Bhakti Yoga and imagined place

[Guest guest]

Kindly allow me some questions about Bhakti Yoga.

When one worships one's choosen deity in the manner of Bhakti Yoga, can one

imagine oneself living together with the deity in a surrounding imaginesd as

real?

Let's say I worship Kali: Could I create in my mind a cremation ground and

imagine Kali being a widow, disowned by her family, who lives there begging for

alms and myself being her only daughter who choose to go with her, so that we

would live together on that cremation ground and have a very close relationship

because we had no one in world than ourselves?

How would I know if what I imagine has any reality, if this "place" (cremation

ground) I imagine has any reality, and is not mere figment of the imagination,

only a self-created illusion?

 

I am most sorry if this sounds rather crazy.

I beg everybody who has an idea or opinion about my questions to send a mail.

 

Kind regards

OM SHANTI,

Alexandra

[Guest guest]

Namaste dear Alexandra all all other devotee of Kali Ma,

 

I don't pretend to be a scholar but I will attempt to offer you some

hints from my tradition.

I have searched in a book written by Swami Vishnu-Devananda (one of

the first swami that came to the West and a disciple of Swami

Sivananda ) about bhakti-yoga. This is from His book "Meditation and

Mantras":

* "In any case, the bhava, or devotional feeling, of the devotee is

of extreme importance. Accommodating the various temperaments of

people, there are 5 different ways of relating to God:

1) Shanta : the pure feeling of people is devoid of desire, ignorance

and emotion. It's presence is not externally apparent. Ths is the

devotional attitude of the Jnana-Yogi.

2) Dasya: the devotee regards himself as the servant to God, whom he

sees in everything but himself. He sees himself as inferior to the

rest of humanity, humbly placing himself in God's had. (Like Hanuman

from the Ramayana)

3) SakhyaL God is regarded as a spiritual friend, to whom one can

turn for advice, comfort and companionship (Arjuna in the Bhagavad

Gita)

4) Vatsalya: the relationship is that if parent and child, with God

being viewd as a Divine Child (Yashoda with Krishna)

5)Mathurya: this is the feeling of the lover toward the beloved. It

is pure love, untinged by lust, and is difficult to develop.

Encompassing a pure desire to touch and embrace His physical and

astral form, this method is encountered frequently in the poetry and

writtings of Christian mystics.

 

As fo the cremation ground, my guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

(www.kashi.org), who is a servant of Kali and a teacher of Kali-Yoga,

teaches to use our chakras as cremation ground for pain, fear, etc..

Kali eats the dirt of our soul and use it as a fuel to help us

realize Her. So starting with the first chakra, you can imagine a

beautiful light that cleanses everything and make your chakra twirl

in a clockwise manner. Then, you could burn the impurities with Shiva

and Kali's fire, your breath. Breathe into this chakra and do the

same for all 7. At the end, you can reach a place called Chidakash,

the Heart-place over the head. There you can massage Kali's feet.

There Kali dances with Shiva.

 

Hope I was of any help. I've just read in the Gita that personal

worship of the Divine (with an Ishta-Devata such as Kali and all the

other forms of God)is the most rapid way to Samadhi. Oh, you can

order a free Bhagavad Gita (without commentaries from the translator)

at: http://www.gita4free.com/englishmenu.html

 

You can email me your opinions or comments! zorba3

Who is your Guru and your current spiritual practices?

 

Om Shanti!

 

Varuna