Bhakti as Wise Love

Learned something fascinating at yoga class today.

"Bhakti is wise love."

No, I'm not talking about romantic love or parent-child love. This is something else.

People say love has no place for wisdom. That love is blind and stupid.

But what if we were to perceive love from a place of compassion and describe it as the act of say, forgiveness? Forgiving those we love but who hurt us either intentionally or unintentionally or because their circumstances left them with no other choice? Or even forgiving ourselves for not being perfect enough to forgive?

There is so much beauty in loving wisely, and in the wisdom of love. Very often, our mind and heart are disconnected, or worse, are at conflict with each other. In the same way, our inner and outer worlds are often not in sync, and we are forced to live a life where we are not true to ourselves. Rather, we force ourselves to live in Asatya - by lying to ourselves. And when we live in Asatya, we also commit Himsa - violence - toward ourselves and the world around us.

Conversely, when our thoughts and feelings are in sync and our inner and outer worlds are at peace with each other, we can be in a state of balance, and then experience and express wholeheartedly, whatever concept the term "wise love" means for us, forgiveness, or something else. We may or may not immediately succeed in expressing or experiencing this Bhakti, but we will succeed in trying. And trying is our Dharma - our lifelong duty, thus creating Bhakti Yoga as a means to continue walking on our path as Karma Yogis or "householders."

Here is a Yoga mudra - a yoga pose with our hands - whose wisdom we can invoke when we wish to bring our inner and outer worlds in sync: Dharmachakra mudra, or the gesture of turning the wheel.

Step 1: Face your left hand toward your heart with your fingers spread.

Step 2: Bring the thumb and index figure together on your right hand and touch the tip of the ring finger on your left hand.

The left hand here represents our heart and inner world, the right hand represents our material world, both hands together represent the wheels of life, and the middle finger connecting the two represents Dharma, as the middle finger represents Saturn, the dispenser of justice and the activator of transition. This mudra therefore may be interpreted as building of the connection between inner and outer worlds (or our heart and material desires) and using that to trigger positive change through truthfulness to ourselves. (This mudra has many other interpretations, but for the purpose of this reading, we'll stick with this one. Gertrud Hirschi in her book explains this mudra more eloquently and elaborately.)

So, strive for love. Love others and yourself from a place of kindness and positivity, and with good intent. The good intent right there is wisdom and wise love. Many times, the Bhakti will help us build bridges with others and often make our day-to-day life easier to live. Sometimes, we will have to decide that we can no longer hold positive intent towards certain circumstances or people - that's okay, and that means it is time once again to call upon the wisdom of our heart to lovingly forgive and let go, in the knowledge that the Universe will do what is right for us and the world, and that all the good we give will lovingly find its way back to us.