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1. Abhyasa: Practice of constantly and continuously remembering God with a steady mind. | ||||||||||
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Bhavas are the expression of ones attachment and surrender to God in one form or other dear to them creating a strong feeling of identity of the self and its relation to the Divine. The Hindu Bhakthi Sasthra describes nineteen forms of Bhakthi or devotion. Of these Six are important. When God is conceived as a person it is the feeling a worshipper gets towards Him in various ways, called Bhava. It is the feeling one develops towards God when a worshipper conceives Him as a person. It is the inner attitudes or mental state that expresses a particular relationship with God. Each devotee develops his/her own form of Bhakthi since the love of God is like an ocean. Each one accepts his/her own personal 'God' for their devotion just as each person sees his/her own rainbow. Everyone sees his or her own rainbow which is the sunlight reflected through water droplets. It is not an illusion but a vision of Nature where reality is covered by the limitations of our perception. Similarly, every one sees God through one's own vision where the Supreme Truth appears Himself for us in many forms, through the covering of Maya, to each one according to one's own desire, need and limitations of knowledge. | |||||||||||
Once a person develops the intense devotion and understands the Divine forces inside and around him/her all the time he/she is ready for the state of saranaagathi or total surrender. As they develop the devotion, they get the feeling of attachment to the Divine just like a servant to a master, a child to the mother, a mother to the child, a young girl to her lover, a wife to her husband. This is a state of unconditional love and attachment, not looking for any favor in return. Here, the devotees imagine their own self as the woman in love with the Supreme as her own child, lover, master or husband, or as a friend towards another friend or a servant towards his master. In all instances this attachment is of pure love without degenerating into a state of familiarity or sensuality. All Puranas explain this state of pure love and attachment as a state of surrender or saranagathi of the Jeevathma or the self towards the Pramathma or the Divine Soul. | |||||||||||
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