Question: What is the purpose of bhakti yoga? To help people to be successful in life or to improve their karma?
Answer: The purpose of bhakti yoga, I guess I didn’t make it quite clear enough, is to develop love for God. That is the purpose of bhakti yoga. That lost relationship which I talked about last night. To reestablish that, revive it, bring it back to life, enter into that realm of loving devotion to God. That is what bhakti yoga’s purpose is.
Along the way, of course, it will make our life much, much better. But that is not what we are doing it for. “Oh, I want a better life.” It is going to be a better life but not the way we often envision it.
And it is not about karma, this is not a karma removing philosophy, ‘get rid of your sins’ kind of thing, ‘be liberated’. This is not about that. But again, uniquely enough, as a side effect all sins will be removed, all karma will be removed. But that is not the focus, that is not the reason to do it. So the true teacher will make this clear. And others may present it like this is the goal, but it is not.