Hinduism

"This eternal lila is the eternal truth, and, therefore, its this eternal lila - the playful love-making of Radha and Krishna, which the Vaishnava poets desired to enjoy. If we analyse the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva we shall find not even a single statement which shows the poet's desire to have union with Krishna as Radha had,- he only sings praises the lila of Radha and Krishna and hankers after a chance just to have peep into the divine lila, and this peep into the divine lila is the highest spiritual gain which poets could think of."

"What but an unclean mind can see aught that is impure in the child [Krishna] dancing there as lover and beloved? It is as though He looked forward down the ages and saw what later would be said, and it is as though He kept the child form in the Lila, in order that He might breathe harmlessly into men’s blind unclean hearts the lesson that He would fain give."

"The gods themselves had come down and taken birth as men; and when you think of all that took place throughout the wonderful childhood of the Lila of Sri Krishna, you must remember that those who played that act of the drama were the ordinary men, no ordinary women; they were the Protectors of the worlds incarnated as cowherds around Him. And the Gopis, the graceful wives of the shepherds, they were the Rishis of ancient days, who by devotion to Vishnu had gained the blessing of being incarnated as Gopis, in order that they might surround His childhood, and pour out their love at the tiny feet of the boy they saw as boy, of the God they worshipped as supreme."

"Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that it wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible. Hence, there can be no purpose of Brahman in creating the world. The world is a mere spontaneous creation of Brahman. It is a Lila, or sport, of Brahman. It is created out of Bliss, by Bliss and for Bliss. Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from a [w:Self-conscious|self-conscious]] volitional effort."

"The world, as God has made it, is not a rigid exercise in logic but, like a strain of music, an infinite harmony of many diversities, and his own existence, being free and absolute, cannot be logically defined...Maya is one realisation, an important one which Shankara overstressed because it was most vivid to his own experience. For yourself leave the word for subordinate use and fix rather on the idea of Lila, a deeper and more penetrating word than Maya. Lila includes the idea of Maya and exceeds it."

"All exists here, no doubt, for the delight of existence, all is a game or Lila; but a game too carries within itself an object to be accomplished and without the fulfillment of that object would have no completeness of significance."

"The purpose of creation, is lila. The concept of lila escapes all the traditional difficulties in assigning purpose to the creator. Lila is a purpose-less purpose, a natural outflow, a spontaneous self-manifestation of the Divine. The concept of lila, again, emphasizes the role of delight in creation. The concept of Prakriti and Maya fail to explain the bliss aspect of Divine. If the world is manifestation of the Force of Satcitananda, the deployment of its existence and consciousness, its purpose can be nothing but delight. This is the meaning of delight. Lila, the play, the child’s joy, the poet’s joy, the actor’s joy, the mechanician’s joy of the soul of things eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating and recreating Himself in Himself for the sheer bliss of that self-creation, of that self-representation, Himself the play, Himself the player, Himself the playground"

"The name of the Lord is the mighty force He who takes refuge in Him is never abandoned. The castle of His grace becomes his shelter: They all resort to Him, great and small As with the touch of the mystical store Iron becomes gold."

"Meera Bai belonged to a strong tradition of bhakti (devotional) poets in medieval India who expressed their love of God through the analogy of human relations—a mother's love for her child, a friend for a friend, or a woman for her beloved. The immense popularity and charm of her lyrics lies in their use of everyday images and in the sweetness of emotions easily understood by the people of India."

"The renunciation necessary for the attainment of bhakti is not obtained by killing anything, but comes naturally as in the presence of an increasingly stronger light, the less intense ones become dimmer and dimmer until they vanish away completely. So this love of pleasures of the senses and of the intellect is all made dim and thrown aside and cast into the shade by the love of God Himself."

"Bhakti is a series of succession of mental efforts at religious Realization|realization beginning with ordinary worship ending in a supreme intensity of love for Ishvara."

"Bhakti Yoga is described by Swami Vivekananda as the path of systematized devotion for the attainment of union with the Absolute."

"Never say, "O Lord, I am a miserable sinner." Who will help you? You are the help of the universe. What in this universe can help you? What can prevail over you? You are the God of the universe; where can you seek for help? Never help came from anywhere but from yourself. In your ignorance, every prayer that you made and that was answered, you thought was answered by some Being, but you answered the prayer yourself unknowingly. The help came from yourself, and you fondly imagined that someone was sending help to you. There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of the universe. Like the silkworm, you have built a cocoon around yourself. Who will save you? Burst your own cocoon and come out as a beautiful butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will see Truth."

