Bhakti

Knowledge, love and will are the three mystic keys hidden in our nature which can, if applied steadily with faith and in the right way, open the doors of the Supreme Divine Mystery in us. Of these, bhakti is indeed the simplest and the most direct since the Divine Presence dwells in the heart of man and hence is most easily accessed by the power of love. In fact, bhakti is nothing else but the turning of love in the human heart towards its Divine Origin.

Bhakti, very simply is, to take joy in the Divine. It may start with a Name, a Form, a Manifestation of the Divine. The bhakta finds joy in It. But slowly this universalises until he finds the Divine in all names, all forms and the entire Manifestation. Each element of creation begins to yield the Divine element within it until the Divine Beloved is felt and seen everywhere and in everything. Each name and form become a mask, some beautiful, some terrible, yet nevertheless a mask of the Divine who inhibits It and shines through it. Universal love and compassion, maitri-karuna, become the hallmark of the bhakta. Even as the Divine whom he adores, the bhakta is a friend to all creatures and hence he is ever engaged in doing good to all.

The core of bhakti is love, its master movement is love and surrender. Love may start with longing bearing the stamp of the ego at first with all the movements to which the human vital is prone including pride and possession, joy of union and the pain of separation or even dark emotions such as fear and jealousy and anger thrown upon the Divine. But sooner or later these get purified by the Divine touch and a sacred longing that waits upon the Lord, an adoration, the wish to serve the Divine begins to replace the lower emotions. Love changes into sweet intimacy, a constant nearness and eventually a growing union and identity with the Divine.

Surrender may start with the will to offer something of oneself, – money, work, life to the Divine. It may start with offering that which one has in excess, with the desire self-eyeing upon the fruits of this offering or else the ego diluting and polluting the offering by making claims and demands from the Divine, or tainted with pride and ambition of being an instrument or someone special to the Lord. The Divine touch purifies these too until the giving and offering is for the joy of giving with no other demand except the nearness of the Divine and the joy of His service. Eventually all life becomes a ceaseless worship and all one is and has and does is given to the Divine, for His joy, for His work and service.

The actual method of bhakti is cannot be systematised just as love cannot be turned into a mechanical routine or a soulless ritual. Yet in the early stages of the soul’s contact with the Divine these outer forms of rituals and worship, bahya pooja, may have its place. But as the soul grows and our consciousness deepens and we become aware of our subjective self through the inner being, then the flame of bhakti grows quietly in our inner self, often unseen and unrecognized to the outer eye of man until one day the flame bursts through the mask, burns the covering and trappings of the ego and all all discloses the unseen Beloved. It finds joy in taking and hearing the Name of the Lord, reading and meditating upon Him, speaking and listening about Him, thinking of Him, serving Him, living for Him and according to His Will.

Bhakti is all about love for the Divine, the joy of the love, the self-forgetfulness and the new self-finding of oneself in the Divine, the union that comes through the force of love and as a consequence of this union, a progressive transformation of the bhakta into the being and nature of the Divine, samipya, sayujya, sadharmya gati. But unlike the path of knowledge, love is not a monotone of self-absorption in the Self, nor like the path of works, a simple and single-hued relationship with the Divine of the servant and worker with the Divine as Master. Instead, we see here a manifold relationship with the Divine that breaks every barrier of distance until all in us belongs to God and exists only for His joy and His service and His sake. Sri Aurobindo reveals to us:

‘Discipleship to God the Teacher, sonship to God the Father, tenderness of God the Mother, clasp of the hand of the divine Friend, laughter and sport with our Comrade and boy Playfellow, blissful servitude to God the Master, rapturous love of our divine Paramour, these are the seven beatitudes of life in the human body. Canst thou unite all these in a single supreme and rainbow-hued relation? Then hast thou no need of any heaven and thou exceedest the emancipation of the Adwaitin.’

Since love and surrender to the Divine Mother are the central keys to the transformation in the Supramental Yoga, therefore true bhakti and self-giving are its master movement. Love is indeed the key, the crowning movement, the swiftest way and the easiest means to the fulfilment of the integral yoga. The easiest means to develop it is to open to the Mother, call the Mother, pray to the Mother, love the Mother, think of the Mother, serve the Mother, read and dwell upon their books especially Savitri along with Prayers and Meditations. For indeed, as the Mother says, ‘Consciousness has built the worlds but Love is its saviour’.

Alok Pandey