Bhakti-Devotion

Bhakti-Devotion
Photo by Anna Kolosyuk / Unsplash

Sanskrit word for devotion is bhakti (Devanagari: भक्ति ISO15919: bhakti). Bhakti is the innermost divine power of God. Bhakti is the essence of divine love.

The sweetness of this divine love is unparalleled. It is not only sweeter than all material forms of bliss but it is sweetest of all levels of divine bliss as well.

The highest goal of every of soul is to attain the God's supreme power of bhakti. The path to reach that goal is also bhakti. Sage Ved Vyas deeply studied the Vedas and ultimately declared that the essence of all the Vedas is bhakti of Shri Krishna.

आलोड्य सर्वशास्त्राणि विचार्य च पुनः पुनः ।
इदमेकं सुनिष्पन्नं ध्येयो नारायणो हरिः।।

स्कंद पुराण व लिङ्ग पुराण
āloḍya sarvaśāstrāṇi vicārya ca punaḥ punaḥ ।
idamekaṁ suniṣpannaṁ dhyeyo nārāyaṇo hariḥ।।
skaṁda purāṇa va liṅga purāṇa
Shri Krishna serving Shri Radha

Creator Brahma also came to the same conclusion: Bhakti is the supreme path. Unless the other paths viz 

  • path of karma (कर्म)
  • path of gyan (ज्ञान)
  • path of yoga (योग)

are coupled with bhakti they cannot lead to God-realization. On the other hand, unaided by every other expedient, bhakti alone can lead to God realization.

By observance of path of karma one gets more tangled in the web of karmic bondage. In other words, one has to bear the consequences of karma. Once these consequences have fructified, then both the karma and its consequence are exhausted. But karma are countless. So one cannot bear the fruits of those karma. So the path of karma can enable us to realize God only if it is combined with selfless bhakti or devotion.

Gyan (knowledge) removes ignorance and enables one to realize the existence of the soul or atma, but not the existence of God. The necessity of bhakti on the path of gyan was pointed out by the greatest exponent of the path of gyan, Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya,

शुद्धयति हि नान्तरात्मा कृष्णपदाम्भोज भक्तिमृते |
śuddhayati hi nāntarātmā kr̥ṣṇapadāmbhoja bhaktimr̥te |

"The mind is fully purified not by virtue of one's efforts in practicing gyan, but through the grace one receives through bhakti (devotion to God). Thus, bhakti alone is the means to know God and it is also the final perfected goal of a devotee. The ultimate goal of an individual being is to attain divine bhakti, which will grant him selfless divine love, only then he would be allowed to serve God eternally". 

Various acharyas of bhakti have propounded different definitions of the word bhakti.

Some of those definitions of bhakti are:

  • Loving remembrance (Devanagari: भजनं भक्तिः ISO15919: bhajanaṁ bhaktiḥ) -  Bhakti is the continuous loving remembrance of the names, forms, pastimes and attributes of the Lord.
  • Worshipping the origin (Devanagari: भागो भक्तिरिति  ISO15919: bhāgo bhaktiriti) - Bhag means a part. Bhakti means having the firm knowledge that “As a soul, my true identity is that I am a part of God”.
  • Burn away impurities (Devanagari: भंजनम् भक्ति: ISO15919: bhaṁjanam bhaktiḥ) Bhaṃjanaṃ means to burn away. Bhakti purifies the heart of a devotee by burning away the five sheaths, the gross and material sheaths that envelop the soul.
  • Engrossed in sweet feelings (Devanagari: भज्यते भक्तिरिति  ISO15919: bhajyate bhaktiriti) - Bhakti is the complete engrossment in sweet feelings of love for God.
  • Serving (Devanagari: भज सेवायाम्  ISO15919: bhaja sevāyām) - Ved Vyas Ji explained the meaning as bhakti is formed from the Sanskrit root verb bhaja, which means seva (सेवा) or service. Hence the simple definition of bhakti is to serve God wholeheartedly.

The gist of all these descriptions is: Bhakti is total engrossment in the divine love-bliss of God. You can read a complete description of this philosophy in "Prem Ras Siddhant" (The Philosophy of Divine Love) by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj.

LEARN MORE

[1] Levels of Bliss

[2] Why do only Bhakti?

[3] Anya-nirapekshata

[4] Siddha Bhakti

​[5] ​Roopadhyan - Devotional Remembrance

[6] ​Bhav

[7] ​Why would I want to become God's eternal servant?

Sadhana Bhakti

​Sadhana - Daily Devotion