"The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest and most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; it's great disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimes degenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew in Hinduism, Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always been almost exclusively recruited from these worshippers [sic] on the lower planes of Bhakti. That singleness of attachment (Nishthâ) to a loved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is very often also the cause of the denunciation of everything else. All the weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country have only one way of loving their own ideal, i.e., by hating every other ideal. Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is so lovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his own ideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees or hears anything of any other ideal."

"The path of spiritual progress that the teachers of the Bengal school recommend is neither yoga nor jnana but bhakti. While the followers of the way of yoga emphasise the subjective aspect and those of the path of jnana both the subjective and objective aspect, the followers of the path of bhakti emphasize the objective aspect of consciousness."

"...there were three different ways of approaching God, viz., the ways of action (karma), knowledge (jnana), and devotion (bhakti). Of these, bhakti is the best among them, since it is the only means of salvation and the state of love (prema) and service (seva) which bhakti implies is better than even release."

"From the invocation to the conclusion, the poet Tulsidas seeks the grace of Rama and announces over and over again that the final object of his poetic performance is the attainment of bhakti – complete dedication to Rama. The narrative ends with an elaborate discourse on the supremacy of the devotional sentiment."

"Tulsidas is a devotee of Rama, who is an emblem of moral values and decorum. Quite naturally, a tone of high seriousness marks his devotional poetry. His bhakti has a sound socio-moral base with a rational background."

"Jnana marga is like Ramphal. Bhakthi marga is like Sitaphal (custard apple), easy to deal with and very sweet. The pulp of Ramphal is inside and difficult to get at. Ramphal should ripen on the tree and plucked ripe, If it falls down it is spoilt. So if a Jnani falls, he is ruined. Even for a Jnani there is the danger of a fall, i.e., by a little negligence or carelessness."

"Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Deva Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha. Guru is the creator Brahma, Guru is the preserver Vishnu, Guru is the destroyer Shiva. Guru is directly the supreme spirit — I offer my salutations to this Guru."

"He who renouncing all activities, who is free of all the limitations of time, space and direction, worships his own Atman which is present everywhere, which is the destroyer of heat and cold, which is Bliss-Eternal and stainless, becomes All-knowing and All-pervading and attains thereafter Immortality."

"Bhakti is the attitude of the mind, and jnana is the attitude of the intellect, both flow towards the Lord. In life to handle yourself, use your head, but to handle others, use your heart."

"Rigveda is the Veda of knowledge, Yajurveda is the Veda of Karma, Sama Veda is the Veda of Bhakthi and Atharva Veda is Brahma-Veda, an umbrella celebrating the Divine Presence."

"There is no sect [or, indeed, Hindu movement] without some element of bhakti."

"This whole sphere, this whole world of Knowledge and the Master and, practicing, and devotion, and participation and all that— This is traditionally in India called the path of devotion, bhakti marg."

"Both the Sandilya and the Narada quote the Bhagavad Gita on the one hand, and later Bhakthi literature on the other."

"The Narad Bhakthi Sutra takes a leap immediately into the doctrine of devotion and analyses its various aspects, and sets a ban against mere philosophical constructions."

"Narad Bhakthi sutra surpasses not merely sandilya by its easy eloquence and fervid devotion but it may be even regarded as one of the best specimens of Bhakthi literature that have ever been written. The Sandilya-sutra is more philosophical than Narada-Sutra. It goes into the question of nature of Brahman and Jiva, their inter-relation, the question of creation, and so on."

"The Sandilya and Narada bhakthi sutras like the Bhagavata are fundamental works of mysticism. Sandilya bhakthi sutras seem to be older on account of its archaic tone and is evidently modeled on the pattern of the great philosophical Sutras. Narada Bhakthi sutra quotes sandilya but the sandilya does not quote Narada."

"Bhakti is knowledge of Brahman, an unfailing recollection of the supreme Lord, a constant meditation on Him which develops into direct perception of Him....Disinterested performance of obligatory rituals removes the obstacles to knowledge, such actions become the means of attaining the constant memory of God."

"A seeker must acquire a true knowledge of the individual self and the Supreme; He must devote himself to meditation, worship and the adoration of the Supreme; This knowledge with discipline leads him to the realization of the Supreme."

"A brAhmin without this love is no longer a brAhmin. And a pariah with the love of God is no longer a pariah. Through bhakti an untouchable becomes pure and elevated."

"A man endowed with tAmasic bhakti has burning faith. Such a devotee literally exhorts boons from God, even as a robber falls upon a man and plunders his money. 'Bind! Beat! Kill!'—that is his way, the way of the dacoits."

"An aspirant possessed of rAjasic bhakti puts a tilak on his forehead and a necklace of holy rudrAksha beads, interspersed with gold ones, around his neck. At worship he wears a silk cloth."

