Bhakti: The Yoga of the Heart

This week’s blog is inspired by my own evolving yoga practice. I have been in a very devotional space of late, surrendering more to my vulnerability and allowing art, music and nature to remind me that everything is LOVE.

The yoga of devotion and love is called Bhakti and is defined by George Feuerstein in his Shambala Encyclopaedia of Yoga as “Loving attachment or devotion” and the practice of Bhakti as “A spiritual practice by which the aspirant seeks to acknowledge his or her dependence on a higher power”. The words “loving attachment” bring to mind the image of a newborn suckling the mother’s breast. Perhaps our constant craving for experiences and things to comfort us is really the longing for that familiar feeling of being held by our mother as a baby. Therefore showing feelings and emotion are a large part of Bhakti. We can’t really know what love is unless we experience it as a feeling in our hearts. Simple things like bringing flowers into the home and lighting candles, surrounding ourselves with objects and images of beauty, taking time to listen to music, to dance and play, are all ways to connect with our feelings.

“Acknowledging dependence on a higher power” brings to mind the last of the Niyamas; Isvara pranidhana, from the eight limbs of Pantanjali’s Ashtanga yoga. In a commentary on the sutras by Swami Venkatesananda he defines Isvara as “Isa, What is.” Whatever is unchanging and everlasting is our definition of a higher power. Pranidhana means dynamic surrender. When we can completely let go and trust that we are that higher power then we can surrender in an active way. In other words rather then giving up and saying “ God” will take care of it – God being the guy on a cloud up there who calls the shots. We say “I am a part of everything and therefore when I surrender I trust that the higher aspect of me guides me.” In yoga terms that means surrendering the jiva atman (individualised self) to the Paramatman (greater self).

Bhakti allows for the expression of love and devotion to a symbol or person who has qualities that we know are there but cannot see or touch. In other words it’s easier to love a child, or our lover, then a concept of what they are. By acknowledging the natural world around us we acknowledge the Shakti (energy or vibration) that animates this world. A flower, a shell and a flame are all physical forms of Shakti.

Every morning I gather flowers from my garden. As I gather the flowers I take in the vibrancy of their colours and their heady scents. Then I enjoy arranging them on the various altars strewn throughout my house. In the living room is the family altar. Here we have a few chosen deities, shells we have been collecting on the beach, and beautiful cards from friends. The flowers are placed amongst the trinkets to be enjoyed as we hang out as a family. I practice asana and meditation in my bedroom, so the altar here has many objects and photos that represent the love my partner and I share and also the joy of practice. I spend a few moments once flowers are arranged listening to some devotional music and lighting incense. Our bedroom is very open to nature and so all around me are the birds, the trees and the open sky. My practice itself is an act of devotion. By lovingly reminding myself to breathe and move I am acknowledging the flow of Shakti through every cell of me. My practice also becomes a prayer for the world. As I open myself up to love I pray that that love radiates out to everyone and everything.

Another aspect of Bhakti is singing the names of the divine in Bhajans (chanting in unison) and Kirtans (call and response). In Hinduism there are as many deities as there are aspects to the self. Bhakti adopts the names of these deities and says that each deity has a seed vibration or Bija mantra, If you chant a mantra to Ganesh ( the remover of obstacles) you become Ganesh and that which removes obstacles. Kirtan and Bhajan by their very nature create an atmosphere of love and harmony. Singing with others is a pleasurable experience. A particularly sweet melody can bring tears to the eyes and joy to the heart. In Bhajans and Kirtans the repetition of sound can invoke trance like states and stimulate something called “the relaxation response.” The relaxation response is a parasympathetic nervous system response, which is evoked when doing a repetitive activity with the intention of letting go of the thoughts of the mind.

I have been chanting mantras for 7 years as part of my yoga practice. My teacher Alan Finger often shares mantras with his students to help release a physical mental or emotional block. The practice of Bhakti inspired me to put these mantras to music and sing them with others. When I chant these mantras in Kirtan I feel my connection with my teacher, my teacher’s teachers, and the great yogis who brought these mantras into being. I also just enjoy the simplicity of the music, the friends around me and the sheer joy of the moment, which ultimately reminds me of the bliss that pervades all things.

