June 27, 2019
80 min
Have you ever felt an explicable sense of love and gratitude toward higher divinity? This is bhakti yoga—the yoga of love and devotion. In its purest sense, bhakti can lead us to the heights of enlightenment.
But many of us have a complicated relationship with higher divinity. We may not be sure how to relate to the divine, or our feelings may change based on what we’re experiencing in our lives. When things go wrong, we may blame God for our problems or beg God to solve our problems.
As Pandit Tigunait explains in Part 2 of Bhakti Yoga: The Path of Love, divinity is unwavering and absolute. But we relate to divinity differently based on our personalities, inclinations, and level of spiritual evolution. We may perceive God as a master and ourselves as servants who are in need of protection (dasya bhakti). Or we may see God as a loving friend and companion (sakhya bhakti). Or we may relate to God as a teacher and see ourselves as his or her student (shishya bhakti).
Drawing on examples from the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures, Panditji shows how when we walk on the path of transformation, our idea of divinity evolves. The knowledge we gain through study and practice—along with trustful surrender and grace—transforms our bhakti into the highest form, and we come to taste freedom.
