Bhakti - A Brief Introduction:

Bhakti is a Sanskrit word which best translates down to devotion. Most effectively understood, it is the ‘Path of the Heart’ based on aspiration: an aspiration of love, devotion, and a surrendering to a concentration which wishes to rest in the conscious, focused attainment of Deity, Universal Oneness, Etc.. Although it is ultimately a highly ‘inner’ quest for, or relationship with, the focus of this Abstract-of-God-Oneness; it is, by virtue of man being a creature of language and learning, that it is found most often effectively focused and catalyzed through the ‘personal’ in the form of a (hopefully) gifted teacher who reflects the Reality of the Abstract attainable within, as the Oneself.

Particularly in the initial stages, bhakti is often characterized by structure and conformity, and some disciplines (tapas): bluntly put, constraint and service in the outer world, meditation for the inner world. Generally recognized as the ‘Sunlit Path’, it is seen as less rigid than some of the more austere paths. It is usually a path that seeks the Inner without the unilateral rejection of the outer. However, since the intensity to succeed is most often mixed with the reliance on, and appreciation of, an experienced teacher (Guru), it scares most causal observers and self-proclaimed experts of human nature.

Taking away all the circular arguments dealing with cults, free will (brain washing), etc., it can (and should be) no different than seeing that if one studies Judo, Karate, Sumo or any other martial art, one must follow the dictates of the dojo and follow the sensei. In the mental world it could be the studentship of law or medicine. It could even be compared to a military enlistment of choice where, seeking oneness, half measures are neither productive nor ultimately tolerated. In my case, my need of feedback from the world of mental chess games and the dance of the senses in relationships of discovery, was my lack of commitment to the climb, ‘where many are called but few are chosen’. Simply drawn, if you wish to sculpt your body, you better train and lift weights with a dedicated passion. Or, if you wish to hone your potential to seriously compete in the Olympics of Life, you had better bust your proverbial ass.

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For those who were brought up under the multi denominational umbrella of Christianity, you may find the following added paragraphs of interest as well. Christians (of which I in the West was one) most often miss the profound realities contained under the thick obscuring husk of ritual indoctrination and rote practice. If one simply acknowledges the culturally translated and centuries layered gloss of male scribes, one need not even offend by passing judgment on such unnecessary attributions of a one way vaginal birth or, a final climatic cloud-ascending encore (the Buddha was similarly embellished by those who loved him). In unarguable truth, the Christ teacher was born of woman and, as Supreme Oneness, simply reflected and trumpeted the attainment of our Birthright.

As part of this process, he struggled as we do. With the practice of austerities, he confronted his demons and desires in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. He practiced control of his sexual energies (brahmacharya). As a man, he got pissed off enough to vent upon and mutilate a fig tree, as well as whip the temple vendors. He even doubted, momentarily, the Father of His Inner Wealth during the wrackings of his last moments upon the cross. Yet, Christ did touch the Unity of God and, in the patriarchy of language, called Highest that which translates to Father. He attained the State where He and His Father were One. He then manifested it with the actions of an unselfish life - as a rabbi who being immersed in the empyrean Light was not merely an interpreter, but rather, being at One with the Highest, was the Genesis of the words of God themselves. It was for this He was revered and followed.

As a realized and enlightened teacher, He had became one with his Highest. He exemplified and held out our divine possibility. He reaffirmed the teaching that it is written, "Ye are God." He taught that, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within." Even (of the seven churches) He taught too, "Let thy eye be single [meditating upon the sixth and/or seventh chakaras]." The deep meaning of the Christian trinity has not been totally buried in dead verbiage either. It proclaims the full equality of our inner Holy Spirit - not us as a sin separated wretch, remaining apart from an unattainable Father-and-Son looking down from their suspended heaven. A heaven construed as a spacial realm (free from earth bound misery) beyond the edges of a flat earth (an intervening purgatory and a lower hell) where (if we are obedient and good) we can finally check into only when we die and then at that, get picked up at some theologically determined second coming. Kind of like a column of marching Gumbies in search of their robes and wings.

Of equal importance is knowing He not only said He had been here before, but He would also come again. He has, many times since. Knowing this, His true resurrection, you know that Christ was not the body or the static shell that remains of his teachings. Knowing this, His true resurrection, one also can then know the reality of, "The only way to the Father is through Me." If you cannot comprehend this, then you are left to worship the hollow idol of Jesus the body. You will also find it then impossible to believe, let alone know, the Christ-Consciousness inside yourself or, others (be they your peers or God-Realized teachers). Christ in His Consciousness proclaimed too, a path of love (bhakti) and called upon us as ‘children of His Father’, to recognize and grow into Him, the Oneness of our Inner-Divinity.