Everyone is a natural Bhaktahi devotee. The difference only lies in the fact as to what we are devoted to. Most people are devoted to earning and accumulating money, in becoming famous and powerful, in pursuits that satisfy their ego and senses and so on. While they are devotees of the world, the genuine, real Bhakta is a devotee of the Unchanging Reality, Eternal Beloved called God and wants to pour all his love towards Him and Him alone. Such is the ideal of Bhakti.This book explores the rich Bhakti-traditions and describes various aspects of it.
In the noble pursuit of claiming our true identity, Sri Radha, goddess of divine love, provides a framework for personal evolution and a methodology to have a first-hand experience of your true self.
We long for boundless love as we long for home. But how can we find our home our meaning and purpose if we don't know our self? Wise-Love is an exploration of the self, or consciousness, guided through the meditative eyes of saints, sages, seers, and mystics. We discover that the self's most charming characteristic -- part of its unchanging nature is that it is a lover, a lover only when ordinary love evolves into wise-love. Pranada, a devoted pilgrim and teacher, illuminates bhakti's wisdom school of heartfulness and shows why mindfulness can never satisfy the self. Joy comes from an awakened heart not a stilled mind.The first part of Wise-Love explores the nature of self/consciousness and how we interface in the world with our physical and subtle body (mind, intelligence, and ego). Understanding the distinctions between our real and false selves, we can answer the questions Who am I? What is my purpose? How can I be happy? The second half examines the nature of matter, the world of consciousness, karma, faith, mysticism, the efficacy of sacred sound, the maha-mantra, kirtan, humility, depth compassion, and how to culture wise-love. Each chapter unfolds with an understanding of matter and consciousness to present a key that unlocks our eternal nature so that we can experience the unbounded joy of the self in our daily lives.When we encounter the self, we're automatically introduced to our Divine Inner Suitor and our loving relationship. Filled with insight and fresh perspectives, Wise-Love offers a map for the journey to our home of eternal affection, where a porch light is always lovingly lit, and a warm embrace from our Divine Other awaits.Secretly nestled in the Upanishads and extolled in the Bhagavad Gita, bhakti yoga shines as the crown jewel on the head of India's timeless wisdom about consciousness and how to live one's meditation. Often over-simplified as devotion, bhakti is the method of experiencing the self and its Essence/Source. This concise, comprehensive handbook exploring the meaning of bhakti's sophisticated philosophy promises to enrich you wherever you are on the spiritual path.
Bhakti yoga is the path of devotion that can lead every sincere seeker to self-realization. This book explains the devotional evolution that starts from an experience of a personal God and culminates in the unity of the lover and the loved. With astounding insight, Prabhuji describes a process that divinizes the earthly, spiritualizes the material, and transforms worldly attachments into transcendental love. This yogic path reveals that love is the perfume that emanates from our own presence, here and now. When we experience this love, we discover that it is not an emotion or a feeling but what is real within us. Bhakti is the purest and most elevated love arising from the depths of consciousness and the silence of meditation. David, Ben Yosef, Har-Zion, who writes under the pen name Prabhuji, is a writer, painter, and avadhūta mystic. When he was eight years old, he had a mystical experience that sparked his search for the Truth. Since then, he has devoted his life to deepening the early transformative experience that marked the beginning of his process of involution. For more than fifty years, he has been exploring and practicing various religions and spiritual paths. For Prabhuji, awakening at the level of consciousness, or the transcendence of the egoic phenomenon, is the next step in humanity's evolution. Prabhuji has chosen to retire from society and lead the life of a hermit. He spends his days in solitude, praying, studying, writing, painting, and meditating in silence and contemplation.
For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or “paths for coming to union with God.” In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita’s principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life. While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.
Tucked away in ancient Sanskrit and Bengali texts is a secret teaching, a blissful devotional (bhakti) tradition that involves sacred congregational chanting (kīrtana), mindfulness practices (japa, smaraṇam), and the deepening of one’s relationship with God (rasa). Brought to the world’s stage by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu (1486–1533), and fully documented by his immediate followers, the Six Goswāmīs of Vrindāvan, these unprecedented teachings were passed down from master to student in Gauḍīya Vaishnava lineages. The Golden Avatāra of Love: Śrī Chaitanya’s Life and Teachings, by contemporary scholar Steven J. Rosen, makes the profound truths of this confidential knowledge easily accessible for an English language audience. In his well-researched text, modern readers—spiritual practitioners, scholars, and seekers of knowledge alike—will encounter a treasure of hitherto unrevealed spiritual teachings, and be able to fathom sublime dimensions of Śrī Chaitanya’s method. Using the ancient texts themselves and the findings of contemporary academics, Rosen succeeds in summarizing and establishing Śrī Chaitanya’s life and doctrine for the modern world.
The mysteries of the soul have evaded mystics, sages, and gurus for centuries. Humanity has long yearned to discover the answer to our existence, and many spiritual traditions have evolved to provide those answers through sacred texts that facilitate journeys of transformation and discovery. Yet, never before have all of the spiritual traditions been distilled so simply into one easy-to-follow path - a path of love and devotion. In this long-awaited follow-up to The Journey Home, The Journey Within guides readers through the essential teachings of bhakti yoga. World-renowned spiritual leader Radhanath Swami draws from his personal experiences to demystify the ancient devotional path of bhakti, capturing its essence and explaining its simple principles for balancing our lives.His down-to-earth writing simplifies spiritual concepts and answers timeless questions in a heartfelt narrative that brings this sacred philosophy beautifully to life. What is love? What is the soul? Who is God? How can we live in the physical world without losing touch with the spiritual? In concise and approachable language, Radhanath Swami sheds light on how to answer these vital questions and offers solutions to life's challenges with the simplest of resources. Reach beyond the material world and journey within to discover the beauty of the true self.
