I'm new to Bhakti yoga, any books videos or articles you want to share?

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Thanking you kindly.

Also, Shivatar...If your Ishta Devata is Lord Shiva, you won't find anything on the internet about Shiva Bhakti besides bhajans (devotional songs) and trust me, I have looked for years!...good thing I already knew.

All the other Deities are well represented, mostly because of the Bhakti Movement started by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu..As Bhakti is seen to be more a feature of Vaishnava philosophy Krishna/Vishnu/Rama) stuff than Shaivite (Shiva philosophy) and Lord Shiva is mostly seen as an "intellectual venture" more than a heart one...Well, in recent times anyway.

I have often wondered why the only things I could find on YouTube about the practice of Shiva Bhakti, was propaganda put out by ISKCON as to how "Lord Shiva was a great Bhakta of Lord Krishna" (mainly to establish Lord Krishna as the head of the hierarchy according to their beliefs)..and to most, Lord Shiva is considered a "state of existence" over a corporeal being...but this trend is only recent, in the last few centuries and it has not always been like that.

There are still a few schools in Tamil Nadu and Nepal who practice pure Shiva Bhaki (which Ramanujacharya copied in the 12th Century) and this is called Pashupati Shaivism which was started by Sambandhar and the Virashaiva movement which later became known as the Lingayat movement.

I doubt any of the current members of such would have an internet connection...butt there are not many left anyway, as the Bhakti side of Shiva worship continues to slowly die out in favour of intellectual pursuits..

I love reading the old poetry composed by Sambandhar, the Virashaiva Saints and those living between the 10th -12th centuries and these are known as Vachanas.

"His ears are beringed, He rideth the bull,
His hair is belit by the crescent moon's ray,
White is He with ash, from the burning ground swept,
And He is the thief, who my heart steals away.." - Sambandhar.

I like reading stories about the statesman, Basavanna...about all of the Tamil Siddhars and Nayanars as well as studying the passtimes (Leelas) of Lord Shiva as described in the Shiva Purana...and watching the Shiva Purana on YouTube... although I have seen every episode about half a dozen times already.

There are also old movies which one can find with English Subtitles...Sri Manjunatha is my favorite movie about Shiva Bhakti..

https://youtu.be/6BQrNXrAL18
https://youtu.be/nh_jUxB26hs

There is also a beautiful book of devotional poems (Vachanas) to Lord Shiva called "Speaking of Shiva":

https://archive.org/stream/SpeakingO...uin_ djvu.txt

When one becomes a Shiva Bhakta, they learn to find their own stuff which tugs at the heart strings...

https://youtu.be/Y_FZfC0cs98

However, most of the good stuff is in Telegu or Kannada and when one only speaks Hindi/Sanskrit, that is rather annoying..

Aum Namah Shivaya.

Another excellent post.

I plan to check out some of the links that you provided --- particularly the link to the movie about Shiva Bhakti.

(The movie subtitles are often difficult to read because they blend into the background. When the background is clear, they are easy to read but, when the background is not clear, they are difficult to read. It makes the movie harder to follow and understand.)

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Another excellent post.

I plan to check out some of the links that you provided --- particularly the link to the movie about Shiva Bhakti.

(The movie subtitles are often difficult to read because they blend into the background. When the background is clear, they are easy to read but, when the background is not clear, they are difficult to read. It makes the movie harder to follow and understand.)

Namaste and thank you.

I was considering just letting this thread rest for a week or two just to see what (if anything) eventuated, not really expecting that anything would, but as I was drifting into conscious sleep last night, a word came to mind...bhava!

Bhakti Yoga requires a lot of effort and energy...much more than simply replying to a thread on a forum (or not) and many people don't have the constitution for Bhakti Yoga, no matter what "God" says.

The word Bhava has no real direct English equivalent...but think 'intention' and 'faith' and 'purpose' and 'feeling' all rolled into one. It is basically a character attribute which enables the practice of Bhakti, because love and devotion cannot be 'learned' from any source...it is either there, or not...much like certain posters on this forum.

