دار بيبليون
Divine Love in Yoga and in St Teresa of Avila (TA)
Lecture by Dr Lwiis Saliba on Zoom Wednesday 10/11/2021
The Bhakti Sutra: Founding text of the yoga of love
The basic and founding text of Bhakti Yoga is the Bhakti Sutra, attributed to the Rishi and the visionary Nârada. The Rishi ‘is the visionary who sees an eternal reality and impersonal knowledge. He has heard a divine word that oscillates from the infinite to the inner hearing of a man who has basically prepared himself for the impersonal and not the individual battle’ according to the sage and philosopher Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950).
Narada is one of the seven great seers of the Prajapati family, to whom a number of chants in the Rig Veda are attributed, as well as the invention of the Vînâ (lute-like) instrument. He is the ideal example of a yogic worshipper of the God Krishna.
Some scholars believe that the codification of the Bhakti Sutra dates back to the tenth century CE. However, its attribution to Rishi Narada confirms that it is much older than the date of its codification. It is likely, like all other Vedic literature, that it was transmitted orally long before its codification.
Narada states in the Bhakti Sutras that “Bhakti is used only for the purpose of obtaining no desires, for Bhakti itself is the check on all desires” (Sutra 1/6).
Rishi Narada speaks of the Trinity of Love, saying, “In establishing the Trinity of Love and the Beloved, worship God as His eternal servant, His eternal bride. This is how God is to be loved” (Sutra 16/4).
Narada’s expressions here seem to be purely Christian: “God is love, he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him” (1 John 4/16) says the New Testament verse. Christian theologians have always explained the Holy Trinity as a loving Father, a beloved Son and the Holy Spirit/love between them. The same image is found in the Bhakti Sutras, indicating a deep interaction between Christian mysticism and Bhakti/Yoga, and even an influence of Bhakti/Yoga on Christian theology.
Is it strange, then, to speak of the yoga of St Teresa of Avila? Or other saints? This crucial meeting point still needs further research and examination, both of which are not directly related to the subject of our study.
The Yoga Methods of Piety
But are the methods of the yoga of piety (bhakti yoga) limited to prayer and other forms of worship? Or does it include other non-traditional methods?
Yogis and sages define this path as follows: “Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of love directed towards the chosen form of God for worship, Îshtâ devatâ. It usually includes rituals, visual or intellectual meditation on God, prayer and continuous repetition of His Name: Japa.
Meditation in all its forms is at the heart of the yoga methods of piety, as well as the repetition of the divine name, which is a familiar practice among the mystics of Islam (dhikr) and Christianity (heart prayer). And we will see that TA’s method of meditation fits specifically into the meditation methods of the yoga of piety.
Friendship and the presence of God in Bhakti Yoga
One of the most important patterns of piety in Bhakti Yoga is that of friendship, in Sanskrit sakhya. It is defined as follows, in the words of our Professor Robert Kfoury: “In view of the different nature of people, the sacred writings mention many patterns in the practice of the yoga of piety, the most important of which is friendship, Sakhya, which necessitates the development of a feeling of friendship towards the Lord, and thus establishes a personal relationship with Him. The devotee looks to God as if He were a spiritual friend to whom he can turn for advice, comfort and companionship. One becomes unable to live without Him.
In his friendship with the Lord, the yogi develops a clear sense of the Lord’s presence at all times of his life and in all places too. Friendship is one of the places of mystical love where the lover sees his beloved in all places and at all times. It is the permanent and continuous presence that knows no absence. Rishi Narada says in the Bhakti Sutra, extolling this perpetual presence: “There have been many definitions of love. But Narada says that when the slightest forgetfulness of the Lord makes the disciple so sad, then love has begun” (Bhakti Sutra 1/13). He adds in another fragment (4/5) emphasising the presence that includes all beings, all places and at all times: “When man gets this love, he will see love everywhere, hear it everywhere, talk about it everywhere, and think about it everywhere.
The sage RamaKrishna (1836-1886) gives an example of the experience of the perpetual presence of God in Bhakti Yoga. This is Radha, the lover of Lord Krishna. He says, “Bhakti yoga is compared to kohl (eyeliner)”.
Once Radha said, “My friends, I see Krishna everywhere”. So they replied, “You have lined your eyes with ‘love eyeliner’, so you see Him everywhere”.
Radha, RamaKrishna adds, has always and everywhere smelt the fragrance of Krishna and these two elements: the friendship and presence essential in the yoga of piety, are among the most important pillars of T A’s yoga and its teaching.
