Krishna-Seva: Traditional Ritual in the Practice of Bhakti Yoga

In today’s cultural atmosphere of competing spiritualism jostling with vague scepticism and strident “new atheism,” we do well to listen carefully to thoughtfully articulated wisdom of bygone ages. An important voice for finding existential meaning in daily devotional practices (bhakti-yoga) can be heard in the sixteenth-century Caitanya (Gauḍīya) Vaiṣṇava tradition. In this brief but carefully crafted work, the author takes readers step-by-step through the deep reasoning behind these practices with special focus on sevā–conscientious attending–to sacred temple images, concluding with a cogent explanation of why this practice is not to be mistaken for “idolatry”. About the author: Kenneth R. Valpey is a Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. He has been a practicing monastic in the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition since 1972.