Our philosophy of Bhakti Yoga teaches us that the ultimate goal of life is to develop or awaken our pure love or the true love of the soul.
As spiritual beings we are always looking to be happy, but true happiness is inside us. We are always looking for it outside in the form of approval from others, as material achievements, a reputation in the world, or possessing material things. But all this is temporary and will end at some point. What does not end is ourselves, since we are beings: Sat – Eternal. Cit – Conscious and Ananda – Blissful. And our intention and purpose should be to open ourselves to a connection with the divine, with the sacred. With the Supreme Consciousness, especially from the opening of love and service.
So our journey and attention must be directed towards the things that are truly valuable in life. And that’s where our journey in Yoga begins. That is why we must seek the company of people who are on the path of raising awareness, seeking to develop new habits that help us improve ourselves and be able to get out of this material entanglement that creates conditionings in the mind, the senses and the soul.
Yoga invites us to improve ourselves, to free ourselves, to purify our mind and heart, and to find joy in practice. For this we have to practice Sadhana Yoga or the daily practice of Asanas, learning to breathe, to observe ourselves through introspection, to focus, meditating and serving. But this doesn’t happen overnight, so we must develop patience with ourselves and with others.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras mentions “Abhyasa and Vairāgya”, which means: the continuous practice of Yoga. That we should not stop practicing since our karma is being diminished and eliminated as we practice. And Vairagya means that we should practice detachment from things that do not help in the practice and are an obstacle to our spiritual growth.
The teachings of Bhakti Yoga tell us that we must accept everything that is favorable for our service and spiritual development and put aside everything that distracts us from the ultimate purpose of the goal in life.
For this we need Satya: being honest with ourselves to recognize our limitations and shortcomings, not living in self-deception or pretending to be someone we are not.
We must learn to accept ourselves and recognize the beauty within, in our soul, seeing that we are unique, original beings and that no one can be as we have been created. That is our divine gift, our individuality to relate individually and freely with the Supreme Being, with his creation and with the souls that we meet on our way.
Intention is very important in life and in the practice of Yoga. This defines who we are and where we want to go or what we want to do with our lives.
Intention is connected to the heart’s desire, in terms of what we aspire to in life. From a Vedic perspective, the soul comes to this world by its own desire, the desire to be happy and lives many experiences and seeking to achieve permanent happiness, but due to the impermanence of things, happiness also becomes impermanent. For that we must ensure that our actions and intentions do not create more material entanglement, or karma, and rather act trying to free ourselves from this samsara or material entanglement, free from attachment or rejection and making our work an offering of love in devotional service.
So the yogi seeks to connect his desires in a way that is really connected and aligned with the plane of Higher Consciousness, that his actions do not cause suffering to other living entities and that helps him to reach the ultimate goal of life, which is the of developing and awakening their pure love in union with the divine.
But if we have other desires to experience yet; It’s okay, we have free will to explore, experiment, learn lessons and try to be happy in this world, but also suffer, since the only thing is accompanied by the other.
Divinity has given us that freedom to love freely if we want, to dedicate ourselves to the plane of loving service or to experience this material world until we realize it, we get tired and want something different, something more elevated, and that is where the journey of the Yogi on the path of love begins.
We believe that all people have the potential and ability to create a more conscious and satisfying life, in union and harmony with nature and the divine, since we are all beings of light, eternal, conscious and blessed. But maybe in our present condition we are conditioned by the limitations of the mind, the false ego or the habits created either by the influence of culture, society or family.
That is why spiritual education is very important, the education about the Being, the knowledge that we are something more than the body, the mind or emotions. Make the distinction and not let ourselves be carried away or influenced by these factors that limit the free expression and development of the Being. That is why Yoga and spiritual retreats are very beneficial since they help you create the sacred space we need to meet and connect to through internalization and meditation.
Our mind and thoughts are creating and attracting different realities.
The situation is that we are mostly thinking about things already programmed or thought patterns already created or received by our society or family. This is what in Sanskrit is called Vritis or past impressions and these impressions are automatically projected into the present, making us see and believe a reality that is colored by these impressions stored in the subconscious.
That is why we say that Yoga is to be present, since in most cases we are only 20% aware and 80% acting unconsciously or automatically.
The better the connection, the better the perception.
From the yogic perspective, our vision is connected to the sixth chakra or ajña chakra and what we see will depend a lot on our moods and emotions created by past emotional experiences.
That is why we seek to connect internally through meditation and yoga with the plane of Higher Consciousness in order to have a broader vision or panorama of situations and circumstances in life.
The yogic teaching tells us that we must see beyond the outer appearance as there is much illusion and falsehood in the world. To see the Consciousness, the Divinity in things.
In the Bhagavat Gita, Krishna teaches Arjuna: “For those who see Me everywhere and see all things in Me, I am never lost, nor are they ever lost to Me.”
That is why Yoga invites us to go deeper into life, to not remain stuck in the past or dreaming about the future, rather, to live or act in the present with knowledge, awareness, taking conscious action of what we want to be and do, redesigning ourselves into a better version of ourselves.
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