Bhakti is not a philosophy, it is not a religion, it is not devotion, rather it is a way of life. The concept of bhakti started as a way of life, not as a way of devotion. From the Indian perspective, time is classified in four different stages or ages. Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and the fourth age is Kali Yuga. We are living in the fourth age, Kali Yuga.
From all the records, scriptures, literature and history of the world available to us, it is quite clear that most of the religions have come about during the time of Kali Yuga. In the other three ages, there were no formal religions. There was only one religion, Bhagavat Dharma or the religion of God, the most ancient form of religion of humanity, at least in the Indian culture and tradition. In the Bhagavat Dharma, the idea was that an individual who has taken birth in this body has to connect with the higher, the supreme, the transcendental nature. Human beings are subject to time, space and object, they are finite, whereas the transcendental nature is infinite. In the Bhagavat Dharma, God was in his transcendental form as G-O-D having the qualities of generation, organization and destruction, G-O-D. It is the connection with this power, with this force which becomes the aim of bhakti. One cannot be without jnana, knowledge, which is acquired with life. One cannot be without karma, performance, involvement, action; we have inherited karma in our life. In the same manner, bhakti is also an integral part of our life. It is the desire, the drive to know where we are connected. The drive is the desire to know oneself; it is the desire to know the transcendental nature; it is the desire to know God.
How does one come to realize one’s inner nature or the spirit, the transcendental nature? This happens when one is able to maintain one’s equipoise, serenity and peace. When there is distraction and dissipation, there is no awareness, no focus, there is no attention. When there is awareness and focus, realization can take place effortlessly. To maintain the equilibrium in life became the basic teachings of bhakti yoga. In all the literature of bhakti yoga, whether it is written by Sri Krishna or by authors like Narada, Shandilya and other people who wrote treatises on bhakti yoga, a few concepts are given. First, have faith in God, Ishwar pranidhana. Second, maintain your inner purity, atmashuddhi. Third, be equipoised. When you confront the opposites in life, the duality in life, maintain your balance. These three became the main ideas where bhakti yoga becomes a lifestyle. The nine forms of bhakti as defined in Navadha Bhakti represent living a particular attitude, perception and mentality, a condition of life where you are positive, where you are optimistic, where you are able to confront the negativities of life with greater confidence in yourself, faith and conviction.
The first form of bhakti was the lifestyle aspect. According to the Bhagavat Dharma, God’s religion, God is always indivisible, infinite, all-pervasive, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. God is something that no thought can conceive of, no eyes can see, no ears can hear. Somebody once tried to look at the form of God and nearly became crazy as described in the 11th Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. To reach that inaccessible transcendental experience, you need to have a foundation on which you can build your own experience, your own process. So the manifest form comes in.
Vedanta says, the sun is up there in the sky shining bright at 12 noon. Take twenty plates, fill them with water and place them here. You will see the refection of the sun in the water. The refection that you see is not the sun, it is only a reflection, still you identify that refection as the sun. The sun is up there, unreachable, the refection here is reachable. You can create it. You can see it. You can have one, you can have twenty, you can have fifty reflections. These reflections, although not real, indicate the existence of the sun. They will give an indication of the power, force, light and the energy of the sun, although they are not the real sun. Being visible, that form will hold your mind. Your mind will not be lost in a limbo where it has to think of the unthinkable. If God is unthinkable, how can you think about the unthinkable? If God is beyond thought, if God is beyond perception, how can you perceive God?
The transcendental nature of God is the final one, yet the presence, quality, power and the acts of that nature can be seen in different manifestations of form. The sakara, the manifest forms, are like ladders on which you climb to reach the rooftop. Once you have reached the rooftop, you don’t need the ladder any more. Once you have used the manifest form to direct your mind, to identify with that transcendental nature, then eventually the form drops away and you merge with the transcendental nature. Each individual was free to decide their own symbol of faith and reverence, according to the Bhagavat Dharma.
There are only two religions, the most ancient religions in the world: one is the Bhagavat Dharma and one is the Shaiva or Pashupat Dharma. Pashupat Dharma is the same as Bhagavat Dharma but in relation to Shiva, explaining the transcendental nature of Shiva and Shakti. Bhagavat Dharma is the same, but uses different names, Brahman and Maya. Bhagavat Dharma represents the vedantic approach and Pashupat Dharma represents the Shaivite, tantric approach. Names may differ, concepts may differ, yet the underlying idea is the same: we are subject to the senses and mind; we are subject to karmas and destiny. As long as we are subject to the senses and mind, karma and destiny, we are like animals, who are being controlled and guided. The master, the controller is only one. Who’s the master? The transcendental being. This is the tantric view.
The vedantic view is that when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see the refection and you say that is me. You are one side of the mirror. Why are you pointing to the refection and saying that is me? So you identify with the unreal, the refection as yourself. You forget the real you. Instead of saying 'That is me,' you should say, 'That is my refection.' You don't say, 'That is my refection.' You say, 'That is me.' The choice of words represents the self-centred perception of body and identity. When you know that the refection is not you, but ‘That is you,’ then realization takes place in Vedanta.
The Bhagavat Dharma and Pashupat Dharma state clearly that you are free to decide what is going to be your symbol. In that symbol you should perceive the innate quality which will propel you to a higher dimension of existence. Each one of us is attracted to a particular innate quality. Some people are attracted to love, contact, touch, feeling. Some people are sensitive to sympathy. They only want sympathy. The people who want sympathy don’t really need love, they only need sympathy. Those who want love, they don’t need anything else. They only need love. After all, each person's mind reacts and behaves in a particular manner.
A negative person will always see the world negatively. If you happen to be smiling and the person looks at you, the person will begin to think, ‘He is making jokes about me.’ You are smiling for your own reason, but your smile is taken with suspicion, as being against the person. Each one expresses a particular quality, each one is attracted to that quality. Each one demands a particular quality by nature, and each one has a particular, deep-rooted, unconscious desire to identify with a particular quality or condition in life. Maybe you don’t know how to understand or express it or even realize it, still it is there. That quality is the appropriate one for you and it is that quality which has to be identified in the sakara, in the manifest form. Meditation on that manifest form leads to the nirakara, unmanifest dimension, while maintaining the balance and purity in all the opposites of life. This is the actual bhakti yoga.
In the course of time, the first concept of bhakti evolved into, 'How do I connect with my inner nature?' The first transformation in this idea takes place when bhakti becomes a lifestyle: keeping one's balance, equilibrium, peace, equipoise in the destructive, distracting, disturbing and conflicting situations and conditions. The ability to retain one’s own serenity and purity, and the connection with strength, optimism, positivity, creativity, trust and faith constitute the lifestyle component of bhakti.
In Kali Yuga, the advent of different pocket religions started to incorporate principles of bhakti to reinforce their own belief and connection with that belief. Different aspects of bhakti were incorporated by different religious sects and bhakti became part of religion in the form of worship, devotion and adoration. This is another transformation in bhakti.
First was the basic idea of the connection between the individual and the divine. Second came the attainment of this by regulating one’s lifestyle, mind, emotions and feelings. Then came the integration of bhakti concepts with religious precepts. This was so highlighted in the course of time by different groups trying to outdo each other that the lifestyle aspect of bhakti receded into the background. Only the religious concept remained in society. Yoga has not maintained the religious concept. Yoga still maintains the lifestyle concept of bhakti.
23 March 2009, Ganga Darshan, Munger