...and you know, most people love being right, but I hate it because for once, I would honestly love it if I were proved wrong.

I am deeply grateful and appreciative though...

I can only try to communicate with others from a place within my own experience...I don't know of any other way. I hold out my hand trying to reach out and touch others, only to have my hand cut off and shoved up my backside...and that has the effect of forcing me even further within myself...which may be a great thing...for an extrovert.

I feel that you are really the only one I can relate to on here...who can hold my hand and pull me out of myself based on shared experience and history....and of course, if I reached out my hand at a Kumbh Mela, I would be enlightened already.. lol

Aum Namah Shivaya

[Shivani Devi]

Dear Shivani...You are still relatively new to the whole concept of viveka, so of course you are always going to be "right" when you expect schizophrenics with substance abuse issues not to remember anything they said whilst high and not being serious about concepts which are totally state dependent.

Unfortunately, you have made a habit out of trying to communicate with those who don't even know what they want themselves, and taking them seriously and at their word, only to be knocked down when they change their pickled, fickle minds 5 minutes later...leaving you totally in the lurch and this has happened with Shivatar how many times now? One would think you would have learned your lesson after all this time.

Some people are just not ready to learn what they are asking and you have to learn how to recognise that and just ignore them for everyone's benefit...least of all, your own. They need urgent medical assistance before any spiritual path can be embarked upon and there are quite a few members on this forum in that category...even yourself and going back on your antidepressant medication is a good call, because trying to understand others who cannot be understood would make anybody depressed.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Dear Shivani...You are still relatively new to the whole concept of viveka, so of course you are always going to be "right" when you expect schizophrenics with substance abuse issues not to remember anything they said whilst high and not being serious about concepts which are totally state dependent.

Unfortunately, you have made a habit out of trying to communicate with those who don't even know what they want themselves, and taking them seriously and at their word, only to be knocked down when they change their pickled, fickle minds 5 minutes later...leaving you totally in the lurch and this has happened with Shivatar how many times now? One would think you would have learned your lesson after all this time.

Some people are just not ready to learn what they are asking and you have to learn how to recognise that and just ignore them for everyone's benefit...least of all, your own. They need urgent medical assistance before any spiritual path can be embarked upon and there are quite a few members on this forum in that category...even yourself and going back on your antidepressant medication is a good call, because trying to understand others who cannot be understood would make anybody depressed.

I haven't been high in a long time, so your assumption is mis-placed that I still do drugs. I've made a lot of changes for the better over this last year and abstaining from drugs is one of them.

and I'm not required to reply to anybody if I'm not feeling like it. i got fired from my job a few days ago and I've been very depressed and in general I just don't feel good.

You seem distraught because you offered a lot of help and I did not thank you or reply the way you wanted me to. If you had just offered it because you wanted to offer it then you would be OK. but you offered it because you wanted some specific kind of reply.

I'm really thankful for the advice you did offer and still appreciate it now. I think you are just having a bad reaction right now because you don't know my situation and you are drawing a lot of conclusions based off very little evidence.

and did you just call me a schizophrenic? whats the deal with that? And the majority of society would do well with some more medical care. Life is suffering, ever heard that? Most people are burdened and many of them don't even want to admit it or accept it. I know I do but the problem is I don't have medical insurance and I'm poor so I can't go out and get the care I need. Pointing that out is a low blow and not something I'd expect from you.

and I am serious about bhakti. I practice it daily.

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Namaste and thank you.

I was considering just letting this thread rest for a week or two just to see what (if anything) eventuated, not really expecting that anything would, but as I was drifting into conscious sleep last night, a word came to mind...bhava!

Bhakti Yoga requires a lot of effort and energy...much more than simply replying to a thread on a forum (or not) and many people don't have the constitution for Bhakti Yoga, no matter what "God" says.

