The Essence of Yoga

There are many ways we express our emotional nature and particularly our devotional capacity to give our deeper feelings – whether to another person, to our work, to a cause for others or through an artform.

One avenue that is personally satisfying and also can give pleasure to onlookers, is the art of sacred dance that has had a long tradition through human civilization and has been associated with the sacred spiritual rites and culture within the protection of the temple structure of the priesthood.

The customs are seldom retained or witnessed in our modern lifestyle. Certainly the sacred dance has been returned to its place in the Indian temples and lifted out of association with mere sensuous entertainment. Here the religious stories and legends find an attractive outlet as dance and drama are conjoined.

Dance is not a traditional Christian expression of spiritual feelings. Many people in western countries and cultures are therefore deprived of an outlet for refined emotions. Many take the only avenue available for movement and dance and this is through popular loud and primitive harsh strident sounds and savage energies focused upon heavy rhythms that drug the mind and senses.

The devotional rather than fundamental emotional influence are however evident in the classical ballet that generally is interpreting classical harmonies and beautiful music. This is a very different world and our wonderful dancers have developed techniques and thrilled us with new awareness of the body as an instrument of expression.

However, all art must be associated with higher inspiration and a spiritual source in order to express beauty truth, love and wonderment of life that must surely be the supreme goal.  

As the happiness of the soul can find release through beautiful music and song, or pure visual beauty finds expression on canvas, so we can develop a language all of our own, and move to harmonious music, release our inner beauty and harmony, strengthening our goodness and love for life.  This is sometimes the ideal choice for those who identify with the heart and mind of a Bhakti.

The Bhakti approaches spirituality along what is sometimes seen as the simplest path but which, in effect, is one of the most difficult. It requires selfless love and a devotional attitude that is sufficient to overcome all life’s obstacles – the path that Jesus and other great teachers have indicated as ‘the Way.’

The Bhakti loves. He practises expanding that emotion from the limited and personal feelings of the heart, to the limitless expanses of universal love for all things. To such a person Love and God are synonymous. Not only does love become the most intense emotion, but love and loving kindness dictate his day- to- day activities, his moods, his goals, and provides the source of his inspiration.

To develop greater love capacity is one thing, but to have the dedication, the wisdom and the appropriate expression of that love, is more difficult. All human experiences of the heart and all human emotions present us with many emotional dilemmas, many of which indicate the difference, and sometimes the chasm, between the ideal and the material worlds.

There are many types of human love, such as the love that will cause valiant deeds or displays courage in protecting another –the love that ensures a patient and reliable friendship – the love that is intellectually exciting in a meeting of minds – love that is sympathetic and healing, forgiving – love that is commanding and demanding – love that is based on sharing – love that is passionate, intense – love that focuses on the good of society – love that is quiet and devotional.

However, the love of the Bhakti is above and beyond any expectation of a human recipient – it is an emotion which embraces admiration, expectation, and spiritual devotion often first directed to the Master or Guru but which intensifies as a religious fervour and love for God.

We all seek to absorb and identify with the object of our love and to feel at one with the beloved. To the Bhakti, God is the ultimate Beloved. Expressions of love, whether in song, dance or written prose although seeming to refer to human, romantic love, are addressed to God. Love is seen as the magical key to spiritual life. To discover that God resides in the Heart is to reach the “Mecca” of the devotee – just as to realise God in the Mind is the diamond treasure of the Raja Yogi.

The spiritual devotee possesses a rare fullness of heart and spiritual passion directed towards God likened to the romance of the soul seeking union or marriage with the Creator. In Christian terms it is known as the ‘Mystic Marriage’.

We may not all understand the potential satisfaction of human emotions of love being fulfilled in the manner of the spiritual devotee, but we can all agree upon the very real need for our emotions to be cultivated and exercised in such a way that loving kindness dominates the lesser feelings of which we are capable.

Love is the cohesive and most central element in life. It is the most important factor in human life as it is in the invisible realms of the great Universe. Love is represented as the special love feeling born in the human heart. It is known as the law of attraction and of unification and can be observed in the order and design that patterns the Universe.

To the yogi, love is the ethereal but powerful fifth element. To the Bhakti yogi it motivates everything in his life as he attempts to express it in everything that is undertaken. It is exemplified in the love and devotion that permeates his lifestyle.

The Bhakti practises lovingness. His affection begins with appreciation of the agencies of nature that allow his body to function healthily and freely. It is expressed in his feeling of fondness in greeting companions, family and all his contacts with people, animals and living things. It is expressed in his early morning exercises and prayers, plans and purposes and overflows as he greets the energies in his garden or in nature outside.

He loves order and ritual as nature dictates and loves the sunrises, and the sunsets. He seeks to reflect nature’s laws through his ethics and in the simplicity and sincerity of a simple lifestyle.

He loves the ones closest to him but extends his heart further in respect and honour of the greatest human beings who have lived and who live still as he holds a special love and devotion towards his Master, his Guru.

The Bhakti loves human nature, and great human nature but it is devotion to the Creator that inspires him. He loves noble souls and spiritual leaders yet seeks to love the unattractive souls as he wishes to embrace all humanity if he aspires to grow towards the great intelligence and the great heart of the cosmos.

He loves the natural environment as representing the visible form, colour and spirit of Nature seeing it as do the poets, as “the garment of God.” He loves natural kingdoms of the earth – insects, animals, trees, plants, birds & fish as he loves the seemingly inanimate minerals, rocks and gems.

He loves the oceans and the fish and creatures of sea as he loves the mysteries of life as yet undiscovered in the deep.

He practises love as a harmony and as an embrace of his soul.

He radiates loving kindness. He feels loving and kind.

He is motivated by love.

He believes in goodness and that God is Love.

Prayer, aspiration and spiritual devotion are natural to the Bhakti.