When reading the words of some of the beautiful teachers from the ISHTA lineage it’s amazing to me how each Guru defines the practice of Bhakti!

For instance Swami Venkatesananda in his book Total Love shares:

“Bhakti is usually translated as “divine love”, but the word also means division. That is where we start. We start with an idea of division – “ I love you”. In “I love you” there is frustration, disappointment. For instance she loves you for some time and then she doesn’t love you. You are shocked, disappointed, frustrated. Then if by God’s grace you come into contact with a holy man, you transfer all this love onto him – “I love my guru.” Then he plays ducks and drakes. You don’t know where you are from one day to another, but still he doesn’t let you go and this love gets a shake up. You still feel you are different and separate from him. Then gradually he hammers at the self-image that you may have. This thing, which was two, “I love you”, is slowly being smashed, because the guru enables you to realise that love is not love, it's a business transaction. Then it is possible that gently the guru might divert your attention to God. “You must love god with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength.” In order that you may not cling to him. Still there is an ego sense, which is very strong. The ego sense does not go away by merely wishing, because we are encouraged to maintain this division. God is there and you are here and you sit and worship God. Or you sit down and meditate upon god. Or you sit and visualise god within your heart. God suddenly becomes so small that you can fit him inside your heart. These techniques have been given to us merely as an exercise. To visualise the presence of god in the heart means that you visualise God as the limitless being but it is not usually explained that way. We are asked to see a little god in the heart, about the size of the thumb of a newborn babe, a nice neat little image. But this exercise is not the be all and end all of it that that is what is going to lead you to god realisation. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna uses a beautiful expression:

Mayy avesya mano ye mam nityayukta upasate

“…enter yourself into me’, Krishna tells us; ‘don’t try to push me into your heart. You are a small creature and I am infinite. Instead of entering God into your heart, enter yourself into God.

When you practice this, bringing yourself closer and closer to that divine presence until it occupies your whole being or until you feel, ‘God you alone exist’, not I, there is no room for a me. With your heart, with your soul, with your entire being you enter into that presence. And then you begin to feel that we are all in this God who pervades everything. Not he in us. We are all in him!”

Kaviyogi Shuddhanda Bharati in his book “The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo” writes:

“Bhakti yoga unites the psychic heart with the Beloved of the soul. Bhakti yoga is emotional. It is the yoga of the heart. The Bhakta wins the divine grace through perfect selfless devotion to the all-beloved, beautiful blissful one. The lover’s love manifests itself severally. The devotee’s heart seeks union with the divine as a child, servant, mother, a father, friend, or a lover wedded to the beloved. Hanuman, Arjuna and Radha are inspiring examples of consecrated love. Sincere devotion is indispensable and Bhakti holds the supreme place among things that liberate the soul. But to seek the self and settle in its meditation is the real devotion. Bhakti is love shaped, it is extreme attachment to the Lord.”

And from Paramahansa Yogananda’s “The Bhagavad Gita” God talks with Arjuna on the chapter on Bhakti he says:

“The path of the worshipper of the Unmanifested Infinite is very difficult because the devotee has no support from the imaging power of his mind. Worship implies an Object of veneration that holds the attention and inspires reverent devotion, a god of manifested qualities. The formless unknown does not serve well this purpose for most mortal minds. He who is born in a world of forms can scarcely attain a true formless conception of spirit. Worship of the indescribable therefore automatically presupposes the actual experience of the infinite. Only those who are already spiritually advanced enough to intuit the ‘formless Christ’ find joy in this relationship with the divine.

The yogi who worships a personal God, on the other hand utilises step-by-step methods of realisation by which he progresses gradually and naturally towards his goal. The natural method for renunciation of lesser pleasures and attachments is to taste the superior joys of the spirit. The worshipper of a personal God finds all around him and within the inner temple of his consciousness constant reminders of the immanence of God, which fills his heart with divine love and joy, without courting the hardships of a renunciant’s life of vigorous ascetism. The Yogi loves God so deeply that gradually all-lesser desires leave him.

