Bhakti denotes both, a certain disposition of your heart and an ancient yoga tradition. It is the original feeling of unbound love of the soul, and also the method to uncover it.
Bhakti is a very old yoga tradition; it is one of the four original yogas. Bhakti can be done to complement your own yoga practice or any spiritual practice. It can also be practiced independently, because it is complete in itself.
Bhakti is the natural feeling of the soul: love and empathy for all living beings. In the absence of this “spiritual” (that’s how I would call it) love, what remains is indifference. Thus indifference is the opposite of real love, not hate. When real love is missing, we find the duality of so-called love and hate in this material world. When bhakti is restored there is no duality; you are intimately connected with everyone and everything.
Bhakti is nothing new, nothing we have to learn; it is always present in the heart of every living being. It only has to be re-awakened to its full glory. For some reason it has been covered by a thick crust, by layers and layers of material conditioning. Thus at the present moment there is only a feeble resemblance of the original feeling of real love.
All spiritual practices have an element of bhakti. In every tradition you find love and devotion for God, for all living entities, for all existence. All spiritual traditions include some or all of the four pillars of spiritual practice – meditational practice (dhyana), righteous activities (karma), wisdom (jnana), and devotion (bhakti).
Now, when the driving force of your practice is love and devotion or the awakening of that love and devotion, then we call that practice bhakti or bhakti-yoga.
Bhakti-yoga also incorporates essential elements of other spiritual practices; in fact it uses all varieties of activities of the human being. It uses our physical, mental and intellectual bodies to reach transcendence. Bhakti is very practical and, although it is a sublime and pure method, it is basically easy to practice.
The care and affection of a mother for her child, the happiness of seeing an old friend after a long time, your compassion for someone in an unfortunate situation, the kindness and soft attention you apply while stretching in a yoga pose, your good wishes for humanity.
Some people say that this feeling of love should be applied to all details of life, and this is the only way to practice bhakti.
However, ancient bhakti tradition offers us concrete tools and practices. Here in BhaktiYogaVision, we are presenting the tools and practices of a bhakti tradition called Gaudiya Vaisnavism.
These practices cleanse the heart from all tendencies that are not natural for the soul. All kinds of fear, anger, negativity, confusion, selfishness, envy and hatred leave that heart in which unconditional love has been established as an irrevocable fact.
The soul is by nature sentient, it is alive. It may feel and express itself through matter or purely spiritually. We can’t eradicate our emotions, but we should rather transform them to the spiritual plane.
Bhakti means power of love, empathy, compassion, mystery, beauty, harmony. Bhakti is playful, joyful, bold, artistic, impeccable, soft, wholesome, healing all wounds, it is as bright as the sun. All powers of the universe (and beyond) accumulate in bhakti.
Love is the background of the world, it is its basic principle, its driving force. It is not knowledge or strength or money; it is not even righteousness, justice or any kind of religiosity.
With bhakti you go to the very root of existence. Bhakti means expanding your love to the whole existence.
Bhakti is the love of the infinitesimal soul for infinite existence. It is the most blissful experience and the purpose of life.
BhaktiYogaVision explains the understanding, mindset and the practice of bhakti in detail. The practices are not difficult, but if you want to go really deep, it is important to get a good understanding of bhakti basics.
We recommend you to do the following two things in parallel:
1.Deepen your understanding of bhakti in Bhakti Basics
2.Dive into your exercises in Bhakti Practices
Ask us questions if you need support!
Have fun!!!
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