Bhakti-Yoga
Bhakti-Yoga

Author: Swami Vivekananda

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand

Published: 2023-10-01

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13: 9359393401

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Bhakti-Yoga is a real, honest search for the Lord that begins, continues, and ends with love. We are free forever because of one crazy moment of crazy love for God. This love can't be reduced to anything on earth, because this love won't come as long as people want things on earth. Bhakti is better than both karma and yoga because karma and yoga are supposed to get you somewhere, but Bhakti is its own goal, its own means, and its own end. Swami Vivekananda talked about Bhakti-Yoga like a spiritual poet, describing it as a symphony of the soul and a dance of devotion in which the seeker gives in to their overwhelming love for the Divine. He stressed that this path was not limited to any one religion. Instead, it was a universal language of the heart that gave people a direct link to the divine part of themselves and the world around them.

Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti Yoga

Author: Edwin F. Bryant

Publisher: North Point Press

Published: 2017-07-11

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 0374714398

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From the author of what has become the standard edition of The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, an exploration of probably the most significant tradition in Hinduism, along with a rendering of key texts and parables from that tradition Bhakti Yoga explores one of the eight “limbs” of yoga. In the simplest terms, bhakti yoga is the practice of devotion, which is the essential heart of yoga and of Hinduism in general. In recent times, the term has come to be used in a rather simplistic way to refer to the increasingly popular practice of kirtan, or chanting in a group or at large gatherings. But bhakti yoga is far more complex and ancient than today’s growing kirtan audiences are aware, and embraces many strands and practices. Edwin F. Bryant focuses on one famous and important school of bhakti and explores it in depth to show what bhakti is and how it is expressed. And he supplies his own renderings of central texts from that tradition in the form of “tales and teachings” from an important work called the Bhagavata Purana, or “The Beautiful Legend of God.” This clarifying work establishes a baseline for understanding, and will be welcomed by all serious students of the spiritual heritage of India.

Living a Bhakti Life
Living a Bhakti Life

Author: A. R. Pashayan

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781475970357

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In Living a Bhakti Life, author A. R. Pashayan recounts experiencing a “spiritual download” in 2004 during meditation that literally changed her life. She was tormented with repetitive dreams of death, night after night, brought on in part by a death in the family, stress from work, and no alone time. She, along with a friend, tried analyzing the dreams. Nothing was clear until she took a month-long break in a place that looked like Heaven—Telluride, Colorado, where she finally left her old self behind. Her dreams made sense now. Her spiritual download paved the way for a new level of understanding life, illness, stress, and practical spirituality. She started practicing Bhakti yoga and meditation, and she finally found calm. Bhakti yoga is defined as a spiritual path described in Hindu philosophy used for fostering love, utter faith, and surrender to God. There is only one path to God: the path to grace, or Bhakti. Through yoga and quiet contemplation on top of the mountain, she soon discovered that it was possible to literally “be” unconditional love. In Living a Bhakti Life, Pashayan opens a pathway to enlightenment and God’s love through Bhakti yoga through divine power and divine love.

Bhakti and Karma Yoga - The Science of Devotion and Liberation Through Action (eBook)
Bhakti and Karma Yoga - The Science of Devotion and Liberation Through Action (eBook)

Author: Yogani

Publisher: AYP Publishing

Published: 2008-05-20

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0980052262

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Bhakti and Karma Yoga - The Science of Devotion and Liberation Through Action covers the systematic application of the essential principles of desire and devotion to aid us in achieving our goals and spiritual aspirations. Through inspired action we can transform our life experience to one of ecstatic bliss and outpouring divine love. In combination with an effective daily routine of yoga practices, the applied principles of bhakti and karma yoga elevate the relationship of our desires and actions to divine expression, greatly hastening our progress toward enlightenment. Yogani is the author of two landmark books on the world's most effective spiritual practices: Advanced Yoga Practices - Easy Lessons for Ecstatic Living, a comprehensive user-friendly textbook, and The Secrets of Wilder, a powerful spiritual novel. The AYP Enlightenment Series makes these profound practices available for the first time in a series of concise instruction books. Bhakti and Karma Yoga is the eighth book in the series, preceded by Self-Inquiry, Diet, Shatkarmas and Amaroli, Samyama, Asanas, Mudras and Bandhas, Tantra, Spinal Breathing Pranayama, and Deep Meditation.

A Genealogy of Devotion
A Genealogy of Devotion

Author: Patton E. Burchett

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2019-05-28

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 0231548834

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In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.

Bhakti Flow Yoga
Bhakti Flow Yoga

Author: Rusty Wells

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1611802393

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A guide to Bhakti Flow Yoga, a style of yoga that emphasizes a seamless connection between the breath and the movements of the body--by a popular San Francisco-based yogi. This is a comprehensive guide to the history and practice of Bhakti Flow Yoga, a synthesis of Bhakti yoga (the yoga of devotion) and Vinyasa Flow. This book describes • the foundations of Bhakti Flow Yoga, with an historical overview and an explanation of the basics of practice • the energetic side of this practice, including subtle body, meditation, sound (Nada Yoga), prana, pranayama, koshas (sheaths of the subtle body), chakras, nadis (energy pathways), and bandhas (energy locks), and more • the Bhakti Flow Yoga lifestyle: An overview of Ayurveda, including the doshas (constitution), nutrition, taste, and digestion, along with recommended Ayurvedic diet guidelines for general health. The section on vegetarianism offers practical advice on making the diet work for you. • the practice of Bhakti Flow Yoga: The section is divided into pose families, which include Basics, Standing Poses, Standing Balance Poses, Core, Arm Balances and Inversions, Backbends, Seated Poses and Twists, and Restorative Poses. The author unpacks each of the yoga poses, with details on both physical and spiritual considerations of each pose. There are also discussions on drishti (point of focus), how to start a home practice, and practical tips for pregnant students or those with high blood pressure. Rusty Wells includes two sample sequences, along with recommendations on sequencing in general. The Beginner's Sequence is gentle, complete, and accessible for all body types. The Surya Flow 1 Sequence is an example of a strong one-hour vinyasa practice that can easily be a launching pad for more creativity. Wells also provides valuable insights on teaching yoga.

