is serving. By helping out others who are sick and in need of your help, you express your love for the God.
7. Dasya – It’s a love through servant-sentiment. In this Bhakti yoga form, the yoga practitioner considers himself/herself a slave of God and works to fulfil his commands. They help the sick and the needy and also clean and repair holy places and buildings.
8. Sakha-bhava –It’s a cultivation of friend-sentiment. With this practice, you consider God as your friend and love him as you would do a friend or a family.
9. Atma-Nivedana – Atma-Nivedana is self-surrender. In this Bhakti yoga form, you surrender yourself completely to God.
The bhakt (Devotee) needs to practice these 9 principles every day in life to achieve the ultimate bliss and become one with the divine.
Who Can Practice Bhakti Yoga?
Bhakti Yoga is one of the easiest yoga paths to achieve wisdom and union with the divine. However, you need to have an open and loving heart to practice this yoga form. It is open to beginners and experienced yoga practitioners and practiced by people of all ages, religions, sizes, etc.
All you need is complete and absolute devotion and a willingness to be open about ideas. But, most importantly, you need to have a strong will to leave the illusions of the world and become one with the God inside you.
Bhakti Yoga: Creating Balance for the Intellect and Mind
Bhakti Yoga is one of an excellent method of providing a balance to over-rigid attachment to the intellect. It is great help in removing intellectual constipation and a best way of giving direction and release to emotions and feelings. One of the biggest problems in this modern world is the - inability for intellectual people to express their emotions. These emotions become contained and suppressed.
People forget to laugh and release their emotions in a positive and non-destructive manner. Emotions are often expressed in explosion and aggression. The path of Bhakti provides a perfect method of expressing these uncontrollable emotions. Furthermore, the emotions are not only released, they are channeled towards making the mind one-pointed - Ekagra. This is a very positive utilization of emotional forces. The emotions are directed towards the goal of higher awareness and experience to achieve the ultimate goal in life.
The Importance of Love in Bhakti Yoga Practice
There are two kinds or expressions of love. One is real or divine love which is transmitted by the spirit and the other is material love where the mind and senses interplay. This earthly, material love, experiential in nature, is the cause of pain and agony, because it blinds one’s vision.
On the other hand, divine love is far more powerful and an important element in bhakti yoga. In whatever form one practices bhakti, whether traditional worship, praying, singing or repeating the Lord’s name, without love it is tasteless. It is fruitless because it is on the surface level of the mind and senses. This is why millions and millions of people who believe in God fail to gain the maximum help and incredible benefits from this divine source.
A Complete Guide to Practicing Bhakti Yoga
To pursue Bhakti Yoga, the best way is Remembrance. Every time your mind should be in tuned with supreme or divine force. With the following example it will be easy to understand how remembrance works on bhakti yoga. Imaging a boy who is in love with a girl recently. This boy will be continuously thinking about the girl all the time. While waking up, going for job, while eating, sleeping whatever he will do he will all the time remembering his girl friend. Likewise when you are in love with divine or your god you must remember them all the time.
Therefore there is no yogic poses as such to practice Bhakti Yoga, it focuses on your mind and heart, not on your physical aspect.
The Difference to Other Yoga Styles
Bhakti Yoga is quite different from other yoga styles because it doesn’t require you to be in good physical or intellectual shape. All it requires is to be loving and devotional. You don’t need to practice any poses in this yoga form to attain liberation, you just need to have faith in God and yourself.
This is why it is one of the easiest yoga forms to practice because it doesn’t expect too much out of you. You can practice it throughout the day and need not to perform it during a specific time or place. Also, as discussed there are several methods to practice bhakti so you can easily choose the one which suits you the best.
Bhakti Yoga – Impact on Health
Bhakti Yoga is the easiest and quickest way to realization the self and requires the use of only your open and compassionate heart. There are many benefits to practicing bhakti-yoga apart from this which might influence you to give this yoga style a try.
It gets rid of the negative emotions and thoughts like anger, jealousy, ego, and so on. This allows you to stay positive and feel confident which, in turn, reflects on your health.
This yoga practice is great to keep worry, stress, tension, etc. aside and can allow you to feel calm and relaxed under strenuous situations as well.
You can learn to control your breathing which will ensure that all your organs get enrich with oxygen.
Scientists have discovered the impact of bhakti on the human mind, behaviour and constitution, and its effect on society and civilization. How does bhakti affect the electromagnetic waves of the human brain? How does it influence the enzymes? How does bhakti improve the cardiovascular system? What is the effect of bhakti on universal consciousness?
Read More: Causes of success and failure in Hatha Yoga sadhana.
“Spiritual discipline then will not be known as religion or faith, but as a science of life. “
Hence, one realizes that what seemed so obvious, true and acceptable before was totally wrong. One's relationship with life undergoes a total change. It is completely re-orientated. These peak experiences are on the route to perfection. This is the Power of Bhakti- the complete transformation of one’s self.
