Deva / Deity Yoga
 

I thought maybe I should change the name of my thread to get a proper response. I'm looking for Deva / Deity Yoga practices within Sanatana Dharma. I have asked this question several times on Quora but no one has given me a satisfying answer. These practices involve visualizing a Deity outside of your self. Then visualizing the deity inside yourself and you absorb the qualities of that deity. I know this from Buddhist Deity Practices. I'm looking for similar practices but in a Hindu Context.. Like if there is a practice of Visualizing Krishna outside and then Inside yourself. Can anyone PLEASE Direct me to this kind of knowledge? I was told to look in the Patanjali Sutras But I could not find anything in the book I got of the title Patanjali Sutras. So yes please help me here.

How would you go about correctly imagining the qualities or attributes of the deity? More importantly yet, how would you ready yourself to receive those benedictions to be first imbibed and then assimilated within?

*How would you go about correctly imagining the qualities or attributes of the deity?*

This question is what I'm hoping to be answered in a Hindu point of view. I have Buddhist Sutras like for example the Medicine Buddha Sutra. It first starts with praising the Medicine Buddha then goes to a prayer which invokes the deities involved with the practice. It then goes to Buddhist ideals like "We go for refuge in the 3 jewels and 3 roots.." There are some Mantras.. You then visualize a palace for the Medicine Buddha to reside in and visualize him sitting in the palace. You then visualize him inside yourself for about 20 minutes or more. You make offerings by visualizing gifts to the Medicine Buddha. Then there is a main mantra to be chanted. Once done you do what is called completion where you ask for the deities to return to their places of residence and visualize the Main deity to dissipate.

Thats the practice in a Nutshell. The practice absorbs the Medicine Buddhas healing qualities and his Buddha Nature.

So I am looking for similar practices in Hinduism. I know that Tantra started in India and coincided with both Hinduism and Buddhism. I'm looking for a Hindu practice that involves like Krishna, Vishnu, Dhanvantari, Saraswati or Ganesh even..

deity worship
 

Deity worship (which is akin to hero worship in common parlance) is core in Hinduism. Deity in Human form is the nearest representative of the formless God without any attributes/qualities (Nirgun Nirakar). As per Avtar mimansa (doctrine) it is the manifest form of formless God without any attributes/qualities and NOT just nearest representative like saint .

As u rightly noted Patanjali's yogsutra is very authentic for Deity worship . Though my meditation and deity worship practices are not great and there is great scope for improvement, I write here from memory what i have read and heard to the best of my knowledge.

1. Thorough knowledge of deity life
2. Firm conviction of presence of God in the deity. Agnostic or skeptical people will not benefit.
3. Intense love for the deity
4. daily meditation/worship for roughly 30/45 mins.
5. Though best offering to God from you is your heart and mind (which at best u can say is yours with your own efforts) , you can offer water, leaves,fruits,flower,delicacy,incense , deepak (sort of a candle lit from oil), candle etc

There are nine stages of bhakti which seeker progressively goes through.All these too can help you in your worship practice .

1). Hearing about God (Shravana)

2). Chanting His Name and Glory (Kirtana)

3). Remembering Him (Smarana)

4). Serving His Lotus Feet (Pada Sevana)

5). Worshipping Him as per the Scriptures (Archana)

6). Prostrating before Him (Vandana)

7). Being His Servant (Dasya)

8). Befriending Him (Sakhya)

9). Offering Oneself to Him (Atma Nivedana)


Hope this helps .

You are presenting me Bhakti Yoga which is a Yoga I am interested in but I'm currently researching Deity Yoga.. Which I have already explained. It's beginning to appear to me that this Yoga is only within Vajrayana Buddhism. I'm looking for other Yogas that involve Deities / Gods (Goddesses) and I am thankful for your input.

For example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity_yoga

I was told that Deity Yoga started in India and influenced both Hinduism and Buddhism.. Maybe even some Jainism. I've been asking for information in multiple forums and I'm just not getting the info I am looking for. So I am beginning to believe that there is no Deity Yoga in Hinduism.

deity yoga
 

I saw he link and broadly I can see it talks of rituals or tantra part of deity yoga and what I wrote is more spirit part of it. While rituals/tantra is important but it helps only when requisite spirit too is present. Also my knowledge or rituals is fairly weak.

Deity yoga in the wikileaks is about idol worship or murti puja one may call in India . And idol worship is integral part of Hinduism with many variations and shades across India.

There is a serious contradiction and lack of clarity in your message above. The contradiction is that you are talking about visualizing Krishna or whichever other deity or great being first externally and then internally, and yet you talk of imbibing the **qualities** of Krishna. Just think about it logically. How can visualization give you access to anyone's qualities. For that you will have to read good books on Krishna or whichever other deity you want to practice with. Mental qualities cannot be imbibed through visualization. However there is a way that uses visualization:

1. First read good books on the being. While reading, underline sentences and passages that strike you as inspiring or good.
2. Then pick up one such idea and then visualize the deity and at the same time think about the idea or quality that you have just read.

This way the quality will become associated with the form of the deity, and once this association is firmly fixed in your mind, whenever you think of the deity, you will automatically think of the quality. Little by little you will begin to embody the quality yourself.

Deity visualization is a powerful practice that imagines 'ourselves' as what we would like to be. Some admire the 'Attributes ' of certain Deities and have a desire to connect with them and ' become ' as one. I understand what Tirisilex is saying although I have use different words...

Since you have mentioned yoga and Patañjali, I will answer based only on Yogasutra by Patañjali. This work does not mention deva but it mentions iśvara which means 'a higher controller'. Specifically, it recommends iśvara praṇidhāna which means surrender to the higher power. This source does not explicitly locate the higher power either inside or outside of yourself. I think that the act of surrender is expected to lead to a peaeful state that will open the way to knowledge about the higher power.