How Bhakti Is Cultivated
Once a person rises in consciousness out of the chakras below the mūlādhāra, and the foundation of bhakti has been laid, then going into refined states of mind through meditation becomes easy. This is because devotion has removed the barriers. Those who love each other can communicate easily. The devotee who has reverence for a temple and devotion for the Gods within it can communicate easily with those Gods. Bhakti yoga is love on all levels of consciousness—physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Bhakti yoga makes us feel good. When in a state of bhakti yoga—yoked with the Divine through love—meditation is natural, and one can “soar within” with ease. There are no barriers where love is concerned.
The greatest inhibiting factor in practicing bhakti yoga is the doubting, cynical, intellectual mind. Doubt and skepticism harden the heart and narrow the mind. People in this state cannot really become devotees until their heart softens and their tense intellect relaxes. They must fulfill the sādhana of reconciliation, which is to go before each person they know and worship that person as a God. This sādhana is done in meditation. The devotee has to meet each one by bringing up the person’s face before him and sending kind thoughts and blessings of prāṇa. This must be done time and time again until love comes into the heart for each of them. Only after this sādhana has been accomplished will bhakti begin to bloom in the heart. The bloom of bhakti softens the heart and relaxes the intellect.
When you have the energy of bhakti, of love, flowing through your body, meditation is easy. You don’t have to go through the preliminaries. You are already functioning in the higher chakras. The bhakti experience takes the prāṇas into the higher chakras from the lower chakras. But if you are living in the consciousness of personal, communal, national or international antagonism, entering meditation will be difficult. All the preliminaries will have to be carefully gone through—prāṇāyāma, deep concentration, the lifting of the prāṇas into the heart and throat chakras, etc. Then slowly the internal bhakti is complete, and the vibration of love begins to be felt. This is time-consuming.
The Śaiva Siddhāntin finds it much easier to do this preliminary work in the temple through the externalized yoga of bhakti, rather than trying to internalize the bhakti and lift the prāṇas while seated in lotus position, which is time-consuming and not as enjoyable. Whereas, to lift the energies from the lower chakras to the higher chakras through performing bhakti yoga in the temple during worship is easy, natural, and considered by the Siddhāntist as being a pure joy.
The best way to learn bhakti yoga is to choose the finest bhaktar among your religious group and emulate him. You can read about bhakti yoga, understand it intellectually and learn what it is supposed to do for you. That is fine. But to progress on the path up the spine, it is necessary to be a part of a religious group. The group helps the individual, and the individual helps the group. There are nearly always one or two real bhaktars within every religious group. Therefore, to learn bhakti yoga, emulate one of them. This in itself is forgetting yourself, as you copy another person’s actions and attitudes. True, the person you choose may not measure up to your standards in other areas of life. But if in approaching the Deity, he shows true humility, patience and total surrender, be like him. If you join another Hindu group, visit another temple or satsaṅga group, pick out a true bhaktar there and emulate him or her as well. This is the way to learn bhakti yoga. Vegetarianism is an essential for the bhakti yogī, as is proper personal, cultural conduct in all matters of society. Śaivite culture and a consistent lifestyle keep the bhakti yogī always reminded of the Divine within the universe and within himself. Those who have no barriers to love find it is easy to see God in everyone.