The term bhakti is used in a variety of ways.
- Most simply, bhakti refers to the common devotional sentiment held in the heart of a devoted person of any spiritual faith.
- Bhakti can also refer to a practice of yoga (bhakti-yoga), a spiritual discipline designed to bring one to a state of pure love of God.
- More specifically, the term Bhakti can refer to the devotional interpretation of Vedanta. Vedanta is the most popular of India’s six classical schools of philosophy and the primary influence in Hinduism.
- Bhakti also is used to refer to a trend within the history of Indian spirituality – the Bhakti Movement.
- Finally, the word bhakti refers to the perfected state of consciousness – exclusive and continuous love of God, the natural condition of the soul; eternal, enlightened bliss.
- Bhakti Yoga is defined as a loving responsiveness, a call and response between ourselves (the individual self) and the Supreme Self, Who is known by infinite names throughout the world, but on the path of Bhakti, by the names Krishna, Govinda, or Rama, to name a few.
- In Bhakti, we revere both the divine masculine, Krishna, and the divine feminine, Sri Radha together, in relationship, as the complete whole, most worshipable Godhead.
- Bhakti Yoga carries us beyond mindfulness to the place of the heart. It is an offering of the heart, an opening of the heart, it is meditation that has been saturated with love.
We draw our inspiration and guidance from the life and teachings of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who brought the culture of bhakti to the Western world.
