Bhakti Yoga is considered the simplest of the four classical paths of yoga. It is simple because what you have to do is to open your heart to your god or Guru. And it is a 24- hour yoga which you can practise anywhere and at any time while you are eating, working, playing, sleeping. There is neither any fixed place nor any fixed time for practising Bhakti Yoga. What is important is that your mind must remain fixed on the object of your devotion and this helps your life get transformed progressively: into divine peace, into divine strength, into divine love.
Our scriptures affirm that if you love God with full trust in Him, God will progressively take complete charge of your life, leading you from knowledge to greater knowledge and then the responsibility of your life will no longer be yours but His.
For those practising Bhakti Yoga, devotion cannot be half-hearted. Bhakti here means complete and unconditional self-giving to the Divine where there will be no demand, no bargain, no expectation of return for your devotion.
Bhakti Yoga means that we have to trust Him completely, cling to Him doggedly even when we are passing through chaotic circumstances of life. This is difficult, but possible.
Bhakti when it is one-pointed and when it does not waver under any circumstances transforms our lives. Transformation may take time, even a long time. This is because our egotistic nature will resist such transformation obstinately. Our ego may gain further strength and will revolt against the will of the God, insisting on the gratification of our own desires.
Consequently, we will suffer; we will stumble; we will struggle. But if we keep our central trust in the Divine intact despite the upheavals in our outer life, the Divine will help us sail out the spiritual crisis.
And when complete surrender, complete self-giving becomes stable with unconditional devotion becoming an intrinsic part of our nature, there will be no stress, no discord, no conflict of ego with ego. Unshakable devotion to the Divine begets unshakable peace in life.
