How to Practice Bhakti Yoga
by Lauren Lalita
What is Bhakti Yoga?
Bhakti Yoga is the spiritual path of love and reverence for the divine. You don’t have to be a super yogi, advanced meditator, or chanter of Sanskrit to bring these simple rituals into your life. It doesn’t even require a yoga mat or yoga poses.
Why would we do this? The more we live with reverence towards something higher than ourselves, the more love swells within us. The more time we spend in love with all of creation, the more joyful and loving we become.
Learn more about yoga as a whole and all four paths of yoga.
Bhakti yoga is one path of yoga in which we seek union with the divine through devotion. It is the yoga of the heart. It is all about what you feel. We seek the vibration, the feeling of awe and love that wells up inside us.
The bhakti yogi enters into a relationship with the beloved divine. Your beloved divine can be a diety with a specific name and form. Or your beloved divine can be a general idea of the universe as energy. The particular shape that you give to the divine is up to you.
Some people think of the divine as a mother, nurturing all of creation, like the goddess Durga, who rides on a lion. To some, a fatherly Yahweh resides up in heaven. The divine energy of creation can be a devoted lover like Shiva or an innocent babe like the Christ child. For Rumi, the Sufi mystic, the divine was the Friend.
The mystic Sri Ramakrishna said “Many are the names of God, and infinite the forms that lead us to know Him. In whatsoever name or form you desire to call Him, in that very form and name you will see Him.”
It’s hard to know the unknowable. To make it easier, we give a personality and a face to the divine, then tell myths and stories about them. Choose what inspires you. No matter the form of divinity, they are each a valid manifestation of universal consciousness.
I’ve walked down many paths, but I’m busy these days. Done regularly, woven into my daily life, I have found these simple bhakti practices to be sweet and swift, an open road to spiritual experience.
1. Establish an altar
Create and adorn a dedicated sacred space where the energy of your Beloved can reside. Perhaps add an image or form that reminds you of the divine and inspires you. Your altar is a place to meditate regularly, where you can always come to be in a relationship with a higher power.
2. Sing or say the names of the divine
Saying, chanting, or singing the names of God as devotional practice shows up all over the world - from Benedictine monks to dreadlocked rishis in the Himalayas. Repeating mantras on a mala as meditation, praying the rosary, or singing the names of God is a beautiful way to connect to our Beloved Divine.
Singing, chanting, praying, or playing an instrument, all help raise your vibration. Whether a traditional kirtan song, a church hymnal, or a folk song, choose a tune that moves something in your heart. You don’t have to sing well. Let the feelings well up. It does not matter what it sounds like, all that matters is the emotional quality, the bhavana. Get out of your thoughts and step into your feelings. My shower has received a lot of divine vibration over the years in the form of devotional shower singing!
Rather learn how in a group? Look for a local kirtan - simple call and response singing. Or join me on retreat in Bhutan or Greece to lift our voices together. Sing in the car or join a church choir. There are many ways to sing love songs to God.
3. Make offerings
Offer the best of what you have: fruits, flowers, food, incense, and candles to God, either on your altar or out in nature. Puja, a ceremony of offering to the divine, can be as simple as lighting a candle or pouring water over a stone. Make your offerings with love and intentional care, giving a treasured gift to your Beloved. If your offering is edible, you can eat the leftovers afterward and draw the raised vibration into your body as a yummy bonus.
4. Pray
Whether sitting down at your altar, before you fall asleep, or any old time of day, try out old-fashioned prayer. The world over, talking to a higher power is one of the most time-tested traditions of bhakti. Praying is one of the most straightforward ways of entering into a relationship with your Beloved.
5. Bless your food or say grace
Make a regular practice of taking a few deep breaths and sending out a prayer of thanks for the abundance before you. Eat every meal in the spirit of joy and gratitude.
6. Nature as a spiritual experience
Go into wild places and hold reverence in your heart for the beauty and splendor of creation. Focus on your feelings of awe and wonder. Let the feelings grow. Seek those landscapes and terrains that have always inspired you. For me, it is in the mountains, the high places. It could be a deep, lush forest or even the sky that lies open above you. Spend time there. Meditate there. Let it fill you up.
This is one of the most powerful parts of doing our physical yoga practice and meditation on retreats. Taking our practice to a pristine coastline or a mountain top, it is easy to connect to that higher vibration.
7. Let go
Don’t overthink your little rituals of bhakti yoga. Trust your instincts and your feelings, as this is a feeling path. Get out of your thoughts and move into the eye of your heart. Then continue on, even through the inevitable phases of doubt.
Remember, the most important relationship we are seeking is our relationship to the divine within us. The Beloved exists as much in here as out there. The goal of bhakti is to establish the kingdom of the divine within our own hearts.
The more love we give, the more we become love.
LOVE,
How to Practice Karma Yoga
by Lauren Lalita
As we have been exploring in our Four Paths of Yoga series, the ancient yogis of the Indian subcontinent taught that there were four paths, or margas, of yoga towards union.
Learn more about yoga as a whole and all four paths of yoga.
One of these four paths has risen to the forefront of our collective consciousness - Karma Yoga, or the yoga of action and selfless service. We are bearing witness to another moment of rising activism for racial justice and lokasamgraha, the peace and harmony of the world.
What is the Yoga of Action?
The word karma comes from the Sanskrit root for the word action. In karma yoga, we act to serve our fellow humans and the planet. We treat all beings as not separate from ourselves. The more we work in service of union with all creation, the more in union with that creation we become. Our activism becomes a part of our spiritual practice.
Being spiritual does not mean only focusing on positive energy and the light. Being spiritual does not mean ignoring human struggle and suffering in order to avoid “negative energy.” Only when we acknowledge the dark can we work to become the light.
Saints and sages have walked a spiritual path of action, facing human suffering and working tirelessly to alleviate it. Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, the Mahatma Gandhi, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and many of the holiest among us have been Karma Yogis. They illuminate the path of action in the world as a path of spiritual liberation.
A Path of Liberation
Karma yoga recognizes the oneness of humanity and the divinity inherent in creation. We don’t practice karma yoga because we feel sorry for people who are less fortunate. We also don’t practice karma yoga because of a promise of reward in the next life or praise in this one. Through repeated action in service, we embody the spiritual realization that no one can be truly free while another is bound.
Throughout the ages, yogis have taught us that yoga means to join together, or to unite. The process of Karma Yoga starts in separation and moves into union or Oneness.
1. We start with selfless service or seva. When we are performing selfless service, there are three separate parts: the actor, the action, the recipient. I, do this action, for you. Though I’m serving you, I am still separate from you.
2. When the fluctuations of the mind disappear, we completely de-center on ourselves and become absorbed into the action. That is when we have Karma Yoga, and there are just two parts: the action and the recipient. My mind is so serenely focused on acting in service of you, that there is no longer an I, there is only: action, for you.
3. Then, as we fully absorb our awareness into the service of others, we enter into union. The actor, the action, and the recipient, all merge into an experience of universal Oneness or samadhi.
Karma Yoga as a path to spiritual awakening moves from three, into two, then there is only one - the All. That’s the theory anyway. How on earth do we begin to put that into practice?
8 Ways to be a Karma Yogi
1. GO DEEP RATHER THAN WIDE
Choose the cause to which you will dedicate your actions. You can still vote for, speak out about, amplify, sign petitions for, and donate to many causes, but when it comes to action and organization, invest your time deeply rather than widely.
Pick one cause (perhaps two: one local and one international) where you will go deep and make an impact. Build connections in that community. Become a lifelong learner in your field of action. Build alliances and develop a nuanced and nimble understanding of how best to serve those impacted.
We know that choosing one meditation practice and sticking with it will yield more results than trying a new style of meditation every month. Choose one field of activism. Swami Satchidananda advises seekers to dig one deep well that will reach cool water rather than many shallow holes in the dirt.
2. ACT TOGETHER
Sit down with your friends or family and choose a locus of action that is meaningful to all of you. Or be deliberate about forging new relationships within your selected cause. In all spiritual pursuits, the community, or sangha helps a lot. We can support each other when things get hard, when our inspiration wanes, and when we become discouraged.
3. FOLLOW OTHERS’ LEAD
If you’re new to your cause, someone is most likely already doing that work, so throw your time, strength, and action behind them. Your impact will be greater if you put yourself in service to an existing organizational structure rather than starting from scratch. Listen, financially contribute to, and observe the experts in your field of action, without creating extra work for those people to teach you. Educate yourself and follow the guidance of reputable leaders. To avoid developing a savior complex that only serves to strengthen our ego, take your direction from those to whom you are in service.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The wide gulf between our good intentions and the actual impact of our actions is why it is vital to take direction from existing organizations run by the actual people you are trying to serve, rather than going it alone.
4. LEAN INTO YOUR STRENGTHS
Everyone has a different self-nature, or sva-bhava. Some karma yogis have been out on the street protesting since the sixties. Some people are excellent at organizing letter-writing campaigns or anti-racist book clubs. Some are taking deep dives into local politics. Some karma yogis are working quietly in food banks. If you are good at sales, consider becoming a fundraiser. Creators are knitting protest hats, painting protest art, or singing activist anthems.
Find a path of action that aligns with your own self-nature. Do what you do best, just do it for others in service of their own goals.
5. FOCUS ON OTHERS, AGAIN, AGAIN, AND AGAIN
For activism to work as a spiritual practice, we must be mindful of the tricks of the ego. The natural human ego tries to make our own experience the center of the universe. On this path, the ego and the distractions of the mind will say:
“Hey! I did a good thing, I want to tell the world!”
“Well, I meant it well, but they took it the wrong way.”
Step back and recognize that these very human responses are all about you. Refocus your actions in the service of others’ goals. De-center yourself. Rinse and repeat. This is not about you.
It is not selfless service if you require praise or recognition. It is not selfless service if you get defensive about the results. If your activism is about looking woke on social media or assuaging your guilt of privilege, it is not a spiritual practice. Just as in meditation, we must relentlessly refocus our minds past every tantalizing ego-driven thought. The yoga of action requires us to continually train our minds on the service of others.
Adopt a single-pointed focus on acting for another’s benefit, according to their own goals. It’s the nature of the mind to have I-thoughts, yet we cannot reach union with all creation until we transcend the illusion of the I-ness.
6. BE MINDFUL OF YOUR FEELINGS
The work of the Karma Yogi necessitates coming face to face with injustice and suffering. It is natural to have deep and profound feelings when bearing witness to this: despair, rage, shock, guilt, grief. Do not look away. Experiencing this is a healthy part of being human. Do not ignore, suppress, feel guilty for, or bypass those feelings. Sit with them, experience them, dig deeply into the fertile ground of human experience.
However, when you need to vent, cry, or process your healthy emotions with others, do so with people who are more removed from the crisis or injustice you are working to repair.
No one expects you to be unaffected while looking suffering in the face. Just process your emotions away from the center of the crisis circle, so as not to further burden those already suffering more than you with the emotional labor of caring for you. Then refocus on the work for others, again, and again, and again.
7. STAY THE COURSE
Things are often easy at the beginning when we don’t know how hard it will get deeper in. When things get uncomfortable is exactly when real progress is made. When we fail or get called out, we must keep going. Do not give up digging your deep well because you have encountered rocks.
We do not expect to reach enlightenment after a couple of months of meditation. So too, the work of the spiritual activist is the hard, uncomfortable work of lifetimes. Settle in for the long-haul.
8. FINALLY, LET GO
The karma yogi must relinquish any attachment to the results of her labor. The ego loves success, whereas the yogi acts for action’s own sake.
We must offer our actions in the service of others’s goals freely without being attached to any specific results or outcomes. The karma yogi acts for the good of all without becoming discouraged if she does not achieve success. It is the action that makes it yoga, not the result of the action. Yes, we work towards alleviating a pocket of suffering, but the work continues, whether we reach that goal or not. Paradoxically, only by relinquishing our need to reach any goal can we ever get there.
Detaching from the results allows us to keep acting for others no matter what, ever onward, ever deeper, in service of the All.
We are all Karma Yogis
We are all Karma Yogis. Every choice we make is an action. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells us that action is inevitable. Even choosing inaction is an action. Choosing to do nothing or stay silent is still an action. How can we unite in oneness with all creation if we are silently permitting that creation to suffer? When we selflessly act for others as ourselves, we wear away the illusion that we are separate from anyone else.
Whether our actions are in service of the Earth, animals, or humans, we offer the sweat of our brow to serve the well-being of creation. We experience the divine as manifest in each other, in those who are suffering, in all life. Karma yogis work for the good of the world while relentlessly focusing beyond the borders of the ego-bounded self. Karma yogis serve the divinity of all creation, and in so doing, enter into union with all that is.
Like you, I am simply a seeker on the path, passing along the teachings that I am working to implement in my own life. My deepest bow to the teachers and yogis throughout the ages who have passed on their knowledge for the benefit of us all, in service of the All.
What is Yoga, Anyway? The Four Paths of Yoga
by Lauren Lalita
What do you think of when you think of yoga?
Are you thinking of flexible folks in stretchy pants making peaceful faces whilst twisted up on rubber mats?
Me too! Yes, that is yoga! However, that physical part of the practice is a fairly recent development. Yoga poses can make you strong, flexible, repair postural imbalances, and feel awesome. While wonderful and beneficial, the poses, called asanas, are only one tiny part of the vast tradition of yoga.
So if yoga is not just physical asanas, what else is it?
