Bhakti yoga – A Look through different lens

Unknown Ascetic

Have you ever thought how your mind works? Ever wondered a food for it? Is it the mind that makes us? Can things work out without a mind? And more questions pop-up in your MIND when you start thinking about its nature. It is an effort to bring out the answers for indefinite questions. You may not get a solution, but you may find a way to get a solution. In this unique attempt, I am going to give you a unique perspective which may thrill you.

From times immemorial, importance is constantly given to take care of one’s mind. You yourself may have found out its ever fleeting and distracting nature. Imagine your mind to be a camera and without focusing it you may not be able to capture a clear photo. Now, in this thought mechanism, we are going to look at an analogy through which you may arrive at a clear delineation of the mind. Imagine your mind to be a mysterious power that enlivens everything that comes at your perception through the sense organs. The objects of the world by themselves are inert. When this power called mind gets set on an inert object it acquires the power to manifest itself. To make the point clear, let us look at an example. Take a Gulab Jamun, it can acquire its property only when mind projects its power over it. It can lure you only when mind is on it. But when the mind withdraws its mysterious power from the Gulab Jamun it no more has the power to manifest itself.

The explanation does not stop there. Imagine an event, when you get a call from the Guinness Committee that you have been nominated for the award for exhibiting some special talent. Now, your mind withdrawing its power from the Gulab Jamun, projects and enlivens the event. Thence the Gulab Jamun cannot manifest itself without the mysterious power of the mind. 

Let us look at it from a different angle, so to understand it better. A simple mathematical formula has been given, to explain the mysterious power stated above. 

Mind + Any inert object in the world = Living object

Now, as we know this, let us apply the inverse of this formula. If you remove the mind from any object which you think exists in the world, it becomes inert. The objects of the world cannot by themselves dance in front of you and tempt you. Whenever you fall into the hands of temptation, you can be sure to be deceived. So, what you must do is to take out your mind from it and it will fall inert returning to its nature.

The thing to be remembered is that it is never an easy-go process. People fail to look at this structure of the mind. It is not all together an impractical method but offers a pragmatic solution. With constant practice even the hardest task in hand becomes a piece of cake. 

If mind has this mysterious power, who created this powerful mind? It is a thoughtful question for contemplation. Can you imagine, how powerful you will grow if you can focus your mysterious power of the mind over that which had created it? Quite unimaginable! This theory was neither propounded nor created by this acetic. But this treasure, cries the scriptures, was from ages immemorial. The scriptures – Vedas, Puranas, Itihasa-s, Vedanta-s, Upanishad-s, Brahma Sutras, et al, as a composite whole even goes beyond to explain the nature of the consciousness of consciousness. 

Coming back to focusing the mind as we do in a camera, focus it on Lord, the Omni-present. One of the methods claimed by the scripture is Bhakti-yoga. We can perform this whole-heartedly, at once, we realize the fact that we are not the doer of things but an invisible hand which makes things possible. The next question that must pop-up in your mind is “what do I do in Bhakti-yoga?” The answer is amazingly simple, think of the glories of God. What to do to think of his glories?

Being born in a country like India which has a rich traditional legacy is itself a boon. Listen to devotional songs, sing bhajans, listen to lectures by Mahatmas, learn Bhagavad Gita; mere chanting will do better. The best of all this is just to chant the name of your ishta devata, the God whom you adore. A classic example explains this phenomenon, when Kauravas were disrobing Draupadi, she just shouts, “KRISHNA” with her whole-heart, and the rest remains the history. Chanting the name of Lord purges your mind and keeps your thoughts clean. This is one of the simplest yet complicated methods. 

Start implementing it from the way you greet others, say ‘Namaste’ by bringing your palms together. Everything represented by symbols in our culture bears bountiful meaning which makes one remind of the lord. Swami Chinmayananda says the meaning of ‘Namaste’ in one of his lectures. He says, “The part of the Lord in me and the part of the Lord in you are the same”, represented by both the hands. This again reminds us of the truth, the Omni-present Lord.