How did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too frightened - Hafiz 

FAQs

When, Where, Cost?

“To return to love, to get the love we always wanted but never had, to have the love we want but are not prepared to give, we seek romantic relationships. We believe these relationships, more than any other, will rescue and redeem us. True love does have the power to redeem but only if we are ready for redemption. Love saves us only if we want to be saved.” bell hooks

What is Bhakti?

Bhakti is love.

Students of yoga are often introduced to the idea that yoga has different paths (marga) for different students; some crave the intellection of jñana yoga, others follow the karma marga of action in the world, and still others will follow the ‘royal’ path of rāja yoga. Bhakti is the path of love and devotion. The full word is defined as “attachment, devotion to, fondness for, homage, faith or love, worship, piety to something as spiritual, religious principle, or means of salvation”.

This four fold declension comes mostly from the BG, which also says these are not actually different things. Orientalist literature describes bhakti as mysticism or primitive religious devotion, ecstasy, emotional intoxication or being ‘drunk with the divine’.

I think this understanding of ‘devotion’ is misleading. It is an incomplete translation of bhakti.

The word bhakti may come from two different roots: bhaj- means ‘to worship, have recourse to, to betake oneself to” and has an etymology of parts, distribution, or ‘sharing’. This conveys the sense of “sharing” inherent in the love of God. Not only does the devotee love God, but God, they say, loves the devotee.

But bhakti may come from the word ‘bhañj- which means “to break”.

Personally and based on my training, I think both of these roots are true: bhakti is the complicated way in which we are both connected to and separate from the divine.

Many contemporary scholars have questioned the simplistic terminology of “worship” and “devotion”. Instead, they trace the term bhakti as one of the several spiritual perspectives that emerged from reflections on the Vedic context. Bhakti in Indian religions is not a ritualistic devotion to a God, but participation in a path that includes behavior, ethics, mores and spirituality. It involves, among other things, refining one's state of mind, knowing God, participating in God, and internalizing God. Increasingly, instead of "devotion", the term "participation" is appearing in scholarly literature. This is fascinating: what does it mean to ‘participate’ in the divine?

Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms,
nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals;
not in masses, nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.

When you really look for me, you will see me instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.

Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

~ Kabir

Of course, it’s also important to know that there was a bhakti social and artistic movement in the early mideaval era. It rankled against religion and social hierarchy. It touched off the poetic hearts of Mirabai, Hafiz, and Rumi. It had Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, and Christian expressions.

Today, Bhakti is often used to describe activities such as kirtan, bhajan, and ecstatic dance. It is also used as an apologia for ‘good intentions’ or ‘hopes and prayers’, or the argument that all one needs to do are religious rites and prayers.

This is the question of heart. On the one hand, bhakti offers us an emotional, personal, fleshy and egalitarian route to the divine in which food, sensuality, righteous anger, grief, anxiety, motherly love, childlike vulnerability, profound friendship, and even sexuality are rendered sacred. On the other hand, humans aren’t terribly good at any of these things. Every single one of them has been contorted to abuse, cult, addiction, and violence.

What do we do with our feelings, in other words? Is Bhakti raw fear, desire, the flood of hormones or the desert of longing? It’s important that we talk about these things. Bhakti is analogous to but decidedly different from Kama (desire, passion. In short, the biophysical emotional ‘feeling’). Kama connotes emotional connection, sometimes sensual devotion (as a parent, etc), or erotic love. Bhakti, in contrast, is spiritual. Bhakti is a love and devotion to religious concepts and principles, even though it eludes religiosity per se. It is not devoted to ‘God’ but that which the word God points to. Bhakti engages both emotion and intellection. It is dependent on action. Karen Pechelis says the word Bhakti should not be understood as uncritical emotion, but as committed engagement.

That is, participation. Relationship.

Wanna talk all this out and be in a weekend of practice together? We’ll read lots of poetry, consider what love in a world of division looks like, and explore ‘participation’ in the divine.

Some things that will come up:

  • the complexity of self love and self disgust

  • spiritual doubt and disillusion, concern about dogma

  • the body as source of revelation and source of suffering

  • the mind as messy - overthinking, intellectualization, and limiting beliefs (ha!)

  • theory and practice