Bhakti Yoga
Writer: Felix Quist Møller
26.1.1
“I honor my own True Inner Self. I worship my own True Inner Self. God dwells within me. As me. For me.”
Bhakti Yoga
Dear reader. Welcome to Healing Arts!
During the next months I will take you on a deep dive into the yogic philosophy as it relates to my own life and hopefully you will gain some insights in what yoga is all about.
Last week we covered Karma Yoga and how to be at service to the world. In this week’s article we will move forward to the practice of devotion to God.
Bhakti Yoga means devotion or dedication. This devotion is on a more inner emotional level to one’s personal understanding of God. When you truly, deeply love someone you can get in touch with that kind of devotion. As a matter of fact, if you want to experience divine love, a good way to start is to get into a monogamous and committed partnership with someone you love. My Guru once said that the best way to really learn about yourself as a yogi… is to get married. However, instead of placing this dedication on a person, you devote yourself to your Higher Power. Since yoga is not a religion, but a spiritual tool, it doesn’t mention who that god must be. In truth it could be any god.
When the great yogi and bodhisattva, His Holiness the Dalai Lama once visited Copenhagen he said at a seminar that it was a good idea to go to the temples and pray. Someone then asked him “But I can’t find a temple in Denmark. What should I do?” He then asked her “Well, what is the main religion here?”. “Christianity!” she said. To which he replied, “Well then go to Church.” The funny thing is that this event was actually happening in a church.
Personally, in terms of where to devote my attention, I often think of my God as the True Self, dwelling right behind my heart, smaller than a sandcorn, yet as big as the entire Universe. An embassy of the Universal Consciousness within me, the Lord of my body looking out from Its seat. It is devotion and regular contact with this personal version of God you can use to reach realization in Bhakti Yoga.
Bear in mind that one of the paths does not exclude following the others as well. It’s not like you must choose one of them. For instance, the monks and nuns at the temples and the hermits in the caves are also very much about complete devotion, besides doing service through prayers like we talked about last time.
A small practice you can do right now is to sit with your legs crossed and put your palms together in front of your heart. Then bow your head and turn your attention towards the center of your chest and say “I honor my own True Inner Self. I worship my own True Inner Self. God dwells within me. As me. For me.”
Don't do this right now if you're driving a car though. That's too much devotion! In fact, you shouldn't even be looking at your phone right now! What are you thinking!
Anyways, that covers the second path of yoga. Next week we will take a look at Jñana Yoga, the path of knowledge through study which is basically what you are doing right now, but there is a bit more to it than that.
Please feel free to write us an e-mail or DM us on social media if you have any questions. Or join our tribe by signing up for our newsletters if you haven't done so already.
Namasté.
Felix
