--- In [email protected], "Ingegerd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Could you please tell me what the word bhakti means? Bhakti is a Sanskrit word which means devotion, adoration, love or worship of the Divine or the Guru as a manifestation thereof. It can also mean the love of God toward the devotee. As a sentiment, Bhakti can be part of many path,but there is also a specific path called 'Bhakti Yoga' (Path of Devotion) as opposed to 'Jnana Yoga'(wisdom) or 'Raja Yoga' (meditation). It is the contention of many Saints like Ramana Maharshi or Ramakrishna, that all these paths are not contradictionary, but finally merge into each other.Somebody (I don't remember whom) once said that while Ramakrishna was a Bhakta on the outside, he was a Jnani inside, and Ramana Maharshi was a Jnani outside and a Bhakta inside. A Jnani (Sage, a saint who followed the path of wisdom) will also, automatically develop devotion, his path is also a way of surrendering the intellect. So has Ramana Maharshi, who almost exclusively taught self-enquiry, written many devotional hymns to Shiva in the form of Mount Arunachala.Besides that, in all Hindu related faiths, the reverence and adoration of the Guru is prescribed, independend of the path. The Bhakti path explicitely seeks to use emotion to be a way to unite or come near to God. This usually employs a dualistic conception, since it is thought, that love requires an object. Yet in the non-dualistic philosophies, like Advaita, Bhakti still plays a role, either in the love to the Guru, who is traditionally helt to be an embodiement of God, or in the form of a Istha-devata, a Form of the ultimate, especially chosen for worship, which in the case of worship is identified as the formless Brahman, adopting a form for the sake of worship. Worship can have many forms, almost as many as there are people. Traditionally Bhaktas (Adherents of Bhakti) will do Japa, i.e. repetition of the name or names of their chosen ideal. They will sing Kirtanas (again rythmic repetitions of divine names) and Bhajans (devotional songs and poems), do pujas (ceremonies similar to the TM puja) etc. Service is also regarded as a Bhakti practise. The Narada Bhakti sutras deline different modes of feeling (Bhavas) or attitudes of the Bhakta to the deity: Servant: the relationship of a servant to a master, like that of Hanuman to Rama Friendship: The relationship of a friend, like that between Arjuna and Krishna. This relationship is closer than the previous. Parental relationship: God is seen as one's child - even closer. Husband/wife relationship: God is seen as romantic partner, like in the case of the Gopis and Krishna. At all there are 9 such modes or Bhavas. In my references to this topic, I made no proposal for the explicit path of Bhakti Yoga - contrary to what Barry and others here claimed, but was referring to the spontaneaus Bhakti that may arise on any path at any stage, the feeling of adoration and love towards a Guru, the natural opening of the heart as a mystic process. I was making the suggestion, that those who had experienced such an opening, would also recognize it in the expression of others, even if the follow a different ideal (God/Guru) or religion (Islam). I thought this to be quite natural among advanced spiritual practitioners. Actually most of conventional religion may be termed as a sort of Bhakti Yoga. In terms of TM: Maharishi rarely uses this term but he makes very definite allusions to the Bhakti path or rather element in his teaching, when he speaks of 'the finest feeling level', which in his eyes 'has to be protected'. In Maharsihis philosophy Bhakti plays the essential role on the path between CC and GC. He also said that the greatest enemies on the path are doubt, disappointnment, and there was a third one I forgot. You could say: Karma Yoga > CC > loss of identification with the Doer. (Non-doership of the Gita) Bhakti Yoga > GC > Increased perception of the Self in the outside, the finest relative Jnana Yoga > UC > Ultimate merging of the Self inside with the Self everywhere. Seeing everything in terms of the Self. Thus the fulfillment of Bhakti. There is a certain trap in CC: As everything is witnessed, there is a basic separation between the Self and the world. Action becomes spontaneus, and there is no incentive to go on. Thats why MMY once said that rather than dying in CC, one should smoke a cigarette. Meaning, you can't go further when dying in CC. It is only Love that can bridge the gap between Self and the world when being in CC. ------------------------ Yahoo! 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