January 18, 2026

Suman ji in today’s class will go over general Satsanga on Bhakti. For greater clarity Suman ji will anchor us Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12 verses 6 and 7. For Sankar ji the more he reflects on two verses that are dear to him, the more life unfolds, the more they deeply resonate to Sankar ji. Sankar ji hopes we will have same meaning, connection, perhaps more deepening of Bhakti. These two verses describe 1) a way of life 2) a living relationship 3) put simply they reveal the way devotee live and the way Bhagavan responds in addition to philosophy.  In our tradition we speak of different Yogas as natural inner progression

• Karma Yoga begins by addressing the ego through action where the ego begins to soften by learning doershiplessness and deservershiplessness. The heart is warmed, prepared and made available.
• Bhakti Yoga takes that softened ego and redirects it towards Bhagavan not towards achievement. The same sense of I that one sought control now seeks relationship. It feels like love replacing anxiety.
• Through Karma Yoga we become a vessel, and Bhakti Yoga fills that vessel. When heart is prepared through action, and filled with devotion it becomes Adhikari, the ideal student ready to receive Jnanam that Bhagavan is not the object of devotion, Bhagavan and Bhakta are one and the same.

Sri Hanumana shares this when Bhagavan Rama asks him “Who am I to you?” after the war in Lanka. Sri Hanumana so lovingly shares “As a Karma Yogi I am your servant and you are my master. As a Bhakta Yogi you are part of the whole that you are. As a Jnana Yogi you and I are one.”  What we will see today is how Bhakti is the bridge between all three; effort, understanding, action and absorption which is meditation. Meditation is not a verb; it is a noun state of being.

We are going to review these verses through the lens of Bhakti; they reveal how to live and what naturally unfolds when life is lived this way.

yē tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparāḥ ।
ananyēnaiva yōgēna māṃ dhyāyanta upāsatē ॥ 6 ॥

Those who offer all their actions on to me, who regard me as a supreme goal and who worship me with single minded devotion

tēṣāmahaṃ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṃsārasāgarāt ।
bhavāmi na chirātpārtha mayyāvēśitachētasām ॥ 7 ॥

For them whose minds are absorbed in me, I myself become the savior and I lift them ocean of Samsara this cycle of death and birth.

Bhagavan Sri Krishna is not giving us a technique here.  He is describing a relationship of when heart is placed rightly and what naturally unfolds when the placement is steady. We are being shown the way the Bhakta lives and the way of Bhakti and the way Bhagavan responds three Bs almost like our trinity of Sadhaka, Sadhana and Sadhya. Bhakti is being described not as an ideal to achieve but as a way of being that slowly matures.

Story: Story of Sudhama and Sri Krishna began when they met in Sandeepany Ashram. Bhagavan asked Sudhama “will you be my friend?” Sudhama hesitates because he says “I have nothing to offer.” Sri Krishna says “No matter what we will be friends. I promise you that I will never ask you more than what you can give.” Yeas passed, Bhagavan Sri Krishna became King of Dwaraka. Sudhama became so poor with lot of children struggling to make the ends meet. Sudhama’s wife suggested Sudhama to meet his friend Sri Krishna to ask for help. With hesitation he begins his journey to Dwaraka with a desire for welfare of his family with flat rice in torn cloth to offer to Sri Krishna which was all he had. As he began travelling, he became absorbed about his childhood with Sri Krishna, their mischiefs.  As soon as Sri Krishna hears that Sudhama is at his palace, he runs barefoot forgetting everything to embrace his friend and carries Sudhama and places him on his thrown crying, washed Sudhama’s feet. While meeting and going over their childhood memories, his friend Sudhama forgot what he came for. Sri Krishna takes what Sudhama brought for him though Sudhama tries to hide and eats it with such a joy. Bhagavan never asks us more than what we can give any day, only what will help us grow. Sudhama starts to return home after over joy, full after connecting with Bhagavan. Once he reaches his home, he can’t find his home. His family comes running from that big palace which was replaced by his home. Then he realized Bhagavan gave him though he forgot to ask. Bhagavan is always giving, we are forgetting what we are getting. Sudhama shows what we reflected on Bhakti Yoga not being separate path, natural flowering of heart already refined by Karma Yoga. Sudhama’s needs do not become central thinking of his life. As Sudhama walks towards Dwaraka worries start to disappear his memories start to come back and Bhagavan Sri Krishna has moved to the center. This is the meaning of matparāḥ., 6^th verse one for whom Bhagavan is the primary reference point. As he walked towards Dwaraka there was a shift from the I of worries of suffering and survival now rested in connection. This transformation is Bhakti Yoga not escaping from responsibilities but the effort that is no longer driven by that ego, feeling that doership, deservership, it is where the desire is no longer the master. Bhakta fully lives in the world yet anchored in Bhagavan. Earlier we said Bhakti Yoga is the bridge between effort and absorption. Karma Yoga empties the vessel, removes agitation, egoistic insistence. But yet empty vessel, Bhakti fulfils that empty vessel. Sudhama shows this filling, he lives his responsibilities, his remembrance towards Bhagavan deepens the inner space occupied by that Karma Yoga now occupied with that primary relationship. That is why mind settles. This is ananyēnaiva yōgēna, that undivided orientation where the heart has taken the refuge in divine. That is why the ask is forgotten its not suppressed, its displaced. Anxiety is no longer rushed into fill that space about the outcomes because love already has. Bhakti doesn’t reveal the truth; it prepares heart to receive it. Karma Yoga removes the noise, Bhakti Yoga rests heart in Bhagavan, Jnana Yoga reveal what has always been. You were never bound; you were always free. Bhagavan Sri Krisha shares sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya, offer all actions to me. Sudhama’s story really shows what this means. Offering does not mean perfection. Sudhama offers what he has handful of flattened rice with hesitation, humility. Bhagavan accepts with delight. Bhakti is not the greatness of offering; it’s about the direction of the heart. More important than the rice that is offered is offering himself. When he arrived, his desire was only to be with Bhagavan. Bhagavan responded without question he was happy to be with him. Bhagavan runs towards us like a child with no conditions. Just so happy.

