Welcome to Bhakti Yoga

Namaste dear yogi friend, I'm so happy to be here today to share just a little taste of Bhakti Yoga with you. It is a path that has been changing me from the inside out and continues to bring me much happiness and peace in my heart. So I'm really grateful just to be able to offer you a taste of this today knowing that if it's something that you're attracted to it will continue to open the sweetness in your life. So the word Bhakti comes from the root word bhaj and bhaj has a few meanings that means to taste or to be attached to God. So the word God has many heavy associations with it and if that doesn't feel right for you ultimately it's this presence that lives within all things and there's many words for that love, spirit, goddess, universe, just finding whatever feels right for you.

Ultimately the journey, the practices help us to surrender the mind, the small me, the ego, the sense of me and my world, surrender that to something greater than it, bringing with it ultimately this recognition that in our essence we are divine love. So there are many practices that we employ to awaken this remembrance in the heart. They include chanting mantra, singing to the divine, chanting the names of the divine which is a practice called kirtan, dancing, poetry, there's many beautiful ecstatic poets, Rumi, Kabir, Hafeez, who are all great bhaktas, great beings of the heart and really whatever truly takes you out of the mind and into the heart can be bhakti yoga. So today I'd like to just give you an experience, just a taste of what bhakti feels like in the being and then we're going to sing a song together. So in order to help us on our way in towards the subtle realms, towards feeling into the heart and the being we'll just take a couple of stretches just to allow the mind to settle down.

So after we do that we're going to sit and so you might want to find a chair or a bolster or something that you'll then move to so that you can sit very comfortably with a straight spine. So just take a moment to look around and see if you can find something that you can sit comfortably with, you may be happy just sitting on a mat but if you need a chair or a bolster just finding that. And then we'll just take a couple of stretches actually sitting here on the mat. So just coming to a comfortable cross legged position, maybe just bringing the shins parallel to each other, just rocking to the right, bringing the flesh from underneath the left sit bone, rocking to the left, bringing the flesh from underneath the right sit bone so you can feel your base grounding down into the earth. Inhale lift the arms up, lengthen the side body, draw the belly in towards the spine and then exhale and let that left hand come down to the earth, press down through the left forearm, lift the underside of the body away from the earth, inhale and reach the right fingertips overhead.

As you exhale let that right hip drop down towards the earth, inhale pressing down through the bottom hand, reaching through the top fingers, exhale let the right hip drop down. One more time inhale reaching the body, pressing down through the underside of the bottom hand, exhale let that right hip drop down, beautiful. And then inhale press down through the left hand, come all the way up to sitting, rest the backs of the hands onto the knees, close the eyes, take a deep breath in and exhale. Allow your awareness to drop down into the right side of the body, just start to taste the release of contraction in the body. Just noticing in the hip, noticing the rib cage, the side of the body, the waist, sense of spaciousness, maybe comparing the left and the right, starting to bring the mind away from the thoughts and distractions and into the here and now into the body.

Deep inhale and exhale, beautiful, inhale reach the arms up high, lengthen the side waist, draw the belly in towards the spine and exhale dropping down to the right, placing the right forearm onto the earth, inhale that left arm alongside the top here and as you exhale let that left hip drop down towards the earth. Inhale press down through the bottom hand, reach through the fingers, let the left hip come off the earth and then exhale and drop the left hip back down to the earth, getting a beautiful stretch on the side body on the exhale. One more time inhale reach and exhale, inhale pressing down through the bottom hand coming all the way up, rest the backs of the hands on the knees, close the eyes, take a deep breath in and exhale soften the inner body. Allow your awareness to drop down into the left side of the body and again just allow yourself to taste the results of releasing contraction in the body. Noticing what's actually happening in the hip, the waist, side ribs, beautiful deep breath in and exhale.

So if you're comfortable here just choose to stay here in this position or if you found yourself a chair or a bolster to sit on then just moving to that place now where you can sit comfortably with your back, your spine straight, perhaps leaning against a wall, whatever you need to be comfortable, beautiful and just finding your way there. When you get there resting the backs of the hands onto the knees or the thighs let the thumb and the index finger lightly touch, take a deep inhale as you exhale out through the mouth drop the belly, again inhaling. Inhale let the belly soften, allow the pelvic floor muscles to relax, allow the tailbone to drop down and back, press down through the base of the spine and let the crown of the head reach tall up to the sky. Inhale gently lift the shoulders, hug the shoulder blades back so the heart opens, exhale soften the inner body. Resting here a couple of breaths, feeling the breath coming in and out.

Now I invite you to find something, some person, place, object, animal that inspires an easy sense of love in you. So it might not be your partner, that might be a slightly more challenging relationship, it might just be a baby that you passed who smiled at you and opened the heart, it might be a flower that you saw that evoked a sense of love, it might be an animal that you have for whom you feel an easy sense of love. So with the eyes closed, awareness in the heart center, just allow something to come into your experience that inspires an easy sense of love. And there may be a few things that cycle through until you find that one thing that just really naturally effortlessly inspires an easy sense of love in the being. Just resting with that.

And as you allow that to affect you, to open the sense of love within you, just take a moment and notice perhaps there's a softening in the belly, maybe in the hands, perhaps a brightening or an expansion in the heart, just noticing how love affects you from the inside. Perhaps noticing a twinkle in the eye, a gentle smile emanating, radiating out through the face. Be like a yogi scientist and explore what are the effects of love in this being, in me. Staying with that object, noticing the quality of the mind as you invite love in to your being. Notice the breath.

So in essence, this is Bhakti Yoga, we find that which inspires love in our being. As we cultivate this mood of love through the practices, there comes a natural recognition that we are this love and that this love pervades all things. Paranar means to remember, I'd like to share with you a chant now, a mantra, which is one of my favorites, to awaken this remembrance in the heart of our true nature as divine love. So I invite you not to believe anything I'm saying, but just to be willing to give it a go and notice the effects in your being afterwards. Allowing the sounds, which are vibrational sounds from the Sanskrit language, they actually change the energy, the vibration in our being.

Allowing the sounds as we chant to change us from the inside. So there's no need to be able to sing or to have any great skill or talent here, it's just a willingness to participate and to see what happens, to have a taste. So the mantra that I'm going to share with you is aham prema. Aham means I am and prema is divine love. So we'll just sing that together.

So just finding yourself comfortable in your seat and I'll begin singing aham prema and just invite you to join in as you feel comfortable. So take a deep breath in, exhale everything and we'll just start with one aham, so inhale for aham. Aham prema, aham prema, aham prema, aham prema, you're singing from your heart. Aham prema, aham prema, aham prema, aham prema, aham prema. Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah I am pure love I am pure love I am pure love I am pure love Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Premah Premah Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Ahamn Premah Premah Premah It's resting into the vibration in your being.

And taking a deep inhale and exhale out through the mouth. And with great tenderness bringing the hands in front of the heart center. Bowing to that love that lives within all things. Blessings on your journey. So much love from my heart to your heart. Namaste.