The Bhakti-Yoga Handbook
The Bhakti-Yoga Handbook

Author: Stephen Knapp

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2013-05-29

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9781490302287

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The Bhakti-yoga Handbook A Guide for Beginning the Essentials of Devotional Yoga This book is a guide for anyone who wants to begin the practice of bhakti-yoga in a practical and effective way. This supplies the information, the principles, the regular activities or sadhana, and how to have the right attitude in applying ourselves to attain success on the path of bhakti-yoga, which is uniting with God through love and devotion. This outlines a general schedule for our daily spiritual activities and a typical morning program as found in most Krishna temples that are centered around devotional yoga. In this way, you will find the explanations on how to begin our day and set our mind, what meditations to do, which spiritual texts are best to study, and how we can make most everything we do as part of bhakti-yoga. All of these can be adjusted in a way that can be practiced and applied by anyone by anyone regardless of whether you are in a temple ashrama or in your own home or apartment. Such topics include: The secret of bhakti-yoga and its potency in this day and age, The essential morning practice, the best time for meditation, The standard songs and mantras that we can use, as applied in most Krishna temples, Understanding the basics of the Vedic spiritual philosophy, such as karma, reincarnation, the Vedic description of the soul, etc., How Vedic culture is still as relevant today as ever, Who is Sri Krishna, How to chant the Hare Krishna mantra, Standards for temple etiquette, The nine processes of bhakti-yoga, a variety of activities from which anyone can utilize, How to make our career a part of the yoga process, How to turn our cooking into bhakti-yoga, How to set up a home altar or temple room, depending on what standard you wish to establish, How to take care of deities in our home, if we have Them, How to perform the basic ceremonies like arati, How to take care of the Tulasi plant if you have one, And the spiritual results you can expect to attain through this yoga. All of the basics and effective applications to get started and continue with your practice of bhakti-yoga is supplied so you can progress in a steady way, from beginner to advanced.

Para Bhakti or Supreme Devotion
Para Bhakti or Supreme Devotion

Author: SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Publisher: Prabhat Prakashan

Published: 2021-01-01

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13:

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Vivekananda was a man with a great spiritual presence and tremendous intellect who was a tireless teacher and writer. He wrote poems and hymns in Bengali, English and Sanskrit, some of which are sung daily in Vedanta centre's worldwide. He was ahead of his time in encouraging women and Westerners to not only practice Vedanta, but to be leaders. Two examples are Sara Ellen Waldo who recorded and collected Swami's talks at Thousand Island Park and Margaret Noble, later known as Sister Nvidia, who devoted her life not only to Vedanta but also to the education of Indian girls.Supreme Devotion, in which forms and symbols fall off. One who has reached that cannot belong to any sect, for all sects are in him. To what shall he belong? For all churches and temples are in him. Where is the church big enough for him? Such a man cannot bind himself down to certain limited forms. Where is the limit for unlimited love, with which he has become one? In all religions which take up this ideal of love, we find the struggle to express it. Although we understand what this love means and see that everything in this world of affections and attractions is a manifestation of that Infinite Love, the expression of which has been attempted by sages and saints of different nations, yet we find them using all the powers of language, transfiguring even the most carnal expression into the divine.

The Complete Book of Yoga
The Complete Book of Yoga

Author: Swami Vivekananda

Publisher:

Published: 2023-02-16

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789354623820

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The four types of yoga are covered in length in the current book, along with its philosophy, psychology, and practise techniques. It provides a comparison of the four yogas, outlining their similarities and distinctions. By destroying the ego, karma yoga, also known as the yoga of selfless action, aims to address the issue of ignorance. We are tethered to this world by attachment because of the ego, which was born out of ignorance. The practise of bhakti yoga involves inward purification. Bhakti-central yoga's thesis is that love is the most fundamental human emotion. Love is cosmocentric and divinely inspired in its most pure form. Raja-yoga ignites the flame of awareness of the self within in order to reach the Divine.

The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion
The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion

Author: Prem Prakash

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1998-03-01

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1620550733

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• The first translation of this great but little-known path of spiritual devotion written for the modern Western audience. • An insightful commentary aimed at making the path of love immediately accessible to Westerners. • A life-affirming and relationship-positive path of yoga. • Written in the spirit of the kirtans (ecstatic songs and dances) of Narada, sensitively translated by Prem Prakash. Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion, is considered one of the primary paths for spiritual realization in yogic tradition. Its representative, Narada, is the embodiment of the enlightened sage who travels the universe spreading his sacred teachings. Unlike Jnana Yoga, the Yoga of Wisdom, the bhakti acolyte does not discriminate against material phenomena--for him, all phenomena are aspects of God. Within the context of Ananda, blissful love, the temporal is realized as the reflection of the eternal, and the soul is realized as the expression of God.