"...bhakti devotion may be sattvic. A devotee who possesses sattvic bhakti, meditates on God in absolute secret, perhaps inside his mosquito net. Others think he is asleep. Since he is late in getting up, they think perhaps he has not slept well during the night. His love for the body goes only as far as appeasing his hunger, and that only by means of rice and simple greens. There is no elaborate arrangements about his meals, no luxury in clothes, and no display of furniture. Besides, such a devotee never flatters anyone for money."

"No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore God, reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani — the Vedantist, for instance — always reasons, applying the process of 'Not this, not this'. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what Brahman is."

"The Bhagavata Purana teaches nine primary forms of bhakti, as explained by Prahlada as:(1) w:śravaṇa|śravaṇa ("listening" to the scriptural stories of Kṛṣṇa and his companions), (2) kīrtana ("praising," usually refers to ecstatic group singing), (3) smaraṇa ("remembering" or fixing the mind on Viṣṇu), (4) pāda-sevana (rendering service), (5) arcana (worshiping an image), (6) vandana (paying homage), (7) dāsya (servitude), (8) sākhya ([[friendship), and (9) ātma-nivedana (complete surrender of the self)."

"In their hymns the Nayanars celebrate specific visions they had of specific manifestations of Siva in particular places in the Tamil land, thus revealing the continuity of their conception of the sacred with the pre-bhakthi civilization."

"The veneration of sixty-three saints called ‘Nayanar’(Nayanar:saint; plural nayanmar) is an important element of Saiva devotional (bhakti) religion in the Tamil region."

"...devotion is love springing forth from God’s incomparable sweetness (madhurya-pradhana-bhakti) rather than reverence at His incomparable greatness (aishvaraya- pradhana-bhakti)"

"On the path of bhakti there are no restrictions of time or place for meditation. You can meditate anytime, anyplace. There is also no required posture for meditation. The only requirement is that you should be remembering Radha Krishn."

"Complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-inquiry or through bhakti marga."

"Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion, consists of surrender to the Divine within the heart. The Maharishi considered the most important yoga path after self-enquiry and usually recommended the two together. Surrender [Bhakti] can be done in four ways:To the Supreme Self (Atma-Bhakti);To God or the Cosmic Lord as a formless being (Ishvara-Bhakti);To God in the form of various Gods or Goddesses (Ishta Devata-Bhakti) and ; To God in the form of the Guru (Guru-Bhakti)."

"The final emancipation called mokhsha for the beings who are bound to the problems of samsara can be attained by intense devotion to the Lord with the true knowledge of HIM."

"The sixth school is that of bhakti or devotion...taught to a large extent in the Bhagavad-Gita; indeed, we find it in every religion among those true devotees who put their trust entirely in the Divine— who do not pray for personal favours, but are quite convinced that God is perfect master of his world, that he knows what he is doing, and that therefore all is well; they are therefore more than content, they are thrilled with ecstasy, if they can but have the opportunity and the privilege to serve and obey him in any way."

"The second school of yoga is that of Shri Krishna, particularly expounded in the great poem the Bhagavad-Gita... This teaches above all else the doctrine of love. The disciple Arjuna, to whom the Guru spoke, was a great lover of mankind; according to the scripture this great soldier sank down upon the floor of his chariot before the battle of Kurukshetra began, full of sorrow because he loved his enemies and could not bear to injure them. The teacher Shri Krishna then explained to him, amid much philosophical teaching, that the greatest thing in life is service, that God himself is the greatest server—for he keeps the wheel of life revolving, not because any benefit can possibly accrue to him in consequence, but for the sake of the world—and that men should follow his example and work for the welfare of mankind. Many Great Ones, he said, had reached perfection by following this path of life, by doing their duty without personal desire. To love without ceasing is the way of the second Ray; in the Gita it is shown how this love should be directed to men and other beings in karma yoga (the yoga by action or work) and to God in bhakti yoga (the yoga by devotion)."

"It [Kathak] was quintessential theatre, using instrumental and vocal music along with stylized gestures, to enliven the stories. Its form today contains traces of temple and ritual dances, and the influence of the bhakti movement."

"In Manipur, dancing is charged with faith, the devotional fervour of bhakthi . To a Manipuri, one whole life is a dance offering."

"Equal to friend and enemy, equal to honour and insult, pleasure and pain, praise and w:Blame:blame, grief and happiness, heat and cold (to all that troubles with opposite affections the normal nature), silent, content and well-satisfied with anything and everything, not attached to person or thing, place or home, firm in mind (because it is constantly seated in the highest self and fixed for ever on the one divine object of his love and adoration), that man is dear to Me."

"Fill your mind with Me, be My devotee, sacrifice unto Me, bow down to Me; thus having made thy heart steadfast in Me, taking Me as the Supreme Goal, thou shalt come to Me."