What is Bhakti?
My name is Melanie Law and I am a lover of all things Bhakti.
Bhakti has been my anchor in troubled times and a beacon of light when I’ve lost my way. It has brought form to the formless in my lifelong quest to feel more connected to the Divine and has deepened my spiritual roots tenfold. My hope is to share these beautiful, comforting practices with anyone who feels called to a life of devotion.
“Bhakti yoga isn’t something you join, it’s love. It means falling in love.”
~ Krishna Das
The word Bhakti means Devotion and Bhakti Yoga includes the many different practices that help us remember God (yoga, chanting, rituals, offerings, meditation).
By putting God at the center of our lives every day we keep the mind relaxed, the heart soft and the ego in check. Bhakti yoga comes from the motherland of India where the culture is so rich with beauty, depth, color, creativity, and devotion - and everything revolves around God! Bhakti gives us many avenues to express our love and longing for something higher. And the best part is there’s no competition, because how can we compete for God’s love?
In the Bhakti tradition we use the power of our attachment, which hooks us into so many things in life, to attach ourselves to the good stuff of our spiritual practice.
The Bhakta or devotee remembers God by building altars, singing, chanting, offering light, flowers, incense, and more. By finding a little time every day to humbly offer one’s heart to a higher consciousness, we are less likely to get caught up in the stories of the mind (the maya or illusion) where suffering takes root. We slowly but surely turn our lives back over to the creator and learn to surrender everything we have to the flow, mystery, and grace of God. The more we surrender, the less we suffer.
“Bhakti brings us into the world of mystery, a realm where the critical, discerning qualities of the intellect are powerless next to the vast ocean of feelings. In the journey of Bhakti we don’t think about the goal, we only weep, laugh, cry, sing and dance with our Beloved, and if we pray for anything it’s simply for more devotion. Bhakti is about our stormy love affair with God. Bhakti is about surrender: surrendering our personal heart into the Great Heart, offering our self will and all our efforts and actions to that vast Consciousness, to God.”
~ Jai Uttal
One moment we have love by the tail, the next we are lost and longing for our creator.
Bhakti allows us to surrender the story of “me” and return to the great Heart of “we.”Bhakti is about learning to trust, and little by little, or as Krishna Das says “slowly but inevitably” we dissolve our grip on life and let go to God. It takes a little discipline at first, but eventually it becomes a lifelong habit which brings so much relief to the troubled heart and mind.
It is my pleasure to share ways to discover this practice for yourself and help you apply it to your own life challenges. Our relationship with God is the most personal journey in the world and Bhakti frees us up to see what that means for each of us. It provides a touchstone to keep us grounded in what really matters and a path to follow through the twists and turns of life.
Jai Shri Ram,
Melanie
