Nine Forms of Bhakti

Nine Forms of Bhakti

Dear Sai Devotees. Jai Sai Ram.

So many times SaiBaba has referred to and spoken about 9 modes of
Bhakti. Given below is a brief description of the same:

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.

1)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.

2)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.

3)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.

4)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.
5)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.

6)Vandana.. is prayer and prostration. Humble prostration touching
the earth with the eight limbs of the body (Sashtanga-Namaskar a),
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.

7)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.

8)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.

9)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.

Vandana Ritik