One of the four paths to yoga (union with the divine or spiritual liberation) in Hinduism is Bhakti yoga (path of devotion), along side with Jnana yoga (path of knowledge), Karma yoga (path of action) and Kriya yoga (path of psychophysical methods). I won’t go into the specifics of each path as it can get quite complicated and there are many excellent sources for detailed descriptions for these paths, the most famous one being Bhagavad Gita. But I would like to briefly go over Bhakti yoga as there’s something we can take away and apply to our daily lives.
Traditionally Bhakti yoga was practiced through a personal relationship with God. At the core of it is surrender, love and devotion. It typically involves worshipping, chanting, meditating, following a guru and various devotional practices. The key to this practice is intensity. It’s an unconditional, intense love and longing for something that’s greater than ourselves. In modern times, the essence is more important. The subject of devotion has become less specific but more general and can including anything as long as we can devote ourselves towards it.
This concept of devotion may seem a bit counter-intuitive as we have been conditioned to think critically and question everything we encounter in today’s world. While there may be great importance and value in questioning things, there are certain limitations that come with it too. Inevitably, at some point we would probably hit a wall in our quest for truth, or perhaps we would get involved in debates and arguments with others on issues that don’t seem to have any clear answers. At the very least, critical thinking will probably not bring us joy.
What we can take away is this, the more we practice intense devotion, the more we are in union with the divine. The key to devotion is unconditional surrendering to everything with intensity. It may seem illogical and silly, but in its essence, it actually cultivates a sense of humility, universal love and focus, which are also all great practices in their own right. If we could bring a sense of devotion into our daily lives, perhaps we would be able to taste real joy.