Bhakti yoga

The bhakti yoga is a term Hindou which characterizes a spiritual practice of devotion to god. There exist 9 forms of bhakti yoga.

Presentation

The bhakti Yoga is art to love God. God has million names in the whole world such as Jéhovah, Allah, Krishna, Manitou. The practitioners wish to come into contact with this supreme being, through the prayers, while living according to certain sometimes strict rules.

For them, the material universe is only one immense prison, where the rebellious alive entities are thrown to undergo a certain time, a reform of character. They think that as one was rebellious towards God, to have wanted to be independent of him, it has creates these universes so that one plays being God. But it is a difficult task and the conquest of territories makes run blood and tears, whereas God, in factory of the thousands only while thinking of it!

There exist many practices of devotion: the celebration of ritual (puja), songs of devotion (kirtan), to recite the names of God (japa), to meditate on the form of Divine (upasana) either to take various attitudes or frames of mind of devotion divine. These practices are very diverse but are generally approached spontaneously. Bhakti Yoga has a certain freedom or capacity of inspiration and is not as structured as other yogas. However, to progress, the purity, the blessing and the sacrifice with the Divine Beloved are necessary. (quotation of David Frawley)

While thinking of him with love and devotion, by asking for forgiveness to him of have wanted to imitate it, by loving the other brothers and sisters and the animals, the practitioners think of progressing gradually towards him. The basic text of this yoga are the Bhakti-sutras allotted to Narada.

The Bhakti-Yoga

See also: Amorce=Voir the detailed article, Indian Philosophy

Worship and the worship affectionate dévotionnel of a personal god - the bhakti - fact part of the majority of the religious traditions. In the hindouism, also, one finds it there since the beginning.

In southernmost India, Towards -300, there were two parallel movements dévotionnels, the first centered on Vishnou and the second on Shiva. It is the movement of Vishnu which will be spread in north, where it is divided itself into two camps, one adoring Vishnu in the form of its misadventure Ramâ, the other in the form of Krishna.

Among the first schools to recommend it, one finds that of Transfered-Shaiva, at the 13th century. Its founder, Basava (1125 - 1167), rejects the system of the Caste S, denies the supremacy of the Brahmans, condemns the ritual sacrifices, accepts the women in his school and insists on the bhakti and the worship of only one god, Shiva. Its pupils are called transfered-shaivas , which wants to say “the excessively pious people of Shiva”.

The school Shaiva Siddhanta is a form of Shivaïsme - or worship of Shiva - which one finds in the India of the South and which was founded around 1300. According to this school, Shiva is God, and its infinite love is revealed in the divine acts of creation, the conservation and the destruction of the universe, and in the release of the heart.

During the time between 1400 and 1650, a great movement for the bhakti extends in the India from North. The lesson of this movement is that people can get rid of the heavy burdens of the ritual and the caste and subtle complexities of philosophy for simply expressing their immense love for God. This period is also characterized by a profusion of dévotionnelle literature in the vernacular languages of the various Indian states or provinces.

The chief of the movement of the bhakti concentrating on Ramâ is Ramânânda. Very few things are known about it, but it is supposed to have thrived during first half of the 15th century. He teaches that Ramâ is the supreme lord, and that safety can be only reached by love and devotion for him, and by the repetition of its crowned name. The Ashram Ramânânda with Vârânasî then becomes an influential religious center, from which its ideas will penetrate all the classes of the Indian company. One of the reasons of its great popularity is its abandonment of the Sanskrit to the profit of the vernacular languages for the composition of its anthems. This prepared the ground for the modern tendency, in India of North, to use the local languages to write the literary texts.

The excessively pious people of Krishna adore it is like a relative, a son, a child, a friend. Its first wife and queen Rukminî (Ruksmani) at her sides or like the teenager accompanied by his love of childhood and eternal partner Râdhâ, considered both as incarnations partial of Lakshmi model of devotion. These two principal systems of worship of Krishna developed, each one with its own philosophical system inspired of Chantayan.

Vallabhâchârya (1479 - 1531) calls its system of thought Shuddhâdvaita (pure monism). According to him, it is only by the grace of god that one can obtain the release and reach the paradise of Krishna. This paradise is well above the “skies” of Brahma, Vishnou and Shiva, because Krishna is itself the brahman eternal.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1485 - 1533) calls its system of philosophy Achintya Bheda-aBheda (inconceivable monism dualism). It tries to combine elements of the monism and dualism in a simple system. The philosophy of Chaitanya is one of the principal elements of the contemporary system of belief named international company for the conscience of Krishna , more known according to the Mantra of Chaitanya like the movement of Hare Krishna .

However, beyond the formal schools and movements, the development of the bhakti as forms important of practice hindouist left an indelible trace on the faith. The philosophical speculation was always the concern of a minority, in India like elsewhere. The practice of the bhakti, however, is immediately accessible to all. If it does not eliminate the worst share from the system of the castes, at least it offers to people a provisional respite.

Random links: