What is Bhakthi - By Sri Swami Sivananda

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Om Namo Narayanaya !!!!

 

 

 

WHAT IS BHAKTI ?

 

The term Bhakti comes from the root 'Bhaj', which

means 'to be attached to God'. Bhajan, worship,

Bhakti, Anurag, Prem, Priti are synonymous terms.

Bhakti is love for love's sake. The devotee wants God

and God alone. There is no selfish expectation here.

There is no fear also. Therefore it is called 'Parama

Prem Rupa'. The devotee feels, believes, conceives and

imagines that his Ishtam (tutelary deity) is an Ocean

of Love or Prem.

 

Bhakti is the slender thread of Prem or love that

binds the heart of a devotee with the lotus feet of

the Lord. Bhakti is intense devotion and supreme

attachment to God. Bhakti is supreme love for God. It

is the spontaneous out-pouring of Prem towards the

Beloved. It is pure, unselfish, divine love or Suddha

Prem. There is not a bit of bargaining or expectation

of anything here. This higher feeling is indescribable

in words. It has to be sincerely experienced by the

devotee. Bhakti is a sacred, higher emotion with

sublime sentiments that unites the devotees with the

Lord.

 

Mark how love develops. First arises faith. Then

follows attraction and after that adoration. Adoration

leads to suppression of mundane desires. The result is

single-mindedness and satisfaction. Then grow

attachment and supreme love towards God.

 

In this type of highest Bhakti all attraction and

attachment which one has for objects of enjoyment are

transferred to the only dearest object, viz., God.

This leads the devotee to an eternal union with his

Beloved and culminates in oneness.

 

TYPES OF BHAKTI

 

Bhakti is of various kinds. One classification is

Sakamya and Nishkamya Bhakti. Sakamya Bhakti is

devotion with desire for material gains. A man wants

wealth with this motive practices Bhakti. Another man

wants freedom from diseases and therefore does Japa

and offers prayers. A third one wants to become a

Minister and does Upasana with this aim. This is

Sakamya Bhakti. Whatever you want the Lord will

certainly give you, if your Bhakti is intense and if

your prayers are sincerely offered from the bottom of

your heart. But you will not get supreme satisfaction,

immortality and Moksha through Sakamya Bhakti.

 

Your Bhakti should always be Nishkamya Bhakti. God has

already given you a good position, a good job, wife

and children and enough wealth. Be contented with

these. Aspire for Nishkamya Bhakti. Your heart will be

purified and the Divine Grace will descend upon you.

Be in communion with the Lord, you will become one

with the Lord and you will enjoy all the Divine

Aisvaryas (Divine attributes like wisdom,

renunciation, power, etc.). All the Vibhutis (Special

forms in which the Lord manifests) of the Lord He will

give you. He will give you Darsan. He will help you to

dwell in Him. At the same time He will give you all

the Divine Aisvaryas also.

 

Another classification of Bhakti is Apara-Bhakti and

Para-Bhakti. Apara-Bhakti is for beginners in Yoga.

The beginner decorates an image with flowers and

garlands, rings the bell, offers Naivedya

(food-offerings), wave lights; he observes rituals and

ceremonies. The Bhakta here regards the Lord as a

Supreme Person, who is immanent in that image and who

can be propitiated through that form only.

 

He has no expanded heart. He is a sectarian. He

dislikes other kinds of Bhaktas who worship other

Devatas. Gradually, from Apara-Bhakti, the devotee

goes to Para-Bhakti, the highest form of Bhakti. He

sees the Lord and Lord alone everywhere and feels His

Power manifest as the entire universe. " Thou art

all-pervading; on what Simhasana shall I seat Thee ?

Thou art the Supreme Light, in whose borrowed light

the sun, the moon, the stars and the fire shine; shall

I wave this little Deepa or light before You ? " - thus

the devotee recognizes the transcendental nature of

God. Para-Bhakti and Jnana are one. But every Bhakta

will have to start from Apara-Bhakti. Before you take

your food, offer it to God mentally; and the food will

be purified. When you pass through a garden of

flowers, mentally offer all the flowers to the Lord in

Archana (offering flowers in worship). When you pass

through the bazaar and see a sweetmeat shop, offer all

the sweetmeats as Naivedya to the Lord. Such practices

will lead to Para-Bhakti.

