True bhakti–devotion–in its ultimate nature is conscious, deliberate union with the Self and God the Supreme Self.
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Bhakti has one purpose: union with God in which all semblance of separation between God and the individual spirit is dispelled and a unity of being and identity is attained. Not that the individual becomes the Absolute, but that the total, eternal union of the individual with the Absolute is realized in the yogi’s consciousness.
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What is true bhakti? It is like the oil in a lamp without which there would be no light. It is the inner power that moves the yogi forward, intent on his goal. Unfortunately bhakti is usually considered to be emotion directed to God, especially as love. But bhakti means dedication to the search for God. It is Ishwarapranidhana, the offering of the life to God, which Patanjali says is the way to superconsciousness (Yoga Sutras 2:45).
Shankara simplified and clarified it greatly when he said that bhakti is seeking God and jnana is finding God.
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Bhakti and jnana purify the heart. But bhakti is not emotion, and jnana is not intellectuality. Instead, they are dispositions of mind and heart, a psychological frame of reference within which the entire life is lived. Sri Ramakrishna revealed their ultimate essence. He said that bhakti was the attitude (bhava): “God is the Master and I am His servant.” Jnana, he said, was the attitude: “God alone is real; all else is unreal.”
What begins as an attitude, a kind of intuitive conviction, ripens into direct realization. The person no longer “feels” or “thinks” those principles, but knows them and embodies them.
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True jnana in its essence is the atmic experience which authentic yoga produces directly. In reading the Gita we see that genuine bhakti and jnana are interdependent, each fostering the other.
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True bhakti is always centered in intelligence, in the buddhi. The Gita tells us: “Among the virtuous, four kinds seek me: the distressed, the seekers of knowledge, the seekers of wealth and the wise. Of them, the wise man, ever united, devoted to the One, is pre-eminent. Exceedingly dear am I to the man of wisdom, and he is dear to me. All these indeed are exalted, but I see the man of wisdom as my very Self. He, with mind steadfast, abides in me, the Supreme Goal” (7:16-18). The true devotee seeks God because he knows it is his nature and purpose to do so, that God alone is his goal.
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Real, God-centered bhakti moves upward in us and manifests as awakened consciousness. Swami Sivananda used to say: “Bhakti begins with two and ends with One.”
Next in Living the Yoga Life: Brahman