It would seem therefore that God likes the personal relationship with the devotee. He makes it easier for the seeker who sees the divine immanence in creation and concentrates on God as the heavenly father or the cosmic mother or the divine friend possessing “human” qualities. Or just as in slumber the unseen formless human consciousness can shape itself into dream images, so the formless spirit as the creator God can inform His consciousness into any manifestation dear to the devotee’s heart. If the devotee’s ISHTA (object of worship) is Krishna for example, the Lord will assume the concept. All such aspects are in no manner a limitation of God to that form, but are rather like windows opening to the Infinite Spirit.”

And this, about Swami Nisreyasanada in a tribute to him by Shirley Roeloffze;

“It seems to me that Swamiji chose to appear to be a Jnani in the way he discoursed on the Gita, the Upanishads and the books by such people as Joel Goldsmith and Alexis Carol. He would always find scientific or technological examples to illustrate the ancient principles of the Upanishads. But underneath that Swamiji was a Bhakta. I had the privilege of hearing him say one day when we were talking about a successor for his work in Africa ‘there is no one else who loves humanity as much’. It was his love for humanity that people responded to wherever in the world Swamiji went. Anyone who was in pain and troubled went to Swamiji and would leave his presence released and confident that the situation would right itself – as it always did. Anyone who had stayed with him for a little while could not bear to leave. It was such a joy to visit him and we would drag ourselves away with difficulty. With very little outward show Swamiji was a centre of love and people could not help, but respond to that”

From Swami Nisreyasananda’s book “Headlines from Swami” (compiled by Mara Sapere) under the section on LOVE;

“To love something it is not necessary to be near it. The sunset is beautiful why don’t I put it in my pocket? It is not necessary to possess it.”

“If you require a return for duties you will also be a beggar for love. Instead see God in everything and everyone and you will become perfect in body and receive love unasked.”

“If I want to be a reformer of other people God will send people into my life who seem crooked or whom I will see that way. Therefore don’t try to reform – adore only.”



Mani Finger on “The Essence of Love”
In Sanskrit, love means “not death” which is the mystical definition of love – being in itself deathless, eternal and the height of rapture and ecstasy. In our modern world because of man’s fear of death, he is constantly on guard against those experiences which in his own darkness and ignorance he regards as hastening him towards his own death.
Man’s whole life therefore becomes nothing other then a tussle with time. All he becomes concerned with is how much longer he has to live without ever considering the actual truth about death. In this fashion the midwife called ‘experience’ presents him with a monster child called ‘fear’. And it is from this monster that man’s suffering for the rest of his life proceeds. He develops hates, likes and dislikes, frustrations, tensions, jealousies, shyness, duty, conscience, anxiety, doubt and a whole battalion of other traumas, all drawing him away from the technique of Love.

Therefore against this, Yoga describes love as non-death.

All happiness depends on the nature and quality of the object on which man projects his love. He absorbs the qualities and characteristics from those objects on which he sheds his love. Thus if he loves dust—such as material thirst, or the sensual, like the body, or the intellectual, being the mind—the substance and realities of his experience will be of the quality of the object he loves, human or otherwise. On the other hand if man focuses his love upon the majesty and beauty of the universe, and develops higher desires, which have no other aim except the satisfaction gained from the joy and appreciation of these objects, he will find the reality of truth. This is the experience of “non-death”

And lastly from my beautiful partner and fellow Bhakta Nyck, written to me on Valentine’s Day 2007;

Beyond words
Love
Beyond concepts
Love
Beyond philosophies
Love
Beyond judgements
Love
Beyond dreams
Love
Even Beyond self
Love
All things fall on bent knees in the worship of
Love
Which then encompasses all things
And expands to fill the world











Photos of Gurus by Alan Finger www.ishtayoga.com