Bhakti- Yoga

[Guest guest]

Dear Prapatti Group Members:

 

Krishna Susarla raised some interesting questions about Bhakti Yoga. Today

the term Bhakti has become all encompassing. Any thing that touches the

affective or emotional side of our personality is termed as Bhakti. I have

seen it translated as 'Love', 'Devotion', 'Yearning for the Divine

presence', 'as the fifth Purushartha' etc.. All these are true.

 

Bhakti according to Ramanujacharya involves as its first step the training

of both the intellect and the will. This is classified under the 'Sadhana

Saptaka' or the seven-fold moral and spiritual discipline. The advaitins

have what is called 'Sadhana-Chatushtaya'. The seven sadhanas to upasana

or bhakti (taken from Bodhayana Vritti by our Acharya) are: Viveka, Vimoka,

Abhyasa, Kriya, Kalyana, AnavasAda, and Anuddharsa. These seven steps

encompass the essential elements of Karma and Jnana Yoga whose main purpose

is to discipline the will and the intellect and for the self to realise

that it is the sesha of Bhagavan.

 

The seven terms are explained (by no means elaborate) as - Viveka:

Purification of the body through Sattvic food and cleaniness; Vimoka:

Freedom from Kama and Krodha; Abhyasa: Continuous practice of the presence

of the Antharyamin; Kriya: Five-fold duty and it includes Vedic

recitation, sacrifice, benevolence and tapas, also duty towards guru, the

forefathers; Kalyana: Consists of the practice of truth, integrity, daya

and ahimsa; Anavasada: Freedom from despair due to disappointment and being

cheerful; and finally Anuddharsa: Absence of exaltation (i.e. avoiding

extremes).

 

Equipped with these prerequisites the sadhaka enters on the life of

meditation and cultivates the love of Bhaghavan. Upasana or Bhakti is the

ceaseless remembrance of God, which is likened to the uninterrupted flow of

oil. (tailadhArAvad avicchinna-smriti-samtAna-rUpa). As already pointed

out by Kalale these are further elaborated in the Bhaghavat Gita and other

scriptures.

 

Vijayaraghavan