 

Bhakti is also classified into Gauna-Bhakti and

Mukhya-Bhakti. Gauna-Bhakti is the lower Bhakti and

Mukhya-Bhakti is the higher type of Bhakti.

 

Go from stage to stage. Just as a flower grows in the

garden, so also gradually develop love or Prem in the

garden of your heart.

 

The enemy of devotion is egoism and desire. Where

there is no Kama or desire, there alone will Rama (the

Lord) manifest Himself. The enemies of peace and

devotion are lust, anger and greed. Anger destroys

your peace and your health also. When a man abuses

you, keep peaceful. When blood begins to boil, it is

impoverished. You lose vitality if you become a prey

to fits of temper.

 

HOW TO CULTIVATE BHAKTI

 

It would be a gross mistake if you consider Bhakti as

merely a stage of emotionalism, while it is actually a

thorough discipline and training of one's will and the

mind, a sure means to intuitive realization of God

Almighty through intense love and affection for Him.

It is a means to thorough apprehension of the true

knowledge of Reality, beginning from the ordinary form

of idol worship right upto the highest form of cosmic

realisation of your oneness with Him. You can achieve

this by following the eleven fundamental factors which

Sri Ramanuja had prescribed. They are Abhyasa or

practice of continuous thinking of God; Viveka or

discrimination; Vimoka or freedom from everything else

and longing for God; Satyam or truthfulness; Arjavam

or straightforwardness; Kriya or doing good to others;

Kalyana or wishing well-being to all; Daya or

compassion; Ahimsa or non-injury; Dana or charity; and

Anavasada or cheerfulness and optimism.

 

People put a question: " How can we love God whom we

have not seen ? "

 

Live in the company of saints. Hear the Lilas of God.

Study the sacred scriptures. Worship Him first in His

several forms as manifested in the world. Worship any

image or picture of the Lord or the Guru. Recite His

Name. Sing His glories. Stay for one year in Ayodhya

or Brindavan, Chirakut or Pandhapur, Benares or Ananda

Kutir. You will develop love for God.

 

Every act must be done that awakens the emotion of

Bhakti. Keep the Puja(worship) room clean. Decorate

the room. Burn incense. Light a lamp. Keep a clean

seat. Bathe. Wear clean clothes. Apply Vibhuti (sacred

ash) or Bhasma, and Kumkum on the forehead. Wear

Rudraksha or Tulasi Mala. All these produce a benign

influence on the mind and elevate the mind. They

generate piety. They help to create the necessary

Bhava or feeling to invoke the Deity that you want to

worship. The mind will be easily concentrated.

 

Practice of right conduct, Satsanga, Japa, Smarana,

Kirtan, prayer, worship, service of saints, residence

in places of pilgrimage, service of the poor and the

sick with divine Bhava, observance of Varnashrama

duties, offering of all actions and their fruits to

the Lord, feeling the presence of the Lord in all

beings, prostrations before the image and saints,

renunciation of earthly enjoyments and wealth,

charity, austerities and vows, practice of Ahimsa,

Satyam and Brahmacharya - all these will help you to

develop Bhakti.

 

BHAVAS IN BHAKTI

 

When the devotee grows in devotion there is absolute

self-forgetfulness. This is called Bhava. Bhava

establishes a true relationship between the devotee

and the Lord. Bhava then grows into Maha-Bhava wherein

the devotee lives, moves and has his being in the

Lord. This is Parama-Prema, the consummation of love

or Supreme Love.

 

There are five kinds of Bhava in Bhakti. They are

Shanta, Dasya, Sakhya, Vatsalya and Madhurya Bhavas.

These Bhavas or feelings are natural to human beings

and so these are easy to practice. Practice whichever

Bhava suits your temperament.

