How To Cultivate Bhakti

Tue, 02/16/2010

The essence of Bhakti yoga should not be interpreted as pure emotion based practice. It is a thorough discipline of training of one's will and controlling the mind and body to achieve purity of soul. It is an experience of deep soul-searching and is developed through submitting one's desires, commitments, responsibilities and aspirations to the will of God.

It is a path that starts generally with the ordinary form of idol worship and culminates at the the highest form of cosmic realisation of oneness with God. It can be argued and not wrongly so, that Bhakti yoga actually may be a highly emotionalized state of human mind. This is because concentrating on God may not be a possibility as His existence is also indefinable. It is a difficult procedure as there are too many distractions in this world. This process requires complete engrossment of the senses in the supreme consciousness.

So what exactly is "bhakti-yoga"?, one may ask; as with any discipline, there are many stages to it, and to begin with, bhakti-yoga is simply "sneha-purva anudhyanam", meditation filled with love, practiced along with its auxiliaries as suggested by the Veda.

The ancient texts teach that this liberation can be achieved on the Bhakti path by following the eleven fundamental factors;

Abhyasa: practice. This step is about focusing the mind that ordinarily has numerous thoughts, on continuous thoughts only of God

Viveka: discrimination or wisdom to decipher the right from the wrong

Vimoka: freedom. Developing a sense of yearning for God and liberating the mind of all other desires.

Satyam: truthfulness; in all thoughts and actions, always and every time

Arjavam: straightforwardness; in all thoughts and actions

Kriya: doing good to others; actions free of greed, selfish desires and goodnes

Kalyana: well-being; Thoughts of well wishes for every individual under all circumstances

Daya: compassion; kindness to all

Ahimsa: non-injury; non-violence and not hurting anyone emotionally and physically

Dana: charity; towards the poor and deserving

Anavasada: cheerfulness and optimism towards life while doing all the above

Traditionally there are nine forms of bhakti-yoga. Nine different forms of Bhakti are described in ancient texts. These are called Nav Vidha Bhakti.
 

The basic forms are:

Sravana: hearing of stories of the divine glory.

Kirtana: singing devotional hymns.

Smarana: remembering the name of God every time.

Padasevana: offering prayers and devotion to His lotus feet.

Archana: offering regular prayers to God.

Vandana: offering oneself in the duty of God.

Dasya: offering prayers to God as a servant of God.

Sakhya: offering prayers to God as a friend of God.

Atmanivedana: offering prayers to God by way of complete surrender to God.

Whatever paths are followed the ultimate aim of uniting with the divine consciousness is at the core of all processes of Bhakti yoga.

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