Walking the little way

Beginners who are overwhelmed by inadequacy and fear at the very idea of walking the path: the ways of karma yoga, jnana yoga and bhakti yoga seem so exalted as to be virtually inaccessible to them. To such brothers and sisters, I offer the option of what Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani called “the little way” or the alpa marg!

The way of love is the “little way”. It is the way of the little ones, the way which simple folk, such as we are, can tread. It is the way of bhakti, devotion, surrender to the Lord, by offering the love of our hearts to every creature that breathes the breath of life. It is the way of longing, deep yearning for the soul’s beloved. As a miser longs for gold, as a lover longs for his beloved, as a child longs for his mother, even so, said Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, must you long for the Lord. The longing of the heart breaks forth into tears. For the little way is the way of silent, unbidden tears. And as Sant Tukaram exclaims: “Blessed are they who have tears in their eyes. The tears of bhakti are more precious than the holy waters of the Ganges, Jamuna and Godavari.”

With tear-touched eyes, the bhakta cries the cry of separation: “O Lord, where art Thou? I have sought Thee, birth after birth, but have not yet been blessed with a glimpse of Thy beauteous Face. Have mercy on me, Lord, and reveal Thyself to me!”