 

In Shanta Bhava, the devotee is Shanta or peaceful. He

does not jump and dance. He is not highly emotional.

His heart is filled with love and joy. Bhishma was a

Shanta Bhakta.

 

Sri Hanuman was a Dasya Bhakta. He had Dasya Bhava,

servant attitude. He served Lord Rama whole-heartedly.

He pleased his Master in all possible ways. He found

joy and bliss in the service of his Master.

 

In Sakhya Bhava, God is a friend of the devotee.

Arjuna had this Bhava towards Lord Krishna. The

devotee moves with the Lord on equal terms. Arjuna and

Krishna used to sit, eat, talk and walk together as

intimate friends.

 

In Vatsalya Bhava, the devotee looks upon God as his

child. Yasoda had this Bhava with Lord Krishna. There

is no fear in this Bhava, because God is your pet

child. The devotee serves, feeds, and looks upon God

as a mother does in the case of her child.

 

The last is Madhurya Bhava or Kanta Bhava. This is the

highest form of Bhakti. The devotee regards the Lord

as his Lover. This was the relation between Radha and

Krishna. This is Atma-Samarpana. The lover and the

beloved become one. The devotee and God feel one with

each other and still maintain a separateness in order

to enjoy the bliss of the play of love between them.

This is oneness in separation and separation in

oneness. Lord Gauranga, Jayadeva, Mira and Andal had

this Bhava.

 

A Caution: Madhurya Bhava is absolutely different from

conjugality of earthly experience. One should not be

mistaken for the other. Earthly conjugality is purely

selfish and is undertaken only because it gives

pleasure to one's own self. But in love for God it is

because it gives pleasure to God and not for the sake

of the devotee. Divine love is not selfish. It is born

of sattva. But earthly lust is born of rajas and

attachment to bodies. Earthly conjugality is the

outcome of egoisitc self-regarding egoistic feeling,

while divine communion is the outcome of

other-regarding feeling devoid of egoism. Strong

selfishness is the root of worldly passion; divine

love is the product of loss of egoism. This is the

greatest difference between lust (kama) and divine

love (prema). The two are related as darkness is

related to light. No development of earthly affection,

however perfect it may be, can lead one to supreme joy

of divine communion. Lust lurks in the heart due to

the passion that burns in the core of things. Divine

love is unknown to the man of the world, however

religious he may be. The secret of divine love cannot

be understood, and should not be tried to be

understood, so long as man is only a man and woman

only a woman. The austere transformation of the human

into the divine is the beginning of true love for God.

 

 

NAVA-VIDHA-BHAKTI

 

Devotion to God is developed in nine different ways.

It is supreme attacment to God through a Bhava

predominant in the devotee. Intense love is the common

factor in all the nine modes. Exclusive love for God

is expressed through various methods. All Bhaktas of

this type are above the formalities of the world. They

are untouched by the laws of human Dharma and are out

and out concerned with God.

 

Good conduct which is in accordance with perfect moral

law is an auxiliary to pure Bhakti and it follows the

true Bhakta wherever he goes. One cannot develop true

devotion to God if he is crooked in his heart, if he

has got objects of love in this world, if he is

tempted by charming worldly things, if he wishes to

take care of his wife, children and relatives, if he

wishes to feed his body well, if he wishes to earn a

great name in the world, if he wants to establish a

permanent fame on earth, if he does not like to part

with the alluring contents of the world. Perfect

detachment from all objects is a preliminary to real

devotion. Vairagya is the product of real love for

God. One who has love for the world cannot have love

for God. Where there is Kama, there cannot be Rama and

where there is Rama there cannot be Kama. Love for the

world and love for God are diametrically opposite

things. One has to be renounced for the attainment of

the other. This renunciation can be acquired through

the nine forms of Bhakti.

 

In the Srimad-Bhagavata and the Vishnu Purana it is

told that the nine forms of Bhakti are

 

Sravana (hearing of God's Lilas and stories),

Kirtana (singing of His glories),

Smarana (remembrance of His name and presence),

Padasevana (service of His feet),

Archana (worship of God),

Vandana (prostration to Lord),

Dasya (cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God),

Sakhya (cultivation of the friend-Bhava) and

Atmanivedana (complete surrender of the self).

