What is Bhakti and why is it the only legacy worth leaving behind
Bhakti is not a privilege that everybody gets in their lifetime. Bhakti is the result of education, focus and suffering. Bhakti is the hardest thing to attain and yet the most blissful experience. Bhakti makes life easy.
What is Bhakti?
Bhakti is the well of tears that brim when we listen to our favourite song. Bhakti is the exhilaration we get when will stare at a piece of art (that makes us stare at it for longer). Bhakti is what drives us to push longer and harder in our profession. Bhakti is the high we get when we run a full marathon. Bhakti is also the relief we get when we achieve our goals.
Why Bhakti is an education
When we respect something more than anything in this world, suffer for it but still love it, it is bhakti. Is it easy to practice bhakti? Does the English word “Devotion” do justice to the Sanskrit word “Bhakti”? Is the word bhakti religious?
The path of bhakti is arduous. It is a road that is travelled less. Chanting of mantras and verses doesn’t mean that a person has bhakti. Bhakti is intrinsic. Bhakti is immeasurable. One can only see the effects of bhakti in its manifestation. As bhakti is an emotion that is intangible, it needs proper education for anybody to practice it.
How does one practice bhakti?
I am a part of the last generation (generation y) that suffered for meaningful causes. Though this is debatable, the kids born in the new millennium are privileged. I remember an article that said that millennials feel so privileged that they think that they even deserve to be the American president. When growing up I did not have fashionable electronics or the internet. I had to find a teacher to learn music. I had to go to the library to understand a subject in depth. I had to actually travel to gain worldly experience. Millennials get all of this on their tablet device powered by the internet. This I would say is one of the primary causes of the lack of bhakti in the new generation.
Bhakti can be directed only towards things that are really difficult to attain. This is why there needs to be meaningful suffering, which is why there needs to be respect, and which is why it needs unwavering focus.
Bhakti in the new millennium
- Training for a marathon
- Learning a new musical instrument
- Learning a new language
- Listening more than talking
- Taking up a course or certification and seeing it through to the finish
- Aligning with the vision of an organisation
- Giving more than is expected to their profession
Practising some or all of the above points could give us a glimpse of what Bhakti would look like in action.
As mentioned before, the fruits of the pursuit of the above-mentioned would help us understand the manifestation of bhakti. More toil, more suffering, the highest order of discipline and painful unwavering focus shows glimpses of bhakti. We appreciate life in bhakti. We recognise our identity through bhakti. We get illumination from within ourselves in the practice of bhakti.
Identity as a manifestation of Bhakti
An excerpt from Ramayan:
Sage Yajanvalkya who was a great philosopher adviced King Janaka thus: "When everything in the world fails to support you, and when nobody is around to speak to you, you must depend on the illumination that comes from within. Only then will you realize that your Self is your light and your Self your strength, and that there is nothing except your Self when everything else in the world fails.
- Excerpt from Janaka and Ashtavakra: A Journey Beyond - by Ashraf Karayath
In this context, the illumination that comes from the self is a manifestation of bhakti. Bhakti is devoted to making oneself strong, reliable, trustworthy, courageous and diligent. Sometimes this Bhakti can be directed towards concepts like God or pursuit of truth or a philosophical quest. The results are always the same. Bhakti results in a self that is an embodiment of strength, courage and efficiency.
Is it spiritual?
Need not necessarily be. Bhakti is an emotion and a state of mind. Religion uses the concept of bhakti to inculcate deity worship and then professes the higher truth. Bhakti is a means to an end and is not absolute.
Bhakti is everything!
Please share your thoughts on your interpretation of Bhakti!
