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Bhagavad Gita Artwork
Season 1 - Episode 10

Day 8: Yoga of Devotion

60 min - Talk
23 likes

Description

We begin with a guided meditation before moving into a talk on what Krishna teaches us about Bhakti Yoga or the Yoga of Devotion or Love. According to the teachings, one needs to love God or Krishna, but more importantly needs to be loved by them. We conclude with a suggested homework reflection.
What You'll Need: No props needed

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Aug 18, 2019
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Transcript

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Meditation

Take a few moments again to find our relaxation, emotional relaxation, a little more important than physical relaxation, and searching for the right alignment, not imagining that I know everything, so I don't need to be making comments on everything I hear, and connection with our breath. Again without imagining that we really understand these things, but a helpful reminder from the book of Genesis and the Bible, that God created human beings from the earth, and then He breathed His own breath into them to make them alive. At least one direction to entertain the possibility that as long as I am alive, it is a breath of God in me, keeping me alive, which could hardly be for some personal gain of my own, but a call to serve something that is from the direction of whatever I understand by God. More and more consciousness, more and more compassion and love, more and more a sense of service, that is the way most sages in the history of humanity have indicated. Now I wish to invite my usual mind to connect with whatever I understand can be my direction of serving the Divine or serving something subtler or higher than myself. And in that connection we will try two or three slightly different attitudes to see how it actually affects the whole of my body, and I can become more aware of it in terms of finding whether it affects my relaxation, and also does it affect the quality of my breathing. Intentionally we bring our attention now to count, starting from 100, 97, 94, 91, 88, 85, 82, and going down, if you understand the general pattern, if you find it very easy, maybe you wish to make it slightly more complicated, and if you find it very difficult, just begin from 100, then 99, 98, simple counting down. The point is more to try to understand how does this kind of engagement affect the quality of my being, especially how does it affect my physical relaxation and the quality of my breathing. So to make this specific exercise simpler or more complicated, you choose what is helpful to you, but we are trying to understand something about ourselves.

Comments

Misha Joy C
Is Krishna's love conditional, then? 
Kira Sloane
Dearest Misha Joy. We received this response from Ravi to your question. Please note that it is in two parts due to our character limit in these forums. 

"The Sun is shining outside. Are there conditions —such as opening the window and moving the curtain aside—for me to receive the energy being emitted by the Sun?  
Kira Sloane

...This is what another very great teacher, Jesus Christ, said: 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. And you will dwell in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and dwell in His love.' (John 15.9-10)"
Kira Sloane
Misha Joy, my understanding of Ravi's response is that while not conditional, we have a role to play. Love, Kira
Sharon H
1 person likes this.
Enlightening question and answer. Thanks! And Thanks for revisiting-looking forward to going back through entire series.
Caroline S
1 person likes this.
Thank you for a very thought provoking talk.  "The way to be free from expression of truth is the truth" is to see more than one expressions particularly resonated with me; to be open to other points of view.  And I found the homework also a very intelligent question to contemplate.  Looking forward to next session !

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