A devotee can practice any method of Bhakti which

suits him best. Through that he will attain Divine

illumination.

 

Sravana is hearing of Lord's Lilas. Sravana includes

hearing of God's virtues, glories, sports and stories

connected with His divine Name and Form. The devotee

gets absorbed in the hearing of Divine stories and his

mind merges in the thought of divinity; it cannot

think of undivine things. The mind loses, as it were,

its charm for the world. The devotee remembers God

only even in dream.

 

The devotee should sit before a learned teacher who is

a great saint and hear Divine stories. He should hear

them with a sincere heart devoid of the sense of

criticism or fault-finding. The devotee should try his

best to live in the ideals preached in the scriptures.

 

 

One cannot attain Sravana-Bhakti without the company

of saints or wise men. Mere reading for oneself is not

of much use. Doubts will crop up. They cannot be

solved by oneself easily. An experienced man is

necessary to instruct the devotee in the right path.

 

King Parikshit attained Liberation through Sravana. He

heard the glories of God from Suka Maharishi. His

heart was purified. He attained the Abode of Lord

Vishnu in Vaikuntha. He became liberated and enjoyed

the Supreme Bliss.

 

Kirtana is singing of Lord's glories. The devotee is

thrilled with Divine Emotion. He loses himself in the

love of God. He gets horripilation in the body due to

extreme love for God. He weeps in the middle when

thinking of the glory of God. His voice becomes

choked, and he flies into a state of Divine Bhava. The

devotee is ever engaged in Japa of the Lord's Name and

in describing His glories to one and all. Wherever he

goes he begins to sing and praise God. He requests all

to join his Kirtana. He sings and dances in ecstasy.

He makes others also dance.

 

Smarana is remembrance of the Lord at all times. This

is unbroken memory of the Name and Form of the Lord.

The mind does not think of any object of the world,

but is ever engrossed in thinking of the glorious Lord

alone. The mind meditates on what is heard about the

glories of God and His virtues, Names, etc., and

forgets even the body and contents itself in the

remembrance of God, just as Dhruva or Prahlada did.

Even Japa is only remembrance of God and comes under

this category of Bhakti. Remembrance also includes

hearing of stories pertaining to God at all times,

talking of God, teaching to others what pertains to

God, meditation on the attributes of God, etc.

Remembrance has no particular time. God is to be

remembered at all times without break, so long as one

has got his consciousness intact.

 

Padasevana is serving the Lord's Feet. Actually this

can be done only by Lakshmi or Parvati. No mortal

being has got the fortune to practice this method of

Bhakti, for the Lord is not visible to the physical

eyes. But it is possible to serve the image of God in

idols and better still, taking the whole humanity as

God. This is Padasevana. Padasevana is service of the

sick. Padasevana is service of the whole humanity at

large. The whole universe is only Virat-Swarupa.

Service of the world is service of the Lord.

 

Archana is worship of the Lord. Worship can be done

either through an image or a picture or even a mental

form. The image should be one appealing to the mind of

the worshipper.

 

Worship can be done either with external materials or

merely through an internal Bhava or strong feeling.

The latter one is an advanced form of worship which

only men of purified intellect can do. The purpose of

worship is to please the Lord, to purify the heart

through surrender of the ego and love of God.

 

Vandana is prayer and prostration. Humble prostration

touching the earth with the eight limbs of the body

(Sashtanga-Namaskara), with faith and reverence,

before a form of God, or prostration to all beings

knowing them to be the forms of the One God, and

getting absorbed in the Divine Love of the Lord is

termed prostration to God or Vandana.

 

The ego or Ahamkara is effaced out completely through

devout prayer and prostration to God. Divine grace

descends upon the devotee and man becomes God.

