The Practice
Bhakti (Krishna consciousness) Explained
Everyone is looking for happiness and everyone is rendering some sort of service to achieve it. Some achieve a temporary sense of happiness by serving themselves, their partner, their family, their nation or community. Bhakti is the process of awakening the eternal, ever-increasing happiness one experiences through service to the Supreme Self.
The science of bhakti explains how to offer one's activities, the results of one's activities, one's words, intentions, emotions and intelligence as an offering for the pleasure of the Supreme Self. The teachings of bhakti are based on the Vedic literature of which the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam are the essence.
Bhakti is a practice as well as a goal. The activities of bhakti are the same in both the practice stage and when the goal is achieved. The difference is in the mood. The mood of one who has attained perfection in bhakti is to do everything out of spontaneous, unmotivated love for the Supreme. This is the greatest happiness in life and it is stated by the Vedas that this is the actual nature of every living entity. In practice, the spontaneous love may not be there, but the practitioner of bhakti continues with determination knowing that by following the process that spontaneous love will awaken within oneself.