As a system of philosophy and spiritual practice, yoga emerged as various realizations threaded across Vedic spiritual evolutions. The branches of yoga have split, changed, woven and evolved with the needs, traditions, and tastes of the people practicing it. Yoga has endured this long because of its ability to adapt, grow, shift and bloom.
Western civilization is plagued with sedentary lifestyles and stressed-out minds. We have adopted and expanded upon the part of yoga that we most need: reconnecting with our bodies and our breath. Sometimes, after we connect with our bodies on our yoga mats, we discover these deeper layers awaiting us.
Underneath the physical practice, there is a philosophical wellspring of insights and spiritual practices that lead to spiritual experiences. At its most basic level, yoga is a spiritual path that seeks union with the divine.
The word yoga means to join, to unite. On this spiritual path, we are seeking union with the Self, the Atman, the universal soul. The root word for yoga, yuj, means to yoke or join together. The first time this word appears is in the Upanishads, in reference to yoking the breath for the purpose of chanting Om.
Since that time, yoga has expanded as a system of philosophy and practice into four main ways to seek union with the highest self. These are the four marga or paths of yoga:
Karma Yoga - Yoga of Action & Selfless Service
Jnana Yoga - Yoga of Wisdom & Self-study
Dhyana Yoga - Yoga of Meditation
Bhakti Yoga - Yoga of Love & Devotion
These four paths are not limited to yoga philosophy. Every spiritual tradition contains these aspects. Think of a church where the congregation studies scripture (wisdom), sings hymns (devotion), prays the rosary (meditation), and holds a coat drive for the homeless (action).
Karma Yoga
In the yoga of action, we practice seva, or selfless service. Whether that service is to the Earth, animals, or humans, we offer our hours and sometimes the sweat of our brow to serve the wellbeing of creation. We see the divine as manifest in each other, in those who are suffering, in all life. We serve the divine by working for peace and wellbeing in the world. Read more about Karma Yoga here.
Bhakti Yoga
The yoga of devotion is a spiritual practice of love and reverence. Through Bhakti yoga we enter into a personal relationship with divine reality. It is offering love to the divine, however, the divine appears to us. Bhakti practices can include poetry, song, myth, ceremony, and more. Read more about Bhakti Yoga here.
Jnana Yoga
The yoga of wisdom seeks union through sacred study and the pursuit of holy knowledge. Sometimes it is learning from teachers and masters who inspire us, whether in person, through texts, or story. However, the yoga of wisdom is not a cold academic study of philosophy. Jnana yoga is taking the great teachings of the ages and applying them to your own life.
Dhyana Yoga
The yoga of meditation takes many forms. At the simplest, meditation is the practice of focusing our mind on something so steadily that our very being flows into the object of our concentration. When we meditate, the separation disappears and we eventually become one with what we are focusing upon.
You may find yourself drawn to specific paths more than others. You get to choose what works for you. You will likely practice a blend of all the paths and go through phases where some are dominant.
But do not box yourself in. Think of spiritual pursuit as a journey to the top of one mountain.
People live on different sides of the mountain. They see different slopes, the sun moves around the mountain differently depending on their vantage point. Different villages may have different names for the same peak. If they live on the north side, the slopes are shadowed and verdant. On the south side, the mountain is sunny and dry. But it is the same mountain.
Yoga philosophy says that there are four main paths up this mountain. Each path contains practices and tips for getting up the mountain from their perspective. It gives us signs and waymarkers we may pass along the way, but we are all going the same place.
The mystic Ramakrishna said there are “as many paths as there are faiths.”
Karma yoga works in the physical body and in the physical world. Bhakti yoga works in the emotional realms of feeling and love. Jnana yoga is more cerebral, working in the mind. Dhyana yoga works in the spiritual realms beyond thought. Together, they represent a united practice that works on all levels of our beings: body, heart, mind, and spirit.
All the paths are going to the top of the mountain. Combined together, all four of these paths are called Raja Yoga, or the Royal Yoga.
The great secret is that everything, every step you take, is a path to the summit. There is no way to be off the path, which I always find to be a great relief.
You’re on the right path, whether you like it or not. You’re on the right path, whether you know it or not. Any spiritual tradition, yoga included, is just tips and tricks that make the going easier for some.
The truth is that you are already one with the Self, the Universal Soul, the Atman. How could you fail at being that which you really are? You cannot fail. You cannot be off the path, because you are already there. There is nowhere for you to go after all.
Yoga offers the pathways to climb the mountain while also reminding us that we have always been at the top, even if we did not know it.
When we serve the highest with every aspect of ourselves, we become one with who we really are. We become what we have always been. That is union. That is yoga.