Compilation · Psychic
Devotion/Bhakti: Compilation
Passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on devotion/bhakti, each with its source.
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On this page
- What is Bhakti?
- True Bhakti
- Bhakti in Different Parts of Being
- Bhakti and the Psychic Opening
- Symbols of Bhakti
- The Intensity of Bhakti Yoga
- Why is Bhakti Important?
- The Power of Bhakti
- Alchemy of Pain and Suffering
- Role of Bhakti in Integral Yoga
- How to Walk on the Path of Bhakti Yoga?
- Turning Emotions Godward
- Preparatory Movements
- Stages of Yoga of Devotion
- Elements of True Bhakti Yoga
- Bhakti Should Be for the Divine
- Integral Way of Bhakti Yoga
- Devotion of the Mind
- Ananda Brahman
- The Three Manifestations of Ananda Brahman
- Sources
What is Bhakti?
… absolute adoration, submission, ecstasy, love, tenderness which is the Indian idea of bhakti.
The nature of bhakti is adoration, worship, self-offering to what is greater than oneself…
Bhakti is not an experience, it is a state of the heart and soul.
Bhakti in itself is as wide as the heart-yearning of the soul for the Divine and as simple and straightforward as love and desire going straight towards their object.
It is an adoration and aspiration towards that which is greater than imperishable self or changing Nature.
…Bhaktiyoga, adoration and seeking of the supreme Self as the Divine Being, and here the insistence is on devotion…1
True Bhakti
Selflessness, self-giving, entire faith and confidence, absence of demand and desire, surrender to the Divine Will, love concentrated on the Divine—are some of the main signs [of true love and bhakti].2
In silence lies the greatest devotion.
A devotion that keeps concentrated and silent in the depths of the heart but manifests in acts of service and obedience, is more powerful, more true, more divine, than any shouting and weeping devotion.
A bhakti which claims everything from the Divine and does not give itself is not real bhakti.
There can be no such thing as a mechanical and artificial devotion— there is either devotion or there is not. Devotion may be intense or not intense, complete or incomplete, sometimes manifest and sometimes veiled, but mechanical or artificial devotion is a contradiction in terms.
Bhakti and love are not quite the same thing, but love is one of the elements of bhakti. There are different kinds of bhakti and that which is of the nature of love is the strongest and is considered the highest, most intense and ecstatic of all. Also in love itself that form of it which is made of self-giving; surrender, absolute adoration, urge towards a selfless union is the true kind of bhakti that is love.3
Bhakti in Different Parts of Being
Mental Bhakti
In the mind one may have a strong admiration or appreciation for the intellectual or spiritual greatness of the Guru,— follow him and mentally accept his dictates. But if it is merely mental, that does not carry you very far. Of course, there is no harm in having that also. But by itself it does not open the whole of the inner being; it only establishes a mental contact.4
The unillumined mind also surrenders to the Truth, but makes its own conditions. It says to the Truth, ‘Satisfy my judgment, and my opinion’; it demands the Truth to cast itself in the mind’s own forms.5
Vital Bhakti
The vital Bhakti demands and demands. It imposes its own conditions. It surrenders itself to God, but conditionally. It says to God, ‘You are so great,’ ‘I worship you,’—‘and now you must satisfy this desire of mine or that ambition’; ‘make me great; make me a great sadhaka, a great yogin’ etc.6
The vital being also insists on the Truth throwing itself into its own vital movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power and pulls and pulls at the vital being of the Guru.
Both of them (the mental and the vital) have got an arrière pensée (mental reservation) in their surrender.7
Psychic Bhakti
Psychic Bhakti is not like that. Because it is in communication with the Divinity behind, it is capable of true Bhakti. Psychic Bhakti does not make any demand, it makes no reservations. It is satisfied with its own existence. The psychic being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way. It gives itself up truly to God or the Guru, and because it can give itself up truly, therefore it can also receive truly.8
…the psychic Bhakti, the Bhakti which is calm, quiet, deep, the Bhakti which is not noisy, not making demands, the Bhakti which finds its greatest pleasure in obedience. This is the only Bhakti in which I can take delight; I accept no other.9
Bhakti and the Psychic Opening
The growth of Bhakti which you feel is the first sign of the psychic development.10
Bhakti … is a state which comes when the psychic being is awake and prominent.
… it is only the psychic that gives faith and devotion.
Devotion and a more and more complete inner consecration are the best way to open the psychic.
Bhakti and love are part of the psychic movement, a large part of it; in aspiring for the psychic change, you are aspiring for bhakti and love.
The tears probably come from the inner psychic being (behind the heart) which is touched in this state of quietness and peace. It is the sign of an aspiration and devotion in the soul which is trying to come to the surface. If the psychic being can come to the surface and a harmony be established in the nature, all of it being turned towards the Divine, this kind of expression will cease.