Powerful Bhakti Yoga

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Powerful Bhakti Yoga

“The most ancient traveller in the world is love,” Swami Rama often told his students. “Many follow the path of bhakti yoga, the path of love and devotion, but it is not as easy to follow as most people think. Bhakti yoga is not the path for blind followers.”

It is extremely crucial to use all our senses while following path of Bhakti yoga, in Bhakti yoga acceptance and surrender exist together.

According to the Narada Bhakti Sutras, bhakti is intense love for God. It is a deep yearning to experience love in its purest and highest form, to unite with that which is eternal and unchanging.

Today, we chat on the Mat with Goura Umana, yogi traveller from Costa Rica, learning how being a westerner he cultivated Bhakti Yoga in his daily life.

hmy –  How do you define Bhakti yoga for your favourite deity “Vishnu” and how it separates you from not being a partisan?

Goura Umana – I will first give a small definition of Bhakti. I would define Bhakti yoga as the yoga of love, the love which is coming from our real selfs or as it is called in the Vedas: Jivatma. From the jiva which is our true nature in existence we create a connection of love with God and his associates, a connection that last for eternity, this connection is not related to our bodies nor our personalities since they are considered temporary and illusory. Bhakti is already within us, so are happiness and bliss and in order to experience this reality it is needed a proper sadhana(practice) under the guidance of a qualified spiritual master, surrounded by sadhus and bhaktas and putting aside all our misconceptions and speculative knowledge which are usually based on temporary enjoyment. This is the Bhakti we aspire to reach, not to Vishnu since Vishnu is not my “favorite” deity. We, Vaisnavas, we are not devotees of Vishnu since Krisna and Vishnu are not in the same mood, they don’t have the same qualities and they don’t live in the same place; we are devotees of Srimati Radharani. Why Radharani and not Krisna? Because Radharani is the beloved of Krisna and she is the one who expresses the highest love for him, from her we learn how to love God, how to please him, how to play with him, how to cook for him and so many others.

About being partisan I would say that I am very opened to accept and let the people life and believe in what make them happy, I like to share happiness and what I like and fallow don’t have to be the same in everyone although I can also mention that I don’t like to mix and speculate about things, I like real sources of knowledge. 

hmy –  You are a pure Vaishnavaites (follower of Vishnuism/Vaishnism), how it happened in your life?

Goura Umana – My mother became a devotee when she was 20 years old so I was born in a devotee family. My mother used to hold programs and festivals in our house and her spiritual master was usually coming over and spend some days with us. 

hmy –  Hinduism have religious tales of magic & myths, as a westerner do you believe in magic & myths? Which is your favourite tale & why?

Goura Umana – I believe in them more than ,magical and myths. I see them as actual history, and I’ve always been impressed of how one finds answers about existence and God. Manifestations and mood towards him, it is reality and if one has the capacity to see and realize it outside of the tales and stories, the way how we see life can change, our perception of things and our roll as beings. 

hmy –  Which avatar is powerful Krishna or Vishnu, and which avatar traits would you pick to make world a better place to live?

Goura Umana – The power is actually Shakti, shakti is the most powerful, there’s no movement without her. I would say that grounding our feed and minds is what is needed. Respect for nature and humans, values and cooperation; easy to say but not easy for our selfish tendencies. So no need of picking an avatar, it is about compassion and brotherhood.

hmy – Practice forgiveness and compassion, how challenging it is for you at young age?

Goura Umana – This a big theme that involves social and phycological grounds, sometimes being compassion is against our own culture… but in simple words I can say that the only challenge we young people have is: not to be strong enough to keep one’s decisions, not to be brave enough to show weakness and compassion.

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