How should a Wagner here?
Let's talk about bhakti yoga.
Bhakti yoga is one of the main types of yoga.
Of which there are several,
Like Hatha yoga.
Is the yoga where we do physical postures and movements and work with our breath and so on.
Then there's karma yoga,
Where we work with our actions and we look at our relationship to work and service.
And use that as a spiritual path.
In Bhakti Yoga.
We explore relationship.
With the divine.
Sometimes people translate bhakti yoga as the yoga of love.
Not exactly accurate.
The word bhakti in Sanskrit,
It does mean a certain kind of love.
That's true.
It is the love for between the devotee and the beloved,
The divine beloved.
But bhakti yoga is much more accurately thought of as the yoga of relationship.
With that divine beloved.
And here's why.
The popular bhakti yoga practices like chanting,
Namasam kirtana or kirtan as it's called,
Are very joyous and celebratory oftentimes.
When we experience them.
They're the fun practices.
They're the joyous practices.
When they're done in little bits like that.
But bhakti yoga isn't just chanting,
And it's not just celebration.
Bhakti yoga is a very sophisticated spiritual path.
In which we dedicate everything.
Of our life.
To that divine beloved.
So everything in life is not always joyous.
Sometimes there's joy.
Sometimes there's celebration.
But there's also sorrow.
There's also fear.
There's also grief.
And in bhakti yoga,
We bring all of that.
Into our spiritual practice.
We bring it into all of the bhakti yoga practices,
Including the chanting.
Yeah,
Sometimes the namasam kirtan that can be very beautiful and musical,
Of course,
We know so many now famous recording artists who record these mantras and these namasan kirtanas is a beautiful form of artwork,
Of musical artwork.
But even the Nama Sankirtana doesn't need to be that.
Traditionally,
Namat Sankirtana is something that's very simple.
It's rhythmic and is sometimes accompanied with instruments like harmonium or hand cymbals or drums.
But it's not meant to be a display as such.
It's not meant to be something that is done for its artistic beauty.
As much as it is an outlet for our feelings.
That we want to express.
To the divine beloved.
And I keep saying it that way because we all have different names for it.
We could call it God,
We could call it goddess,
We could call it guru.
We could call it grace.
I like Grace because.
.
.
Grace is this power that touches us in our human life.
It's not abstract,
It's like we need it and then it comes to us.
But whatever that is for you.
Part of bhakti yoga is figuring that out.
Part of bhakti yoga is you being really honest about yourself.
What do you most deeply relate to?
What form?
Of the divine,
What forms.
Plural do you relate to of the divine?
Do you relate to the formless?
That's a whole other topic,
But.
The point being is that each individual.
Gets to have their individual relationship with that divine beloved.
And then their bhakti yoga is the process of going deeper and deeper into that relationship,
Not just as a little touch.
But as a long term.
Relationship,
A lifelong relationship.
So yes,
There's Nama Sankirtana,
Which is the singing of the names of the divine beloved.
There's also a Joppa practice where we.
Repeat the names,
We repeat mantras that are connected to the divine beloved silently,
Sometimes in meditation.
One of the practices is Karma Yoga.
It's part of Bhakti Yoga,
Also known as Seva,
Or offering sacrificial service,
Like service that you're not giving.
Expecting anything.
Back from.
As a devotional practice.
There's the practice of bhojana or bandhara,
Which is feeding people,
Preparing wonderful food and offering it to the divine and then offering the remainder of that.
To people,
To honor the divine in them.
And also just as a beautiful practice of seva,
Of karma yoga.
There's the practice of puja.
Puja is the practice of like outer formal worship,
You could say,
Where maybe we have an altar,
Which is sometimes known as a puja or a puja table.
Where we might have a photograph of the guru or we have a statue of the divine beloved or some other representation,
Whatever is most calling to us in our hearts.
And then we can offer a candle,
We can offer flowers,
We can offer water.
If we like to offer food,
We can offer food.
We can write prayers and offer those.
So many different ways that we can do that outer worship.
In India,
There are more formal ways,
Like Havan,
Where there's a fire ceremony where a fire is kindled and then mantras and certain offerings.
Are given into the fire as a way of making offerings to the Divine Beloved.
Abhisheka,
Which is another practice of the ritual bath,
Where maybe the deity,
Like the statue of the deity is bathed in this beautiful ritualistic way as a way of connecting to it.
There are so many practices.
Bhajana is like singing hymns.
Oftentimes that is more musical than the Nama Sankirtana.
Poetry,
Writing sacred poetry.
So many practices.
The point being.
Is that in bhakti yoga,
What's happening,
The main thing that's happening,
Is we're taking that divine beloved and we're putting it in the middle.
Of our life.
We're putting that as the center point.
As the most important thing.
So that all of the other elements of our life can organize themselves around that divine beloved relationship.
Instead of.
That divine beloved being one of the things in our life.
It's a subtle distinction.
But it's a profound one.
And this is the distinction of bhakti yoga,
At least the way that we teach it in my community.
It's not about how much practice you do.
It's not about how even deeply you feel the devotion because look,
Like in any relationship that comes and goes.
There are days that are very dry.
There's days that were very cut off from the divine or even angry at the divine.
That's okay.
The point isn't about how devoted we feel all the time,
It's how much we keep the divine in that priority place.
That's really the essence of bhakti yoga.
There's so much you can learn about it.
And I'd love to talk about this more.
But just for the sake of this and giving you a sense of what do we mean when we say bhakti yoga.
That's what it means.
It's that relationship with the divine beloved and learning to put that divine beloved in the center of our life and dedicate all the elements of our life.
Into that relationship.
So we're never alone.
We don't have to face this life.
They can be very hard.
Without that support.
Of our divine beloved.
Whatever that means to you.
I think that's it for now.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Hope to talk about this more with you sometime.
Much Love!