Bhagavan shares ahaṃ samuddhartā, I myself become the lifter. Sudhama forgets his need. Yet Bhagavan does not forget him. Why? Because Bhagavan doesn’t respond to words or strategy but to our orientation or absorption. Bhagavan’s grace is like fire who doesn’t discriminate, available to all. What determines is not the fire but proximity to the fire. Proximity comes when we no longer hold on our life is separate from him.  His grace is ever present. We must only feel move close to feel. Being fully available to one who is fully available to him. We orient ourselves. This entire experience is beautifully exemplified by Sri Rama Krishna and Sri Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda’s relationship deepened with Sri Rama Krishna not without struggle, not without doubt when he heard the answer to “Sir, have you seen God?” Swami Vivekananda’s family was carrying real burden with family struggles, poverty at that time. Swami Vivekananda never asked for help somewhere along the line that relationship became primary. He wanted truth but not approaching Guru as the means to the ends. At that point Sri Rama Krishna advised him to go ask Kali for help. Every time when Swami Vivekananda opened his mouth to seek help about family he was asking for discrimination/Viveka, strength/Bala, devotion/Bhakti. He returned without asking anything outwards. At that point his heart has turned life no longer was held separately. When that happens that desire has no longer that urgency. Without ask help, support came to Swami Vivekananda’s family because he already placed his heart rightly just like Sudhama. When relationship became primary that need loosened its grip. Grace flowed of its own accord. Connection between Bhakta, Bhakti and Bhagavan. In Vedanta we speak of Sadhaka/seeker, Sadhana/means, Sadhya/goal. Bhakti speaks of the same journey in the language of the heart. Bhakta is Sadhaka the one is who is walking. Bhakti itself is Sadhana not as the technique to be practiced but as a relationship to be lived. Bhagavan is the Sadhya not as future destination but as very center towards heart is already leaning. Sudhama shows that when alignment becomes steady quiet transformation of Sadhaka not feeling alone happens. Sadhana no longer feels like strain.  Sadhya is no longer distant. This is why Bhagavan Sri Krishna says for them I myself become the lifter not because life disappears but heart has found where it belongs. When that belonging deepens Bhakti gently prepares us for that final recognition that Bhakta, Bhakti and Bhagavan are never separate.

Discussion Subject: When life presses through stress, responsibility, or uncertainty where does my heart naturally go for support?  What might it look like let the heart rest with Bhagavan instead?

Sankar Ji: For most of us when life presses heart doesn’t go to Bhagavan first. It goes to control, over think, how to fix, really how to find reassurance from the world. It means simply we are looking for the safety where it always looked. Bhakti isn’t stop acting, planning, or caring it is inviting much simpler. Before I try to solve life, where does my heart stand?  Sudhama says nothing about his circumstances to Bhagavan. Swami Vivekananda asks for Viveka. They are quiet shifts in orientation. Bhakti begins with noticing moment we notice that Ah my heart has run somewhere else and bringing back to Bhagavan.  Sankar ji shares that what do we usually ask when we turn to Bhagavan? Answer was simple to know us, to love us, to be with us period. If we keep asking for same things we keep meeting life at the same place. Bhakti shows us life itself is not lacking. What changes is not life, what changes is our vision. Bhakti doesn’t ask for more it simply asks us to remember. Over time that remembering becomes where our heart lives. Its not about changing what we face, it’s about who to trust our hearts with while we face it.