The Yoga Of Spiritual Devotion

• 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.

"Prem Prakash's book offers a sensitive introduction to the devotional path by a Western practitioner. He makes the ancient Bhakti Sutras of Narada come alive for all of us who wish to cultivate the beauty and power of the heart. I highly recommend the present book and hope it will widely influence the Western yoga movement." --Georg Feuerstein

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 Yoga, the Yoga of Devotion, comprises the second of three major sections of the Bhagavad Gita. It emphasizes faith and worship as a means to live a peaceful life, and also, to connect with the divine. The Bhagavad Gita contains the essence and analysis of the Vedas and the Upanishads - ancient Indian spiritual texts that are at the heart of Indian spiritual tradition. It presents us with a solution for completely eradicating sorrow from our lives. About The Author GK Marballi works in the technology industry and is presently based in New York City. He received his bachelors degree in commerce from the University of Mumbai, and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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.

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 is a spiritual path or spiritual practice within Hinduism focused on the cultivation of love and devotion toward God. It has been defined as a practice of devotion toward God, solely motivated by the sincere, loving desire to please God, rather than the hope of divine reward or the fear of divine punishment. It is a means toward a state of spiritual liberation or enlightenment through the "realisation", or the attainment of "oneness" with God. Bhakti yoga is often considered by Hindus to be the easiest way for ordinary people to attain such a spiritually liberated state, because although it is a form of yoga, its practice is not as rigorous as most other yogic schools, and it is possible to practice bhakti yoga without needing to become a full-time yogi. The origins of Bhakti can be seen in the upanishads, specifically the Shvetashvatara Upanishad. The Bhagavad Gita, and the Puranas are important scriptures that expound the philosophy of bhakti yoga. Hindu movements in which bhakti yoga is the main practice are called bhakti movements – the major schools of which are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism.