Devotion to God is developed in nine different ways. It is supreme attacment to God
through a Bhava predominant in the devotee. Intense love is the common factor in all the
nine modes. Exclusive love for God is expressed through various methods. All Bhaktas of
this type are above the formalities of the world. They are untouched by the laws of human
Dharma and are out and out concerned with God.
Good conduct which is in accordance with perfect moral law is an auxiliary to pure
Bhakti and it follows the true Bhakta wherever he goes. One cannot develop true devotion
to God if he is crooked in his heart, if he has got objects of love in this world, if he
is tempted by charming worldly things, if he wishes to take care of his wife, children and
relatives, if he wishes to feed his body well, if he wishes to earn a great name in the
world, if he wants to establish a permanent fame on earth, if he does not like to part
with the alluring contents of the world. Perfect detachment from all objects is a
preliminary to real devotion. Vairagya is the product of real love for God. One who has
love for the world cannot have love for God. Where there is Kama, there cannot be Rama and
where there is Rama there cannot be Kama. Love for the world and love for God are
diametrically opposite things. One has to be renounced for the attainment of the other.
This renunciation can be acquired through the nine forms of Bhakti.
In the Srimad-Bhagavata and the Vishnu Purana it is told that the nine forms of Bhakti
are
- Sravana (hearing of God's Lilas and stories),
- Kirtana (singing of His glories),
- Smarana (remembrance of His name and presence),
- Padasevana (service of His feet),
- Archana (worship of God),
- Vandana (prostration to Lord),
- Dasya (cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God),
- Sakhya (cultivation of the friend-Bhava) and
- Atmanivedana (complete surrender of the self).
A devotee can practice any method of Bhakti which suits him best. Through that he will
attain Divine illumination.
Sravana is hearing of Lord's Lilas. Sravana includes hearing of God's virtues,
glories, sports and stories connected with His divine Name and Form. The devotee gets
absorbed in the hearing of Divine stories and his mind merges in the thought of divinity;
it cannot think of undivine things. The mind loses, as it were, its charm for the world.
The devotee remembers God only even in dream.
The devotee should sit before a learned teacher who is a great saint and hear Divine
stories. He should hear them with a sincere heart devoid of the sense of criticism or
fault-finding. The devotee should try his best to live in the ideals preached in the
scriptures.
One cannot attain Sravana-Bhakti without the company of saints or wise men. Mere
reading for oneself is not of much use. Doubts will crop up. They cannot be solved by
oneself easily. An experienced man is necessary to instruct the devotee in the right path.
King Parikshit attained Liberation through Sravana. He heard the glories of God from
Suka Maharishi. His heart was purified. He attained the Abode of Lord Vishnu in Vaikuntha.
He became liberated and enjoyed the Supreme Bliss.
Kirtana is singing of Lord's glories. The devotee is thrilled with Divine
Emotion. He loses himself in the love of God. He gets horripilation in the body due to
extreme love for God. He weeps in the middle when thinking of the glory of God. His voice
becomes choked, and he flies into a state of Divine Bhava. The devotee is ever engaged in
Japa of the Lord's Name and in describing His glories to one and all. Wherever he goes he
begins to sing and praise God. He requests all to join his Kirtana. He sings and dances in
ecstasy. He makes others also dance.
Smarana is remembrance of the Lord at all times. This is unbroken memory of the
Name and Form of the Lord. The mind does not think of any object of the world, but is ever
engrossed in thinking of the glorious Lord alone. The mind meditates on what is heard
about the glories of God and His virtues, Names, etc., and forgets even the body and
contents itself in the remembrance of God, just as Dhruva or Prahlada did. Even Japa is
only remembrance of God and comes under this category of Bhakti. Remembrance also includes
hearing of stories pertaining to God at all times, talking of God, teaching to others what
pertains to God, meditation on the attributes of God, etc. Remembrance has no particular
time. God is to be remembered at all times without break, so long as one has got his
consciousness intact.
Padasevana is serving the Lord's Feet. Actually this can be done only by Lakshmi
or Parvati. No mortal being has got the fortune to practice this method of Bhakti, for the
Lord is not visible to the physical eyes. But it is possible to serve the image of God in
idols and better still, taking the whole humanity as God. This is Padasevana. Padasevana
is service of the sick. Padasevana is service of the whole humanity at large. The whole
universe is only Virat-Swarupa. Service of the world is service of the Lord.
Archana is worship of the Lord. Worship can be done either through an image or a
picture or even a mental form. The image should be one appealing to the mind of the
worshipper.
Worship can be done either with external materials or merely through an internal Bhava
or strong feeling. The latter one is an advanced form of worship which only men of
purified intellect can do. The purpose of worship is to please the Lord, to purify the
heart through surrender of the ego and love of God.
Vandana is prayer and prostration. Humble prostration touching the earth with
the eight limbs of the body (Sashtanga-Namaskara), with faith and reverence, before a form
of God, or prostration to all beings knowing them to be the forms of the One God, and
getting absorbed in the Divine Love of the Lord is termed prostration to God or Vandana.
The ego or Ahamkara is effaced out completely through devout prayer and prostration to
God. Divine grace descends upon the devotee and man becomes God.
Dasya Bhakti is the love of God through servant-sentiment. To serve God and
carry out His wishes, realizing His virtues, nature, mystery and glory, considering
oneself as a slave of God, the Supreme Master, is Dasya Bhakti.
Serving and worshipping the Murtis in temples, sweeping the temple premises, meditating
on God and mentally serving Him like a slave, serving the saints and the sages, serving
the devotees of God, serving poor and sick people who are forms of God, is also included
in Dasya-Bhakti.
To follow the words of the scriptures, to act according to the injunctions of the
Vedas, considering them to be direct words of God, is Dasya Bhakti. Association with and
service of love-intoxicated devotees and service of those who have knowledge of God is
Dasya Bhakti. The purpose behind Dasya Bhakti is to be ever with God in order to offer
service to Him and win His Divine Grace and attain thereby immortality.
Sakhya-Bhava is the cultivation of the friend-sentiment with God. The inmates of
the family of Nandagopa cultivated this Bhakti. Arjuna cultivated this kind of Bhakti
towards Lord Krishna.
To be always with the Lord, to treat Him as one's own dear relative or a friend
belonging to one's own family, to be in His company at all times, to love Him as one's own
self, is Sakhya-Bhava of Bhakti-Marga. How do friends, real friends, love in this world ?
What an amount of love they possess between one another ? Such a love is developed towards
God instead of towards man; physical love turned into spiritual love. There is a
transformation of the mundane into the Eternal.
Atma-Nivedana is self-surrender. The devotee offers everything to God, including
his body, mind and soul. He keeps nothing for himself. He loses even his own self. He has
no personal and independent existence. He has given up his self for God. He has become
part and parcel of God. God takes care of him and God treats him as Himself. Grief and
sorrow, pleasure and pain, the devotee treats as gifts sent by God and does not attach
himself to them. He considers himself as a puppet of God and an instrument in the hands of
God.
This self-surrender is Absolute Love for God exclusively. There is nothing but
God-consciousness in the devotee. Even against his own wishes, the devotee shall become
one with God and lose his individuality. This is the law of being. The highest truth is
Absoluteness and the soul rises above through different states of consciousness until it
attains Absolute Perfection when it becomes identical with God. This is the culmination of
all aspiration and love.
The nine modes of Bhakti are the ways in which a devotee attains the Supreme Ideal of
life. A devotee can take up any of these paths and reach the highest state. The path of
Bhakti is the easiest of all and is not very much against the nature of human
inclinations. It slowly and gradually takes the individual to the Supreme without
frustrating his human instincts. It is not direct assertion of God, but a progressive
realization of Him
