The Goddesses and Bhakti Yoga

Ganapati’s work contained an extensive teaching on the Dasha Mahavidya or ten great knowledge forms of the Goddesses. I wrote about this subject in my book Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses, using Ganapati's teachings. Ganapati was also closely connected to Uma, Renuka, Chinnamasta and many other forms of the Goddess. His teachings took me deeper into Devi worship. Using various Goddess mantras has been central to my yogic practice. Most of these mantras have come from Ganapati and Natesan. Mantra after all is the form of the Goddess.

Bhakti Yoga became progressively more important for me. Its value can be described with a simple metaphor: knowledge (jnana) is the flame and the mind is the wick, but bhakti is the oil. Without bhakti spiritual knowledge burns out the mind, like a flame does a wick without oil.

I discovered that the Vedas are primarily books on Bhakti Yoga, quite contrary to a modern scholarly belief that Bhakti Yoga originated from a later Islamic or Christian influence in medieval India. The Vedas worship the Divine in all the forms of nature including human (Gods like Indra), animal (vehicles of the gods like the bull and the horse), plant (the sacred ashwattha tree and Soma plant), elemental (like fire and water), and cosmic (like the sun).