The Path of the Heart and Devotion Bhakti Yoga

by Orion Hawthorne

Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion, is the path of the Heart, which is ruled by the Moon. It involves intense, focused love for one particular manifestation, one particular person, or in some cases even a disembodied Presence, or one who is no longer appearing in a human body, such as Jesus or Krishna. This is the path of surrender to the divine in which the devotee surrenders his/her whole Being in Love and merges in the One Heart.

Often the devotee sings bhajans (devotional hymns) of love, adoration, to the beloved. The singing of bhajans can be both a path to awakening if done with one’s full Heart, or it can be an expression of God’s Love when it comes from the deepest level of pure awareness.

The Heart melts all separation between the devotee and the beloved. They may experience a oneness of Being. And through this oneness, there is an expansion of Love and experience of Oneness with All Being(s).

Bhaktas are often drawn to a personal relationship with a feminine aspect of the Divine; either the Divine Mother, the Blessed Mother, or a female deity like Lakshmi, Saraswati, or Durga. They are drawn to a highly personal, feeling-based relationship with their teacher. They are sometimes attracted to the traditional guru-disciple model where they can surrender to the Master and leave everything in his or her hands.

If a person’s Bhakti nature is more masculine, he or she may not be so outwardly soft, gentle, and emotive, but more scholarly and wise and drawn to archetypal expressions of the divine such as deities and planets. An example of a person with a more masculine devotional nature was Joseph Campbell, who popularized myth and archetype.

A Bhakta could also be like a female tiger protecting her cubs. Love can be fierce and strong, as well as gentle and yielding.

The path of Bhakti has three major prongs:

• Personal prayer to the Creator – supplications to help all those in need or intense listening to bring the devotee into greater alignment with God’s will.

• Japa, or repetition of the Divine Name – using a mantra or name with personal meaning which causes the heart to swell. Japa beads or rosary beads help remind the devotee to recite this name even while active. Do not allow the practice to become mechanical. It must sink deep into the heart to be fully effective. 

• Bhajan (devotional singing) and Kirtan (chanting the Divine names of God) either alone or in a group.

Ammachi is a great Bhakti Yogini. If you attend one of her gatherings, you will experience the power of bhajans and kirtan. Receiving her darshan is a classic example of a Bhakti spiritual practice.

Bhakti is the simplest path once one has enkindled a personal love relationship with the beloved Father-Mother God. Practice then goes by itself; love enkindles more love. You don’t have to ask two lovers what they do to be in love with each other; they just bask in the mutual love their relationship inspires.

Once we have established a personal relationship with God, then no matter what comes into our life, we accept it as a loving gift from the Beloved. If suffering comes, we accept it as a great teaching from the Father-Mother. If pleasure comes, we accept it as well, but we don’t cling to it. We are confident that no transient pleasure can rival the love of the Divine. We become contented with whatever comes into our life.

A bhakta (devotee) serves spontaneously from a heart overflowing with love. Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint Theresa of the Little Flower are two examples of western bhaktas. Anandamayi Ma and Mata Amritanandamayi (Amacchi) are examples of modern Indian bhaktas.

Bhaktas gravitate toward prayerful meditation or daily conversations with God as one's most intimate friend and companion. Since the Moon represents the mother principle, bhaktas tend to worship the Divine Mother more than the Divine Father.

Like Karma yogis, Bhaktas use ritual worship as an expression of their love, but their approach is less technical and more from the heart. Bhaktas become absorbed in simple recitation of the names of God. With extended conscious practice, that repetition becomes subconscious and instinctual. Their favorite prayers may become so automatic that they wake up in the morning feeling they have prayed all night, and go to bed at night feeling they have prayed all day. Their prayers and their actions are never selfish. They surrender all selfishness and delight in the joy of the beloved.

Bhaktas love devotional song and dance, and are often less restrained than their friends from other paths. The ecstatic displays of devotion by St. John of the Cross, Ramakrishna, and countless other bhaktas have sometimes been a source of embarrassment to their more discrete and restrained friends.

Faith plays a larger role in the path of the heart than any of the other paths. Faith and love are natural for the Moon. "Love knows no reason," and the Moon is not afraid to love with abandon. She has no fear of love and needs no rationalization for caring and sharing. Feelings are primary, reasons and techniques, secondary. She may say, God is Love. Why debate the obvious? Why hide the truth of God's love behind a veneer of words? What you feel is real."

The Moon rules the oceans and the oceanic consciousness, where the collective unconsciousness of humanity meets the collective consciousness of divinity. This is the simplest path because there is no prescription except to flow with the simplest, deepest, purest feeling of love.

The Mother is always compassionate and receptive, but in that compassion she may discipline. Watch a mother tigress alternate tender affection with a stiff slap to her cubs. Although devotion is a simple path, it is not always easy. It requires total surrender!

The Bhakti path uses feeling to transcend feeling. The purest form of devotion transcends devotion. Feeling implies duality, a separation of lover and beloved. Devotion implies a subject and object of devotion. The devotee's intense pangs of separation must be seen as a transitional phase. Her goal is to merge with the beloved, not perpetuating the agony of separation. This merger is at the deepest level of feeling, where differences dissolve in the unity of infinite love.

Dangers on this path are contrived emotionality and denial of common sense. As with all paths, one who is naturally suited for the path will be much more intuitively attuned to right practice than someone who artificially attempts to follow another's path.

How to enkindle this personal relationship with the Divine? Reading the autobiographies of great Bhakti saints, like Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint Theresa of the Little Flower, is one way. Storytelling is a personal way to enkindle the heart.

Studying the applied discipline known as myth and archetype is a more modern, Western way of practicing Bhakti, without all the guru-trappings. It will be much more appealing to some Bhaktas than the old ways.

Love seeks unity and oneness above all, and Vedanta is the system of thinking that emphasizes this reality. Bhaktas tend to be drawn to it. However, they tend to accept it on faith rather than playing with it intellectually.

Bhaktas are sometimes drawn to the Christian faith because of the strong heart quality personified by Christ and the Blessed Mother. Some aspects of Islam, such as the frequent bowing and total surrender, attract Bhaktas.

Enlightened humans have both sides of their nature, masculine and feminine, developed equally. Thus, male saints and teachers can also be suitable objects of devotion.

Bhakti Yoga entails personal service.

Even a spouse, a mother, or a child can be the object of devotion, although there may be drawbacks to such a practice.

Let the heart whisper what is the proper practice of Bhakti, without getting too caught in forms.

With most people the path of the Heart is also combined with greater intellectual activity, and takes the form of focus on the fundamental archetypes of creation and their expression.

The Bhakta finds his/her ultimate fulfillment in surrendering everything to God/Goddess.

Additional Resources:
Bhakti Yoga by Swami Vivekananda gives useful advice to the Bhakta.

So does Swami Sivananda’s book on Bhakti Yoga, part of his 23-volume set on the science of Yoga