The word Bhava has no real direct English equivalent...but think 'intention' and 'faith' and 'purpose' and 'feeling' all rolled into one. It is basically a character attribute which enables the practice of Bhakti, because love and devotion cannot be 'learned' from any source...it is either there, or not...much like certain posters on this forum.

...and you know, most people love being right, but I hate it because for once, I would honestly love it if I were proved wrong.

I am deeply grateful and appreciative though...

I can only try to communicate with others from a place within my own experience...I don't know of any other way. I hold out my hand trying to reach out and touch others, only to have my hand cut off and shoved up my backside...and that has the effect of forcing me even further within myself...which may be a great thing...for an extrovert.

I feel that you are really the only one I can relate to on here...who can hold my hand and pull me out of myself based on shared experience and history....and of course, if I reached out my hand at a Kumbh Mela, I would be enlightened already.. lol

Aum Namah Shivaya

So far what I've learned through my practice of Bhakti is that it's about opening yourself to feel love and increasing your capacity to feel love. The object of the love it of course God but with practice it goes from love of God to love of all things, which are also God.

So far all I have to do to practice Bhakti is focus on feeling Love for God and submitting myself. Insight and wisdom comes to me too but I do not care about it really until after I'm done practicing Bhakti.

Submitting myself seems to happen in an inverse way with my love for God. If I try to love God more/experience my feeling of love for God then my self naturally submits. If I focus on submitting myself, my love for God/experience of loving God gets stronger. So I can do either thing really but I prefer to just Focus on my love for God and if I notice that there is an issue then I will focus on submitting myself for a moment then return to loving God.

Also loving God seems like a bit of a show to me. How can we love what is love? Loving God is just a method for us to learn how to love unconditionally. Once we learn that we can practice unconditional love with everyone and everything around us. And when we can do that we can have a much more pleasant and beautiful experience of life, as well as helping others which is important!

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by captainamerica

@shivatar
Great book on Bhakti Yoga by Swami Vivekananda :
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The...tion_of_Bhakti

thank you. That was very fun to read.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by shivatar

I haven't been high in a long time, so your assumption is mis-placed that I still do drugs. I've made a lot of changes for the better over this last year and abstaining from drugs is one of them.

and I'm not required to reply to anybody if I'm not feeling like it. i got fired from my job a few days ago and I've been very depressed and in general I just don't feel good.

You seem distraught because you offered a lot of help and I did not thank you or reply the way you wanted me to. If you had just offered it because you wanted to offer it then you would be OK. but you offered it because you wanted some specific kind of reply.

I'm really thankful for the advice you did offer and still appreciate it now. I think you are just having a bad reaction right now because you don't know my situation and you are drawing a lot of conclusions based off very little evidence.

and did you just call me a schizophrenic? whats the deal with that? And the majority of society would do well with some more medical care. Life is suffering, ever heard that? Most people are burdened and many of them don't even want to admit it or accept it. I know I do but the problem is I don't have medical insurance and I'm poor so I can't go out and get the care I need. Pointing that out is a low blow and not something I'd expect from you.

and I am serious about bhakti. I practice it daily.

I am very pleased to hear you have given up the drugs and I am very proud of you.
I am also very pleased to hear that you are considering sticking with a practice for a while, instead of jumping around like a monkey.

I also seem to be making quite a few presumptions lately, regarding people from the way they were 6 months ago... honestly believing they would never change...attributing current behaviours to ones displayed over and over in the past...when the circumstances are entirely different and for that. I humbly apologise. I have learned this lesson today.

I am also sorry that you lost your job and are having a rough time...and I also keep forgetting that the concept of time is very different in the Astral, so I really should have taken a break from SF for a few weeks to let the dust settle instead of either kicking it up, or sweeping it under the carpet.

All these are signs for me that it is time to move on from here. People are getting on with their own lives and business, others are growing and changing and yet, I am still stuck in the past, and wondering why the threads I post in aren't getting replies...when others have lost their jobs, have a relative die, been kicked out of their home, their PC blew up, have contracted a terminal illness....It is not that I am selfish, but I sort of live in a personal time warp...and living in total isolation for the past 25 years would tend to have that effect on one...I know nothing of the external world whatsoever...I don't even watch TV.