Meditation is a conversation of friendship in Teresa of Avila
Concerning the relationship of friendship with the Lord and its role in meditation, the Carmelite reformer says: “Meditation, in my opinion, is nothing other than a conversation of friendship which we often discuss in private with someone whom we know loves us”.
A talk of friendship and love is specifically the meditation of Bhakti Yoga.
We befriend God and He loves us. Our friendship grows and turns into love and affection. And love is only a friendship that has caught fire, as they say. Our friendship rises and purifies the soul from its impurities. T A continues: “If you say that you do not yet love God, it is because you cannot love Him as you should, for you are below His nature. For love to be real and friendship to last, both parties must agree on character. The Lord, as we know, is free from all deficiencies. As for our nature, it is corrupt, lustful and impudent. But if you understand the importance of your friendship with Him and the greatness of His love for you, you will overcome the trials.
The Meditation of TA is a Meditation of Presence
The meditation of the Carmelite reformer, in its essence, is a meditation of presence, not of imagination or vision. It is the meditation mentioned above from Bhakti Yoga.
She says of this meditation, “When I say that I do not see Him [the Lord] with the eyes of the body, nor with the eyes of the soul, it is because this vision is not imaginary. How can I understand and confirm that he is near me? And with more certainty than if I had seen him?
After denying the vision and the imagination, T A proceeds to confirm that it is a presence and nothing else: “This presence God makes the soul feel with a glow brighter than the sun. I do not say that one sees the sun or that one sees the sun’s rays, but rather one sees the light, without seeing the light, the spirit is illuminated so that the soul can enjoy such a great good.
T A distinguished between this presence and that which is experienced by those who have risen to the rank of union. This is perhaps a step in that direction. The latter is what the meditator seeks. But he needs steps and times. Nevertheless, he can enjoy the presence and conversation with the Lord: “This presence of God is not like the presence often enjoyed by those who achieve the contemplation of union or tranquillity, but rather it is as if we want to begin meditation and find someone to whom we can address ourselves. We think we are aware that he is hearing us, because of the effects that are occurring and the spiritual feelings that possess us. These are feelings of great love, faith and resolution that connect us to him with tenderness.
The reformer of Carmel, in a report she wrote to the monastery of Seville in March 1576, returns to speak of the contemplation of the presence that she practises and recounts by saying: “When and how the vision is produced … I affirm: Nothing is seen, neither interiorly nor exteriorly, because it is not an imaginary vision. Although nothing is perceived, the soul knows that He is there, and in what direction He is represented to it, and this is clearer than if it saw Him.
Explaining this presence, she adds in order to express it better: “The soul realises very clearly, without external or internal speech, that He is there [the present], in what situation He is, and at the same time what He wants to convey. As to where and how, it does not know […] and when it is cut off from its vision, it cannot perceive it as it was before, in spite of all its attempts, because then it sees that it is ‘imagination’ and not ‘presence’, for presence is not under its control. Thus all supernatural things take place.
There is no image in the presence to be imagined, for the meditator experiences only the presence of the Lord.
In another report, also written in Seville in 1576, she returns to the contemplation of the presence, confirming what she mentioned above about it: “A kind of contemplation which is the very presence of God. This presence is by no means a vision, but it seems that everyone finds Him when they want to lean on Him.
T A had to go a long way in practice and experience to realise that meditation is not a process of reflection or analysis, but rather an experience of presence. In the book of the third alphabet of Osuna, she discovered that meditation is not a mental analysis, of which she is incapable and which does not shake her to the core, especially as it is the presence of God and surrender to Him.
Yoga is the restraint of mental processes, as we have already quoted from Patanjali (Yoga Sutra 1/2), and analysis is only one type of these processes, so it prevents the meditator from diving in. The success of ‘Theresian’ meditation is due, in large part, to the overcoming or even exclusion of the intellectual processes of analysis, imagination and reflection… etc. The Church teacher sums up her contemplative experience with the expression ‘presence’, as we have seen and as Bishop Hamid Mourani confirms, when he says: “St Teresa of Avila not only stresses the importance of meditation and the need to adhere to it throughout one’s life, but she also describes the elements of this contemplation. By this we do not mean the four degrees of contemplation as mentioned, but rather the type of experience that accompanies it. This experience she summarised positively by the word ‘presence’, and negatively by moving away from the path of the mind or imagination.
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