Bliss, love and bhakti...

Have you ever felt like your yoga practice is another thing to do? Is your practice feeling like a chore, a place to ‘get to’, a thing to ‘accomplish’? 

Let’s talk about Bhakti.

The Sanskrit noun bhakti is originally derived from the verb bhaj, broadly meaning  ‘belonging’ or ‘being loyal’. As a practice within yoga however it has come to mean “devotion” or “love” and is both a branch and stand alone practice of yoga. 

Bhakti yoga invites us to experience the state of union, of Yoga - that experience of oneness with everything - through the practice of devotion. 

What do I mean by devotion? And devotion to what exactly?

Devotion means ‘love, loyalty or enthusiasm for a person, activity or cause’. In its purest essence, Bhakti yoga is about devotion to the divine. 

Now you may be thinking this means worshiping a deity, guru or ‘God’ and Bhakti does indeed look like this for many, but worship doesn’t necessarily need to look the way we think it should. It can look like tending to that which we care about, and devoting our love and energy to it, wholeheartedly.  As the yogic scholar, author and teacher David Frawley shares in his book Yoga: The Greater Tradition,‘the ultimate expression of bhakti yoga is surrender to the Divine as one’s inner self.’ 

If we see our practice as something we have to do, we get stuck, but when we see our practice through the lens of bhakti, as a devotion to the divinity within us, our practice transforms, and as do we.  

When we are devoted to the Divine within us, then our practice doesn’t feel like something we have to do, something we should do or something we need to do. It becomes an expression of devotion, an expression of love and loyalty towards our Self. 

This perspective can translate to seemingly mundane everyday tasks too.

Cleaning the dishes or tidying the house becomes an act of respecting and caring for our belongings and seeing the divinity in our actions. Choosing clothes to wear or brushing your hair becomes a practice of appreciation for our divine beauty and expression. Chopping vegetables and preparing dinner becomes a practice of gratitude, honouring the nourishment of our bodies. Choosing our words carefully, taking the time to speak with intention becomes an act of honouring the divinity and sacredness of our word and our power. 

Living life through the lens of Bhakti nourishes and fills our cup so we can feel nourished and fulfilled in all areas of life. This devotion extends to our family, our loved ones, our dreams and ambitions. 

Remember, Yoga isn’t something that takes us away from the joys of life, asking us to renounce from worldly life, from family, from socialising and going after our dreams with all we’ve got. 

It leads us towards it.

Towards love, bliss and Bhakti.

Life is lived wholeheartedly.

So get Yoga off your to-do list, and simply devote yourself to finding joy, yoga will meet you there.