So, it seems my time on here is drawing to a close. There is nothing more I can teach...nothing more anybody can learn and I am just sitting here stuck in a personal time loop, when I am also a Bhakta myself...and the time I am wasting on here, I should be giving that time to God. Also, knowing nothing about any external reality, suffering, how people live and behave...I am a prime candidate to spend the rest of my life in meditative solitude... because that's just the way it is.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Aum Tat Sat

[shivatar]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

I am very pleased to hear you have given up the drugs and I am very proud of you.
I am also very pleased to hear that you are considering sticking with a practice for a while, instead of jumping around like a monkey.

I also seem to be making quite a few presumptions lately, regarding people from the way they were 6 months ago... honestly believing they would never change...attributing current behaviours to ones displayed over and over in the past...when the circumstances are entirely different and for that. I humbly apologise. I have learned this lesson today.

I am also sorry that you lost your job and are having a rough time...and I also keep forgetting that the concept of time is very different in the Astral, so I really should have taken a break from SF for a few weeks to let the dust settle instead of either kicking it up, or sweeping it under the carpet.

All these are signs for me that it is time to move on from here. People are getting on with their own lives and business, others are growing and changing and yet, I am still stuck in the past, and wondering why the threads I post in aren't getting replies...when others have lost their jobs, have a relative die, been kicked out of their home, their PC blew up, have contracted a terminal illness....It is not that I am selfish, but I sort of live in a personal time warp...and living in total isolation for the past 25 years would tend to have that effect on one...I know nothing of the external world whatsoever...I don't even watch TV.

So, it seems my time on here is drawing to a close. There is nothing more I can teach...nothing more anybody can learn and I am just sitting here stuck in a personal time loop, when I am also a Bhakta myself...and the time I am wasting on here, I should be giving that time to God. Also, knowing nothing about any external reality, suffering, how people live and behave...I am a prime candidate to spend the rest of my life in meditative solitude... because that's just the way it is.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Aum Tat Sat

Just take a long break and come back when you feel the calling to come back. That is what I did. I realized I was coming here to get high on a drug called helping others and sharing my spiritual wisdom. It's a great thing to do in moderation but there was a time where I would jump on here first thing after work or first thing after waking up and over time I realized that is not a good habit to have so I took a long break. Now that I'm back I spend much less time on here and I am a lot pickier about which threads I reply to and what I say. I'm engaging now on my own terms, not being drug around by my cravings to feel good.

Thank you. It was very difficult to break so many addictions but I have broken them all. I feel like a warrior when I think about it, haha, some of those drugs I still may do in the future but I'll never do them like I did in the past which was basically just doing them whenever I had free time and a stable mind. Certain drugs I'll probably give up for life because they have such a powerful craving that comes with them, others I think I will enjoy for the rest of my life but only a few times a year like psychedelic mushrooms since they seem to be so beneficial and have basically no negative side effects except feeling exhausted for a day or two afterwards.

It's a good lesson to learn and I can understand why it's a hard one to learn. For so many people it doesn't apply to them. Most people get into a pattern or cycle and they stay that way for years or decades or the rest of their lives. Not everyone is into having profound changes and transforming for the better. The suffering in my life has been so great that I don't see any other option for myself. Life has become unbearable the way it is for me so I cannot just accept it and be happy, I must change and grow to the best of my ability. Then I will be happy because I did what I could. If I just accept things without giving my effort I always feel miserable so I've learned to do my best, then just accept and be happy with the results even if the results are not what I was hoping for or expecting.

It was a horrible job that made me miserable to be honest. It sucks to be let go but with the work I have been doing with God lately I wasn't terribly bothered by it. I said "it must be because God wants me to move on that he forced me to move on, if I had my way I probably would have stayed there for a lot longer and made myself more miserable", well I said that in my head many times to myself lol.

