Somebody called me a bhakta – what exactly does this mean?

A bhakta is someone who takes delight in the Lord. Bhakti comes from the root bhaj which means to enjoy. He does not approach the Divine to know about Him as the seeker does. He rather knows Him in a way having seen and felt Him through the eyes of faith and his heart. He intuitively knows without any complications, mental analysis or intellectual effort that the Divine exists and that He is beautiful and blissful and always full of Love for all creatures. He does not receive this knowledge through any proofs or satisfaction of desires as the mental and vital beings in us try. Rather he knows it directly through his heart and emotional being. It is through this door that he enters the sanctum Santorum of the Lord and since it is in the heart of all creatures that the Lord resides, his is the shortest if not always the easiest path. Yet through his journey he finds himself all the time supported by the Divine Grace and an unseen Hand of the Lord always protects him from all outer and inner difficulties, even from himself since of all difficulties this is the greatest. It stems from our identification with the ego-self for which bhakti with its natural tendency to give itself, is the perfect antidote.

A bhakta is someone who takes joy in the Divine, in His Name, in His vision, even in an idol or photograph, in hearing about the Lord, in thinking about the Lord, in giving himself to the Lord, in wanting to know His ways not because he ever doubts Him but because knowing about His lila adds to the charm and sweetness of his love for Him. Similarly he loves to receive His touch through Prasad or Relic or a piece of cloth or anything he may receive from Him out of His Grace. And all this not because he wants something but because these things carry something of His Love. All that a bhakta wants is nearness of the Divine, the only thing he fears is the veiling of the Divine. His life is centered around loving Him and serving Him.

What happens to the other relationships in his life? Quite naturally since he is too satisfied and happy with his Lord, he seeks no other human companionship. All the deepest satisfactions that one seeks in various forms of human relationships are fulfilled in the Lord who becomes for him the father and mother, friend and playmate, lover and beloved, even husband and wife and child and teacher and master. All his outer relationships therefore begin to assume this hue. His love for the Divine begins to extend towards all creatures and in everyone and everything he begins to discover Him whim he loves. All events, the slightest and the most seemingly trivial, the happy hours of life as well as the difficult moments become for the God-lover moments when he experiences the Divine Grace and the Divine Love. He knows the Divine, becomes one with the Divine through a direct identification for to whom all gates to His chamber are flung wide open and all discloses the Divine beloved.

Now you can see for yourself whether you are on the path of bhakti or some other way! If this comes naturally to you, it must be followed until it leads you to the great consummation of the yoga.