 Love as an emotion is present in every breath of air in nature. Love is the same emotion everywhere, however its manifestation is different in different cases. In some forms of love, one can clearly indicate the love of an individual towards others and the society, whereas in the other form, an individual just loves himself. This shows that love can be in a good as well as a bad direction; the difference lies in the way in which love is used. Therefore, love, as an element is being manifested everywhere in higher or lower forms as the case may be.
Bhakti-Yoga is the science of higher love, as a bhakta cannot be in total devotion of god unless he has that amount of love and respect for the Lord. Love is a very important element in this yoga, which makes the bhaktas offer their services to their Lord. Bhakti yoga shows the bhaktas to direct and control their love and even the love into the correct direction. Bhakti yoga, makes a bhakta realize the importance of love and shows how to manage the same give it a new aim, and put it to good use, in order to obtain the highest and most glorious results. In Bhakti Yoga, the correct results refer to the path of spirituality. Thus, Bhakti yoga is the yoga that teaches a true follower to love all and follow the path of spirituality, without expecting anything in return from the Lord. Infact, Bhakti-Yoga tells its Bhaktas to follow the path of love and to love God to the highest level. This yoga directs the attention of the bhakta towards god and it shows that the most beautiful thing in this world is only the god; and the bhakta's search for divine beauty should start and end only in the Lord! The bhakta sees no one as beautiful as the Lord and feels god as a beauty in itself! Once the bhakta appreciates the true beauty of the lord and craves for nothing else, it means that he has understood the real meaning of Bhakti yoga and has manifested love in its true form. This mighty attraction in the direction of God makes all other attractions vanish for him. This mighty infinite love of God, which enters his heart, leaves no place for any other love to live there. This is the renunciation of the Bhakta. The central secret of Bhakti Yoga lies in the fact to notice that the various passions and feelings and emotions in the human heart have to be controlled and aimed in the right direction, until they reach the highest level of excellence. This goes on to say that the emotions in the heart are not wrong in themselves, but until they are guided properly, they would certainly sway in the wrong direction. This certainly leaves us with just one answer that the only and the highest direction is the one that takes us towards God. Any other direction apart from this one is the lower one. In order to realize gods potential and his powers it becomes very important for the bhaktas to forget their own little personalities and forget about the worldly bonds. Once, the individual gets himself free from all the personal attachments with the other human, the mighty feeling of love will be experienced by him. But the path of non-attachment towards society and the love towards god is not an easy task. It definitely has to go through a lot of trials and tribulations and indeed a lot of amount of friction is involved in it. But every friction is a part of this yoga and one should let these hurdles come and, go on with the struggle in order to attain higher real love. As an ordinary human, a bhakta does have to face these challenges in the beginning, but later when he meditates only for god, he will be able to see that there are millions and millions of channels in which God is manifesting Himself as Love. Apart from the highest manifestations of love, even in the lowest kinds of attraction there is the germ of divine love. Thus, even selfish love has its own way to get attracted towards materialistic bonds of the world and behind those kinds of attractions and materialistic gains, one cannot forget that behind it, there is the play of divine influence and divine love. So even the lowest forms of attraction derive their power from God himself. Most of the Bhakti done by the people is in their lowest forms intended for selfish gains. The Bhakti-Yogi, however, knows the true form of love and approaches god with his pure bhakti and he has passed through a long series of these struggles, and knows what they mean, and earnestly desires to be free from those friction and wants to avoid the clash and direct himself towards the God. This is the renunciation of the Bhakta. Thus, the Bhakta's renunciation is the non-attachment for all things that are not God, which results from great attachment to God. Whenever a Bhakta reaches the stage of renunciation, this is the ideal preparation for the attainment of the supreme Bhakti, since the bhakta's soul reaches the great height of supreme devotion or Para-Bhakti. As the bhakta reaches this stage, he sees no distinctions but sees his Beloved Lord everywhere. They are away from any resentment, they do not feel any hatred or jealously for anyone, since their love for materialistic things has totally vanished and through their love for all, they see and perceive the Lord everywhere! |
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Love and Renunication in Bhakti Yoga
| Love and Renunciation in Bhakti Yoga is a very important element in this yoga, which makes the Bhaktas offer their services to their Lord. Bhakti Yoga is the science of higher love and respect for the Lord. |
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