Yeah taking a few weeks break couldn't hurt. If you feel like taking a break and getting some separation then by all means do it, listen to your inner callings.

The astral eh? I have been kind of trying to reach the astral plane for a long time but never had the success that I wanted. I also havent put in the months and years of effort it takes to get there so I cant expect much. Someday I will make it there, I just need to make it a priority and put in the effort and I'll have it in a few years.

Too much isolation is a bad thing. I know it's hard to break habits that are deeply ingrained in you, especially ones that have been repeating for 25 years, but you can do it if you put your mind to it and have the desire to do it. Start out small and find a way that works for you. You don't have to interact with the world to be a part of it and learn about it. Most people are kind of absent minded fools to be honest. If you just sit near a public place and watch them you can learn a lot. If you just sit and watch people, your inner teacher will tell you a lot of things about their life and you can learn a lot of things just by sitting and watching them and being quiet inside and listening to what your inner teacher says about them. And if you want to you can interact with a few, or a lot of you like. Either way getting out of isolation will be really beneficial for your mood and depression. I always find it difficult to get myself to those public places where I can sit and watch people, but I always find it very peaceful and relaxing once i get there. Getting yourself outside the routines you do every day is the hardest part. once you get outside of your comfort zone of routines you repeat all the time the fear kind of goes away and is replaced with a kind of nervous excitement. And if you work on breathing slowly the nervousness goes away and its just exciting.

If you want to live in meditative solitude or if you want to learn more about the world makes little difference really. Both are noble paths. The thing that matters most is if you feel good and OK doing it, so if meditative seclusion makes you miserable after a while then try to learn a bit more about the world. It's changing faster now than ever before and it needs people like us to contibute in whatever ways we can. It's hard to contribute, very hard imo, but the reward matches the difficulty. A sense of inner wellbeing that is just like meditation. If helping and contributing too much makes you miserable, go back to meditative seclusion! Find the mix that works best for you.

Also God is always with you and God will be with you for all time. God doesn't mind if you spend 1 minute a year or 360 days a year with it. God is with you at all times and for all time, you can never be apart from God. So don't feel bad about not being focused on God, God is always focused on you and understand why you do things. God is always understanding and forgiving, there is nothing you could ever do to offend God or make God love you any less. Just live your life and as much time as you want to spend with God then you spend it. If you never want to spend time with God, well God is OK with that too! God will love you all the same and never leave your side all the same.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Namaste and thank you.

I was considering just letting this thread rest for a week or two just to see what (if anything) eventuated, not really expecting that anything would, but as I was drifting into conscious sleep last night, a word came to mind...bhava!

Bhakti Yoga requires a lot of effort and energy...much more than simply replying to a thread on a forum (or not) and many people don't have the constitution for Bhakti Yoga, no matter what "God" says.

The word Bhava has no real direct English equivalent...but think 'intention' and 'faith' and 'purpose' and 'feeling' all rolled into one. It is basically a character attribute which enables the practice of Bhakti, because love and devotion cannot be 'learned' from any source...it is either there, or not...much like certain posters on this forum.

...and you know, most people love being right, but I hate it because for once, I would honestly love it if I were proved wrong.

I am deeply grateful and appreciative though...

I can only try to communicate with others from a place within my own experience...I don't know of any other way. I hold out my hand trying to reach out and touch others, only to have my hand cut off and shoved up my backside...and that has the effect of forcing me even further within myself...which may be a great thing...for an extrovert.

I feel that you are really the only one I can relate to on here...who can hold my hand and pull me out of myself based on shared experience and history....and of course, if I reached out my hand at a Kumbh Mela, I would be enlightened already.. lol

Aum Namah Shivaya

Thank you for your kind words.

[Crystalsun]

Hello, Shivatar.
I started this book : "Nectar of Devotion" by Prabhupada. Perhaps you might want to see it!

It is at - krishnapath.org -