Bhakti Yoga

Yoga is understood to mean linking our consciousness with something higher. Bhagavad Gita As It Is, explains that the true meaning of yoga is linking our consciousness with the highest or Supreme Consciousness and to lovingly serve Him with body, mind, and words.

Yoga systems start with bodily exercises then go higher, to Karma-yoga – when a person knows the goal of life is God, but is attached to working to get material comforts. Then Jnana yoga – when one realises that one is not the body and knows the goal is Krishna, but one takes pleasure in mental speculation.

The highest yoga system is Bhakti yoga or loving devotional service to God or Krsna – when one realises that it`s the spirit soul within the body, that makes the body conscious and active and that God, or Krsna, is actually the main active principle within the heart of all bodies. He lives with us in our hearts.…so close to us.…..

“Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yas cāsmi tattvataḥ – One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.” [Bhagavad Gita. 18.55].

When one reaches this understanding, one realizes that to serve the person, God, is the highest and most rewarding type of yoga. It encompasses all other yoga systems and it`s the system that Krsna`s devotees practice. Krsna recommends chanting His name – “Always chanting my glories, endeavouring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.” (B.G 9.14)

Most people have no knowledge of the soul, which is endlessly entrapped in different types of bodies according to our desires and actions. But we can change our karma by practicing the joyful and peaceful process of Bhakti yoga, as laid out in Bhagavad Gita.

The 3 most important forms of devotional service are:

Hearing about Krsna,

Chanting Krsna`s names and topics

Remembering Krsna.

Just by reading Bhagavad Gita, we are performing devotional service and pleasing Krsna. Coming straight from the spiritual platform, this is not an ordinary book. It gives inner strength and a higher taste and it convinces us that we do have an eternal relationship with the Lord.

Experiment by reading it and chanting

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

and see how your life changes.