YogMantra | How Bhakti Yoga is Not Really About God & Why Everyone Needs to Practise It
The origin of Holi is depicted as a play of colours between Krishna and the Gopis, including Radha, and is about the Gopis’ desire to get coloured in their beloved Krishna’s hue. Colour is a metaphor for acquiring the hues of the Lord, meaning acquiring His qualities in order to become one with Him. “Apne hi rang mein rang de” is their plea.
This forms the basis of Bhakti Yoga — aspiring for divine qualities to elevate oneself. Says Yogashree NV Raghuram, Chairman of Yoga Bharti, California, USA, a master of Bhakti Yoga and an expert in neuroscience: “People misunderstand bhakti as love for God, but bhakti is simply love. Godliness, and not God, is important here.”
Patanjali’s definition of Yoga is Chitta Vritti Nirodhaha, or controlling the fluctuations of the mind, with the main goal being to see that one goes back to one’s original self. Raghuram says this principle should apply to any kind of Yoga that we do.
He shared with us in an interview, how to use the emotion of love for the ultimate experience. Below are edited excerpts.
YOGA FOR INTROVERTS VS YOGA FOR EXTROVERTS
Patanjali gives us two ways to attain the goal of approaching the self – Abhyasa and Vairagya (practice and non-attachment).
Psychologist Carl Jung has categorised people into two kinds: extroverts and introverts. Extroverts, such as those in corporate or leadership roles, do well with the discipline of Abhyasa. Techniques of Yama-Niyama, Ashtanga Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Kriya Yoga Meditation and Cyclic meditation are for them.
For introverts, Vairagya is more suitable, attained through the path of either Jnana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga. Of these, Jnana Yoga requires much effort into reading and contemplating. For Bhakti, nothing is required. It is, in fact, the easiest path, better than even Karma and Raja Yoga. Even a great scholar like Shankaracharya became childlike, humble and simple on seeing the Goddess in Kashi. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one fine day, realising that all that intellect had given him no happiness for everyone was scared of him, turned into a bhakta.
It is not God-centric, but is self-centric just like other forms of Yoga. And it does not necessitate the practice of rituals.
BHAKTI YOGA IS SIMPLY ENRICHING THE EMOTION OF LOVE
Loving God, an entity we don’t know, is not easy. What we do know is love – Prem. We are born with it, as demonstrated by babies when they start smiling within days of being born. Animals and plants also know love. This fact is picked up by Sage Narada, who defines bhakti as the ‘exalted state of love’. Narada Bhakti Sutras contain the formula for bhakti.
Enriched and ennobled love is bhakti. Prem enriched becomes Param-prem (Supreme love), and this makes one God-like. The practice of this first brings joy, peace of mind and a blissful state, and then leads us to our true self — our original state or Atma Ramau sthiti.
OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLE FIRST
Without ennobling, love is kama (lust) — for power, money or sensual pleasures — and results in qualities like jealousy, comparisons, and hatred. This is because of the presence of the ego. The obstacle to enriching love is therefore, the ego or `I’, and this needs to be addressed.
All of Yoga deals with the ‘I’:
• In Raja Yoga – I is disciplined;
• In Karma Yoga – I is sacrificed;
• In Jnana Yoga – correct the I;
• In Bhakti Yoga – dissolve the I.
If I is dissolved, Divinity alone exists. In surrendering the ego, the individual empties himself of his self, while retaining an identity externally in order to function in the world. Internally, he is devoid of ‘I’.
• WAYS TO ENRICH AND ENNOBLE LOVE: Reading scriptures of one’s culture and adopting qualities of the good characters described. Those qualities make for Godliness.
• Looking for opportunities to practice selfless love in day-to-day living.
• Developing Shraddha, a form of love where we look at someone as God: It could be for one’s mother, father, teacher or any other role model. The brightness in someone helps develop Shraddha. Seeing innocence in someone also helps develop love. Making these as the source, pour out love into the world.
• Practising compassion and helping someone with their need, rather than to satisfy our ego. Having love for helpless animals.
• Through Seva or selfless caring: seva of the poor is considered seva to Divinity. Seva to the wise and learned is to facilitate them so that they don’t need to come down from their exalted state for mundane requirements, and we continue to get their pearls of wisdom. We provide a gradient for the good to flow to us: so, the seva is really to ourselves.
• Overcoming biases with love: we first move from complaining to tolerating. Mere tolerating, though, has an underlying assumption that one is superior. Overcome this superiority by fuelling the relationship with more love, which would change tolerance to acceptance. Accepting means both are average and have some good qualities. This is how we grow.
• The Upanishads tell us to not stop at accept, but to appreciate. This is done by actively spotting and focussing on goodness in the other person. Here, one can remember several instances of Rama appreciating Ravana.
• Remind yourself of how Nature, the trees, rivers, Sun give, unmindful of themselves and unconditionally.
• By living life as a ‘disciple’, such that everyone and everything is a teacher to you. This wish to learn keeps us humble.
• By training emotions through various arts and music, especially classical compositions.