What is a process of Bhakti Yoga?

Question

dear jitendra , where is keshava sir?

Answer 1

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 of various kinds. One classification is Sakamya and Nishkamya Bhakti. Another is Apara-Bhakti and Para-Bhakti. Bhakti is also classified into Gauna-Bhakti and Mukhya-Bhakti.
Then came bhava. 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.


In the Srimad-Bhagavata and the Vishnu Purana it is told that the nine forms of Bhakti are

1 Sravana (hearing of God's Lilas and stories),
2 Kirtana (singing of His glories),
3 Smarana (remembrance of His name and presence),
4 Padasevana (service of His feet),
5 Archana (worship of God),
6 Vandana (prostration to Lord),
7 Dasya (cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God),
8 Sakhya (cultivation of the friend-Bhava) and
9 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.
This is the whole bhakti yoga.

Answer 2

Hare Krishna human beings persist with sanatan dharma, they do no longer declare to be basically hindus (a minimal of what's in recent times theory-approximately hinduism) sure they persist with the particular process bhakti yoga, (bhakti potential devotion, yoga is the way, or connection- hence, bhakti is the potential for their connection with God) - no longer jnana (empiric awareness) yoga, no longer karma (fruitive activities) yoga. basically bhakti yoga they persist with. They for sure persist with what their guru mahraj tells them, what else would be requested of a dedicated shishya? there may well be some that are ignorant, as there are ignorant human beings in all religions, and people who persist with much less strictly than others in all paths, so this could not be a attention. those devotees who're intense and under ideal coaching are ordinarily no longer ignorant, yet ok studied interior the sastra. they at the instant are not in simple terms parrots, they have completely dedicated their lives to the learn and cultivation of bhakti yoga. they should not be unduly criticized.

Answer 3

Bhakti Yoga means the path of attaining union with the Lord through intense love of God. It is not loving God for any selfish benefit but it is single minded devotion to God and total surrender to God.

There are four types of Bhakti: Ârtha, Arthârthi, Jignâsu and Jñâni. An Ârtha prays to God intensely when he is in dire distress. He pleads for relief from difficulties and sufferings. God grants relief and blesses him with worldly happiness. An Arthârthi prays for money, power, position and prosperity. God grants his wishes too. A Jignâsu prays to God to enlighten him with self knowledge. His aim is to unravel the mystery of existence. God fulfills his longing by sending a Guru to enlighten him. A Jñâni is one who sees in every one and in every thing divinity.

Draupadî is an example of Ârtha bhakti. Prahlâda [SB: Canto 7, Ch. 5-10] and Sakku Bai (a famous Krishna devotee) are other examples of this bhakti; Dhruva, Sudhama and Arjuna are Arthârthis; Uddhava is an excellent example of Jignâsu; S'uka Maharishi is an example of Jñâni.

A true devotee should have the following qualities: He should hate none including all other living beings. He should be friendly, compassionate, without ego, and should remain equal minded in joy and sorrow. He should be self controlled, enduring, ever content. The path of realizing God by the experience of seeing unity in this world of duality and multiplicity (diversity). This knowledge can be acquired by serving a genuine Guru.-

Answer 4

There are common themes for many of the schools within Hinduism that can be found in the Vedic scriptures, and such works as the Bhagavad Gita. Remember yoga originated out of Hinduism. Most people only know the physical forms of yoga, called hatha, but those techniques area actually preparatory techniques for the higher practices of the spiritual types of yoga such as jnana, karma, and bhakti. You can practice a form of hatha but it helps to be grounded and centered in some sense in the higher forms of yoga or all you are doing is stretching. In the highest practices of yoga, they all lead to complete bhakti - surrender.

If you are interested in the yoga teachings of Lord Krishna, then one thing you may want to focus on to learn and practice in a more nonsectarian manner is the Uddhava Gita. The Uddhava Gita is a summation of the essence of the Bhagavad Gita (and the simplest and most direct practice of yoga), and so it is eminently suitable for nonsectarian, universal teaching which is the essence of Hinduism.

Here is a short summation of the Uddhava Gita which is found in the Srimad Bhagavatam (also known as Bhagavata Purana) 11.7:

EPILOGUE - LORD KRISHNA'S LAST SERMON

At the end of another long sermon comprising of more than one thousand verses, disciple Uddhava said: "O Lord Krishna, I think the pursuit of God as You narrated to Arjuna (in the Bhagavad Gita), and now to me, is very difficult indeed, for most people; because it entails control of unruly senses. Please tell me a short, simple, and easy way to God-realization." Lord Krishna upon Uddhava's request gave the essentials of Self-realization as follows:

· Do your duty, to the best of your ability, for Me without worrying about the outcome.

· Remember Me at all times. (Note that this is the point of chanting things like the mahamantra - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Kare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare which is often chanted in kirtan or a variation of it. The whole point of kirtan and mantra is remembrance.)

· Perceive that God is within every living being. Mentally bow down to all beings and treat all beings equally.

· Perceive through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions that the power of God is within you at all times, and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument and a trustee.

I recommend the International Gita Society as they are nonsectarian, offer affordable translations of the Bhagavad Gita with commentary, and can help teach you the basics without having to spend a lot of money or submit to some guru you know nothing about:

http://www.gita-society.com/

http://www.gitainternational.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Gita_Society

They also have an online Gita study and discussion forum:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gita-talk/

I hope these are helpful!

Answer 5

Keshav Sir answered well

Hare krishna ,Hare Krishna ,Krishna Krishna ,Hare Hare ,Hare Rama ,Hare Rama,Rama Rama,Hare Hare

Answer 6

Holy cows! And I was just doing it for peace of mind and exercise!

Answer 7

Smearing ones body with 'I can't believe it's not butter!' and rolling in self-raising flour. Then stand in the sun for a while.

Answer 8

Please visit the site -> http://www.krishna.com/

It covers All about Bhakti yoga.