The second Path: Bhakthi-yoga. This is congenial for
those who are emotionally oriented. It is the path for those
capable of filling their hearts with Love. The urge is to have God
as the Beloved. His activities will be different, for they relate
to incense-burning, gathering flowers for worship, building
shrines and temples where he could install and adore symbols of
Beauty, Wisdom and Power.
Are you inclined to remark that this is not the right means of
achieving union with Divinity? Remember that saints and sages,
great spiritual leaders and guides throughout the world have
emerged just from this devotional and dedicatory stage of
spiritual endeavour. Some faiths tried to imagine God as formless,
and described worship of God through various such acts as
blasphemy, tried to suppress the Bhakthi cults and in the process,
they slighted the Reality and Its Power and Majesty. The belief
that God cannot be symbolised in a Form is evidence of blindness;
the charge that such worship is barren is a hollow charge. The
history of the world is the witness to the efficacy of Bhakthi. It
is not proper to ridicule these activities, ceremonials and
rituals and the descriptions of the lives of sadhakas who adhered
to them in order to earn Union with Divinity. Let those who yearn
after the joy of worshipping the Form do so; certainly, it will be
a sin to shatter their faith and treat it as infructuous.
The glory of the great heroes of the spirit, those who have
scaled the highest peaks of Realisation, and those who attained
spiritual fulfilment is exercising immense influence on the mind
of mankind. It is as a result of a long line of such seers that
the spiritual Message of India has attracted the attention of all
nations. If India has been able to earn the reverence of the
world, the reason has to be sought in the precious treasure that
they have earned and preserved. Here, love of God and fear of Sin
have been the chief pillars of life and the everlasting guides for
living. Bharatha has won a name for being a holy land, a land
steeped in renunciation and in spiritual sadhanas aimed at union
with the Absolute, renowned for thyaga and yoga. The urges that
this culture encouraged were all directed to the conquest of the
vagaries of the mind.
Can the explanations offered by this culture on the nature and
characteristics of Reality be palatable to those afflicted by
agitated feelings and passion? To the great builders of this
culture, God was tangible Truth, the one and Only Real Fact, the
Goal of their entire Love. So, the inheritors and followers of
this culture treat the nihilist arguments based on the inescapably
limited 'reason' as the fool is treated in the story. The fool saw
an idol, and eager to discover the God he broke it to pieces with
a hammer!
The Bhakthi Yoga will teach such people the path of Love. It
will tell them not to love with a view to gain profit. Love all;
love all as you love yourselves. No harm can come to you then. It
will only spread joy and happiness to all. God is present in all
beings as love. So the Love is directed to and accepted by, not
the individual but by God who is resident there. The seeker of God
who relies on the path of devotion and dedication soon becomes
aware of this fact.
Some love God as the Mother, some others as the Father, and
some love God as 'dearest and closest Friend'. There are others
who regard God as the Beloved, the Only desired Goal. They all
endeavour to merge their Love with the Ocean of Love that God is.
Wherever Love is evident, take it that it is God's own Love. God
is the greatest Lover of mankind. Therefore, when any one decides
to serve man whom He loves, God showers Grace in plenty. When the
human heart melts at the suffering of others and expands as a
result of that sympathy, believe that God is present there. That
is the sign of the validity of the path of devotion, the Bhakthi
Yoga.