Yoga, a word that has become common parlance in every level of society, is defined as a process of connection or linking up. A way of re-establishing a union that in the deepest recesses of our hearts we seek to have.

The standard image that comes to many minds when they hear the word is of physical postures. But yoga in its original context of the Indian literature, that is millennia old, compares it to a ladder that helps its practitioner ascend spiritually step by step.

With each step upwards we connect more and more to the goal of all our desires. And interestingly each step higher gets easier and easier. (The complete description of the foundational hatha yoga system involved levels of austerities you don’t want to hear about!) The only catch being, that one has to also acknowledge more and more that if I am to get to that place I really want to be, at the top of the ladder, where love is the essence and substance of everything, I need to give up all thoughts of love for myself. Love is the single most all-consuming, rapturous experience in life. Time stops. And is love not most truly glorified in our books and movies and songs, when it involves one side sacrificing their everything for the pleasure of their object of love?

But fear not! The yoga of bhakti, meaning the yoga of devotion, is in connection with the Supreme (called Krishna) and being all-caring and all-kind, He is eternally willing and ready to reciprocate with us as we are ready and desire to reciprocate with Him. I want to give love and be loved and the Supreme Being wants our love and to share His love with us.

And while we know that we always run the risk of becoming vulnerable to pain and hurt when we open ourselves to offer our love, the loving dealings of bhakti-yoga with the Supreme guarantee us we will never again be let down or disappointed. The endless endeavor to find a worthy place to repose our love, facing the sober reality of the finite and fallible nature of us all, will leave most frustrated. But when you are offering your love to the infinite and infallible, then the seemingly endless search for the perfect lover will be over... 

Syamananda Das Brahmacari has been a Krishna monk since 1992. He currently serves as Centre President of Govinda's Kirtan Centre in Dublin City Centre. Syamananda is often invited to lead retreats on Inis Rath Island as part of the Lake Isle Retreats team.

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