Bhakti Yoga (Devotion) by Swami Vivekananda

There really is not as much difference between Knowledge (Jnana) and love (Bhakti) as people sometimes imagine. In the end they converge and meet at the same point. The same thing happens with Raja Yoga, when it is pursued as a means to achieve liberation (Realization of the Bhagavad Gita).

The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest and most natural way of attaining the great divine end in view; Its great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it often degenerates into a frightful fanaticism. This danger exists only in that stage of Bhakti which is called preparatory (Gauni).

When Bhakti has matured and passed into that form which is called the supreme (Para Bhakti), there is no longer any fear of these horrible manifestations of fanaticism; that soul which is dominated by this higher form of Bhakti is too close to the God of Love to become an instrument for the spread of hatred.

Jnana (Knowledge) is one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other and Yoga is the tail that maintains the balance of the bird

 Jnanis hold that Bhakti is an instrument of liberation, Bhaktas consider it both the instrument and the thing to be attained.

Bhakti is a series or succession of mental efforts in religious realization beginning with ordinary worship and ending in a supreme intensity of love for Ishvara.

It must always be understood that the Personal God worshiped by the Bhakta is not separate or different from Brahman. Everything is Brahman.

These three letters (AUM), pronounced in combination as Om, may well be the generalized symbol for all possible sounds. The letter A is the least differentiated of all sounds, which is why Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita “I am A among the letters.”

“Sri Krishna: Of the letters, the letter A; of the compounds, I am the Dvandva; I am the imperishable time; I am the Creator who is present everywhere” Bhagavad Gita 10.33.

The man whose heart never entertains even the thought of harming anyone, who rejoices in the prosperity of even his greatest enemy, that human being is the Bhakta, that is the Yogi, that is the Guru of all.

We find that in many different religions, holy figures have been worshiped. They worship Krishna, they worship Buddha, they worship Jesus, and so on. Then, there is the worship of the Saints; Hundreds of them have been worshiped around the world, and why not? The vibration of light is everywhere.

Temples or churches, books or forms, are simply the kindergarten of religion, to make the Spiritual child strong enough to take higher steps; and these first steps are necessary if you want religion.

With thirst, longing for God, comes true devotion, true Bhakti. Who has the desire? That is the question, neither in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation; It is being and becoming, it is realization. We hear so many people talk about God and the soul, and all the mysteries of the universe, but if you take them one by one and ask them: “Have you realized God?” Have you seen your Soul? How many can answer affirmatively? And yet they are all fighting each other!

However, all these forms and symbols are simply the beginning, not the true love of God.

As long as man thinks of God as a Being sitting on the clouds, with rewards in one hand and punishments in the other, there can be no love.

Under the impetus of that love, Christ gives his life for humanity, Buddha even for an animal, the mother for the child, the husband for the wife.

Thus we arrive at what is called Bhakti, supreme devotion, in which forms and symbols fade away. He who has achieved that cannot belong to any sect, because all sects are in him.

The rest of this summary on “Introduction to Bhakti by Vivekananda” is available exclusively to students of the Bhagavad Gita Institute

Spirituality, religion and the Bhagavad Gita

Introduction to Bhakti (Devotion) by Swami Vivekananda (Philosophy of Yoga)

Introduction to Bhakti by Swami Vivekananda

Bhakti Yoga (Gita, Vivekananda)

1. Parabrahman
2. Royal Knowledge
3. Divine Glories
4. Universal Form