FOUNDATIONS OF BHAKTI: THE 7 MUST KNOW DEFINITIONS OF BHAKTI

The purpose of a definition is to help us draw a distinction between the object defined and others, and it allows us to then use the term appropriately, either in speech or in experience.

With the popularizing of yoga culture around the world,  the appropriation of words into a foreign cultural lexicon has led to a loss of the deep metaphysical underpinnings of the source culture and tradition.

This first installation of Foundations of Bhakti is concerned with unpacking the richness of metaphysical insight contained in one such word—bhakti— as defined in a source-text for one of the living traditions of bhakti:  Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhu (The Ocean of Immortality that is Bhakti-Rasa).

In this two part course we will learn about:

• a brief history of Rupa Gosvami, the medieval saint who was tasked with the responsibility of codifying the bhakti teachings during a bhakti-renaissance catalyzed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the 16th century
• the root definition of bhakti in Rupa Gosvami’s magnum opus: the Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhu
• the different types of bhakti and their definitions

Simply by deliberating on the richness of the definitions of bhakti will have a profoundly transformative affect of the individual psyche as well as how you relate to the world.