“All Spiritual Journeys have a destination of which the traveller is unaware. Most of us who start out on the yoga mat do not realize that, if we dedicate ourselves to practice, it is only a matter of time until the mat becomes an altar”
Stephen Cope
Greetings dear yoga students,
The practice of Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of devotion. Every pose we take, every breath we inhale, every intention and action is practiced as devotion to our divine source. The deeper we penetrate our physical world through our asana practice, we realize the divine lives in all things physical and that the physical lives in all things spiritual and we tap into the energy of yoga (connections). When we tap into the energy of yoga or connection of mind, body and spirit we can experience, what Bhakti yogis aim for; a “direct, intense, personal relationship with the divine or simply with life itself”.
Practicing yoga this morning in the middle of the woods with the birds, trees and sun, it did not take long for my yoga mat to become an alter. Seemingly magically, my physical practice transformed into an experience of being deeply connected to everything around me and inside of me, even the sound of children playing in the distance became part of the musical symphony that was playing inside and around me. I was completely immersed in Bhakti Yoga, devoting my practice to my divine source.
There are countless ways to practice Bhakti yoga. Chanting spiritual mantras, praying with beads, gardening in the earth’s soil, relishing the light in a loved ones eyes, playing with a child or finding compassion in your heart when it is needed most are all postures we can take to express our devotion to the divine forces that are all around us. We can also come to our formal yoga practice with dedication and reverence for this ancient science which enables us to transform our own yoga mat into a sacred space where we come to be in the presence of the divine that is both inside, outside and in all things.
Yoga With Amy 