 

Dasya Bhakti is the love of God through

servant-sentiment. To serve God and carry out His

wishes, realizing His virtues, nature, mystery and

glory, considering oneself as a slave of God, the

Supreme Master, is Dasya Bhakti.

 

Serving and worshipping the Murtis in temples,

sweeping the temple premises, meditating on God and

mentally serving Him like a slave, serving the saints

and the sages, serving the devotees of God, serving

poor and sick people who are forms of God, is also

included in Dasya-Bhakti.

 

To follow the words of the scriptures, to act

according to the injunctions of the Vedas, considering

them to be direct words of God, is Dasya Bhakti.

Association with and service of love-intoxicated

devotees and service of those who have knowledge of

God is Dasya Bhakti. The purpose behind Dasya Bhakti

is to be ever with God in order to offer service to

Him and win His Divine Grace and attain thereby

immortality.

 

Sakhya-Bhava is the cultivation of the

friend-sentiment with God. The inmates of the family

of Nandagopa cultivated this Bhakti. Arjuna cultivated

this kind of Bhakti towards Lord Krishna.

 

To be always with the Lord, to treat Him as one's own

dear relative or a friend belonging to one's own

family, to be in His company at all times, to love Him

as one's own self, is Sakhya-Bhava of Bhakti-Marga.

How do friends, real friends, love in this world ?

What an amount of love they possess between one

another ? Such a love is developed towards God instead

of towards man; physical love turned into spiritual

love. There is a transformation of the mundane into

the Eternal.

 

Atma-Nivedana is self-surrender. The devotee offers

everything to God, including his body, mind and soul.

He keeps nothing for himself. He loses even his own

self. He has no personal and independent existence. He

has given up his self for God. He has become part and

parcel of God. God takes care of him and God treats

him as Himself. Grief and sorrow, pleasure and pain,

the devotee treats as gifts sent by God and does not

attach himself to them. He considers himself as a

puppet of God and an instrument in the hands of God.

 

This self-surrender is Absolute Love for God

exclusively. There is nothing but God-consciousness in

the devotee. Even against his own wishes, the devotee

shall become one with God and lose his individuality.

This is the law of being. The highest truth is

Absoluteness and the soul rises above through

different states of consciousness until it attains

Absolute Perfection when it becomes identical with

God. This is the culmination of all aspiration and

love.

 

The nine modes of Bhakti are the ways in which a

devotee attains the Supreme Ideal of life. A devotee

can take up any of these paths and reach the highest

state. The path of Bhakti is the easiest of all and is

not very much against the nature of human

inclinations. It slowly and gradually takes the

individual to the Supreme without frustrating his

human instincts. It is not direct assertion of God,

but a progressive realization of Him.

 

FRUITS OF BHAKTI

 

Bhakti softens the heart and removes jealousy, hatred,

lust, anger, egoism, pride and arrogance. It infuses

joy, divine ecstasy, bliss, peace and knowledge. All

cares, worries and anxieties, fears, mental torments

and tribulations entirely vanish. The devotee is freed

from the Samsaric wheel of births and deaths. He

attains the immortal abode of everlasting peace, bliss

and knowledge.

 

The fruits of Bhakti is Jnana. Jnana intensifies

Bhakti. Even Jnanis like Sankara, Madhusudana and Suka

Dev took to Bhakti after Realization to enjoy the

sweetness of loving relationship with God.

 

Knowledge or wisdom will dawn by itself when you

practice Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti is the pleasant, smooth,

direct road to God. Bhakti is sweet in the beginning,

sweet in the middle and sweet in the end. It gives the

highest, undecaying bliss.

 

Kindle love divine in thy heart, for this is the

immediate way to the Kingdom of God.

 

Pray to the Lord. Sing His glory. Recite His Name.

Become a channel of His grace.

 

Seek His will. Do His will. Surrender to His will. You

will become one with the cosmic will.

 

Surrender unto the Lord. He will become your

charioteer on the field of life. He will drive your

chariot well. You will reach the destination, the

Abode of Immortal Bliss.

 

MAY GOD BLESS ALL !!!

 

 

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