Bhakti
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““Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Love is a complicated word. It is both remarkably underused and wildly overused. It can communicate both passionate reverence and a fleeting frivolous preference. Love can be deep and weighty as in, “I love my dad.” Love can be thin and trivial as in, “I love chocolate.”
The Greeks deciphered and defined seven distinct types of love ranging from eros (romantic) to philia (brotherly) to ludus (playful, child-like). The highest and purest form of love in the Greco-Christian tradition is agape (the love of God for man and of man for God). Agape love is steadfast, abiding, and intentional. It is the highest devotion to God. It is a love void of selfish expectation and fear. It is a love full of purity, goodness, and freedom from everything but longing for the divine. This is bhakti!
Bhakti literally means love. Love in all of its forms from the most common and mundane to the purest and most profound. The practice of bhakti is highly accessible because it is a love that contains them all.
The myriad by-ways of love all intersect at bhakti. Bhakti is where we begin to see all that is as the embodiment of Love. The divine in me recognizes and honors the divine in you. In our essence, we are the same, we are one. Bhakti is the path of love and devotion that unites us all. It can begin with a love for chocolate and culminate in a love that transcends all and merges with God.
During this Thanksgiving month at WE, let’s set out together to acknowledge and embrace the love that resides within and all around us. Truly, where there is love there is life!
