Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti Yoga
BHAKTI IS PURE LOVE
I was working on my new website with Kate at STUDIOKTR and I had to write the copy for the page on Bhakti yoga. Well, that’s hard because how can one page of a website ever explain such a complex science as Bhakti yoga? It’s pretty difficult to say the least.
Here's my difficulty, I’m talking about the way with Bhakti we are developing a personal loving relationship with the Supreme Being, or God. That instead of thinking about how God can please us, we’re trying to think in terms of how we can please God.
That’s a radical concept to some. “If you can’t even ask GOD for things? Who can you ask?” “that seems very self-deprecating, or like self-denial. Like denying your own needs”...........
Those are things I imagined people thinking when they read that page on my website.
First of all, I’m not saying to NEVER ask God for things. And if you’re asking for things, of course it’s far better to be asking the Highest Power for them. That’s fine. It’s really just a matter of the way you approach the Supreme.
We can view God in many ways, and we do. For the sake of this discussion I’m going to refer to God as the Universe, because of course, He is. So, when we only ask repeatedly for what we want, we’re approaching the Universe with the idea that it doesn’t already know what we need and isn’t already in the process of supplying it. The Universe is in the processes of supplying exactly what we need, which may or may not be EXACTLY what we’ve asked for.
It could be far better, but maybe we can’t see that yet!
Sri Kumar Rao says this is the most important question we can ask ourselves, and I tend to agree: “Do I live in a friendly Universe?”.
If we know we live in a friendly Universe, then asking for our needs to be fulfilled is like waking up every day and asking to breathe. “Dear Universe, please allow me to breathe today”.
The Universe knows what we need and is already supplying it. I think better things to ask are “how can I be a better person today?” “how can I help someone else” “what do you need me to do today to better serve your divine plan”..... or in other words “how can I serve?”.
This “how can I serve?” is a fundamental concept in Bhakti yoga and what we are praying everyday by chanting. The Maha-mantra itself addresses God saying “please engage me in your service”.
Then we trust the Universe, or God, will provide what we need, knows what we need, intends what we need, delivers what we need before we even know we need it at times. To me, we live in a friendly Universe.
There’s a story about Krishna as a small child that is relevant in this regard.
I’ve always loved this story.
There was a very poor woman selling fruits from a basket at the side of the road, and Krishna walked by as a child. Krishna came to her, and was admiring her fruits. Of course, He was a child, and had no money. The woman loved the little child Krishna, and filled his small arms up with all the fruits she had in her basket. She just gave. She had no thought of what she would get from Him, only that she wanted to give.
After Krishna walked away with all her fruits piled in his arms, she looked down at her empty basket. Yet, the basket was no longer empty. It was filled with gems, gold, all kinds of valuable stones and jewels. Just filled to overflowing.
Whatever we give in this world is always returned to us, multiple times, far more that we could imagine.
We live in a very friendly Universe that wants to supply us with everything we need and more.