The Meaning of Bhakti
Dr. Hansaji J. Yogendra
What do we mean when we say we have faith in God or that we are devoted to God? Does it mean chanting the name of God? Or does it mean performing poojas, going on pilgrimages, and sprinkling Ganga water around the house? All these things aren’t real devotion. ‘I am fasting’, ‘I went on a pilgrimage’, ‘I did this’, ‘I did that’, etc. There is a lot of ‘I’ in all this. The ego increases even further. I have noticed that the more people fast, the higher is their ego. ‘I fasted so much; you eat all this? I don’t!’ A sense of superiority develops within such people.
It is when a person reduces his ‘I’ sense that God comes. A place for God is created only when ‘I’ starts disappearing. ‘I did this’, ‘I did that’ is replaced with ‘You are everything: everything is happening according to Your will; so I accept.’ God comes when there is total acceptance of life. You have to accept everyone around you. You have to accept the situation you are in. While doing Purushartha you have to keep in mind that the results are only as per the will of God. God has given you a mind, hands, legs. Make full use of them. But the results are to be left only to God. That is the true meaning of faith.
To live every moment happily is the foremost, and the highest form of Bhakti to God. Can you live every second of your life happily? We are usually drowned in tension and worry, grumbling about how everything is wrong around us. How can that be taken as devotion to God? We take the easy road of performing Poojas and putting Tikka to show God that we are His devotees. But unfortunately, we get stuck at this level. I have seen many families where the matriarch performs the Pooja. Others have to quickly purchase the flowers, make the garland and give it to her. Only then is she able to perform the Pooja. The children have to do all the running around. And if something from the Pooja Samagri is missing, she gets angry. ‘Where is the Kangi, where is the matchbox to light the Diya?’ God does not want anything from you except total faith. And that faith can only come when the ‘I’ sense is set aside; where you think, ‘I am nothing: You are everything’. You haven’t made the flowers that you are offering to God. They too are created by Him!
So externally Bhakti Yoga looks very easy: doing Poojas, wearing a Rudraksha, or chanting the rosary. But that isn’t the real thing. The basic essence of Bhakti Yoga is performing one’s duty (Karma) and reducing one’s ego.