Hari Boll.
I have a few ??? as regards this org.
On saturday in London we had the festival mind body and spiritit like every year there come differen kind of group of religion and healings.
I noticed devotes from a distance.I went to them but they looked a little bit different than standard devotes.They have tilak like Ramanuja.
Ok I went to them to ask who were are.
The organization call Bakti-Marga.
Their Swami colected all aspects of different religions but they told me based on Ramanuja sampradaya. .Most of them are devotes from ISCON.They told me that this prezentetion of good is perfect for them.
After searching in the you tube I found many movies from Poland .There jointed many people.I did not know about that.They sing Christian songs and Mahamantra
and many of those.
Swami Vishwananda founded the "Bhakti Marga" order, which embraces both Hindu and Christian elements. The community is orientated to the teachings of Holy scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and other timeless teachings of various Sages and Saints.
Swami Vishwananda embraces all religions and cultures. Swami VishwanandaA special love binds him to Jesus Christ and His message, which is imbued with unconditional love and acceptance. Swami Vishwananda’s natural ease in connecting elements from western tradition with Hindu spirituality, gives people access to a very personal experience with the Divine, regardless of culture, gender or age
"Through the ages many teachers, many Saints & Sages have lived. Their message was in its essence always the same, yet wrapped in different words, languages & traditions. What we lack in this world are not the teachings on God-realisation; what we lack is people’s will to really go within and put the teachings into practice. Especially in today's world, there exist a lot of distractions that lead to 'outer attachments' that are finite and cause suffering again and again when lost. People should become aware of the 'inner attachments' that are eternal and cause no suffering.
God is always there – like the sun shining through a window. It is up to us to draw the curtains and open the window."
What kind of bhakti they can get.?
What is your opinion about that?
Even they teach about Mahaprabhu hmm I think for many people it is more convenient .
Have look this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpkRWpRYZGg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mry9renZAqM
www.bhaktimarga.org
.
:Cool: :Cool: I've come across a lot of devotees who like to make cocktails with Christianity. My first impression is that if Christianity is a building of 25 stories, and GV a 108-story building, you can have a conversation from the roof of the first with someone on the 25th floor in front of you, but that's it. They may be having a swimming pool party on the roof of the 108-story building, but you are to know about that only if the guy on the 25th floor tells you about it, if he has been there at all.
:)Yes when I listen his lecture I only hear love love to God .God is the same for everyone hmm right but I can not be really only sentimental.Maybe those people they need this kind of Guru but for me it would be not enough to hear love for God without any principle at beginning.Like you said this example with the floor.
:)Yes when I listen his lecture I only hear love love to God .God is the same for everyone hmm right but I can not be really only sentimental.Maybe those people they need this kind of Guru but for me it would be not enough to hear love for God without any principle at beginning.Like you said this example with the floor.
there is no mention of any philosophy underlying the practice.
As to what kind of bhakti they can get, it's kind of confusing, because both personal and impersonal aspects of God are talked about. They talk about devotion to God as the all-pervading divine love, but then supplement that with Krishna's pastimes.
From the information on the bhakti marga websites and youtube clips, their aim seems to be self realisation and love of God. They aim to reveal the divine light/ love that lies within, connect with that through bhakti and feel joy in the presence of and being in harmony with the Divine.
Swami Vishwananda's (founder of BM) teachings include
- God is one, God is Love inside all of us
- we need to become free from expectations. expec bring suffering, real bhakti is free from expec and leads to unconditional love of God
- unlike human love relations, God loves everyone equally
- we cant love God for the sake of doing so. to love God, we need to see a bit of the light, see signs of Him
- we all have a loving r'ship with God and have the potential to loose ourselves in that love
Their process, bhakti kriya, sounds similar to the impersonal sudarshan kriya meditations that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar teaches in the Art Of Living movement, involving pranayamas and yoga asanas. It is believed to draw the life force away from the senses and material distractions to higher planes in the brain and spine.
I like this quote:
What we lack in the world today are not teachings on God-realisation; what we lack is people’s desire to really go within and put the teachings into practice.”
Sri Swami Vishwananda
I find it interesting that they maintain deity worship and kirtan when their philosophy emphasises love to the omnipresent divinity of God more than love of Sri Krsna. The Art of Living meditations also finish with bhajans. I guess, like us, they just cant do without kirtan!
I didn't understand this concept either:
When you surrender yourself wholeheartedly and say, "God I want You. Reveal Yourself to me!" then God will reveal Himself. He cannot say "No" to you because your own Self cannot hide from yourself."
So their claim is our true self is also God? maybe i am misconstruing the last sentence
From this and the rest of what I've read here it appears to be a mixture of yoga, jnana, and bhakti. The prayojana is not clearly articulated, but from the following statement what is clear is that it is not suddha-bhakti as taught by the Goswamis. Eternal service is not mentioned, which usually means it's another shade of mayavada. Yoga and bhakti are seen as tools to realize one's oneness with God and retire once that realization is mature.I find it interesting that they maintain deity worship and kirtan when their philosophy emphasises love to the omnipresent divinity of God more than love of Sri Krsna.
When you surrender yourself wholeheartedly and say, "God I want You. Reveal Yourself to me!" then God will reveal Himself. He cannot say "No" to you because your own Self cannot hide from yourself."So their claim is our true self is also God? maybe i am misconstruing the last sentence
In suddha-bhakti we make no demands on Bhagavan to appear to us--that is not what surrender means. Surrender means we give up our sense of self based on material identification, and ask to be used however Sri Guru and Sri Krsna want to use us. Yes, that does ultimately culminate in Krsna revealing himself (and more, giving himself) to his devotee, but even then there is no demand made. Further, just because the jiva realizes her qualitative oneness with her source does not compel God to appear--this is just more advaitavada.
I agree with Citta Hari wholeheartedly. This young man is not teaching suddha bhakti. He has nothing but generalizations and spiritual pabulum to offer. I can't find any evidence that he's not just an opportunist exploiting the apparently innocent. There is some evidence that he's either a Sai Baba spin-off, if not someone who decided he could try SB's business freelance. Those interested in suddha bhakti will find no nourishment here.
Those interested in suddha bhakti will find no nourishment here.
Ah yes, well said, and with conviction! Jai Garua!
It is not suddha bhakti at all and I think he is not philosophically sound. Among all the impersonalists, I think Aurobindo's integral yoga is the best I have seen. It opposed traditional mayavada(doesn't deny anything as false hence it is called integral philosophy) and he combines elements from Plotinus, Plato, Hegel and jnana marga(upanishadic wisdom from east). There are many schools who are not "mayavadi" as they don't deny the reality of the world and all its form but they think it is emanating from a universal spirit. This understanding is very bonafide(grounded in scripture) and it is possible to get a strong realization of this fact if somebody doesn't want suddha bhakti. It is easier to agree with most aspects of this kind of philosophy than pure mayavada philosophy except for the fact that they don't have the prayojana of suddha bhakti and some details in the metaphysic of theistic monism are not correct. I think in modern times the approach of condemning the material world too much like prabhupada or even SSM can be counterproductive. We have to focus more on attacking the mentality of exploitation and artificial renunciation and replacing it with service and dedication. The emphasis has to be on inner transformation rather than physically going somewhere. GV can be described as a path to lead us to a
plane where we can see Krsna and his energies everywhere even in this life. No demand is put on Krsna for anything except unconditional service( 4th verse of sikshastakam).
I am sorry, I have been very busy with my work so I couldn't put more thought into this post.