Is it right for me to dedicate my life to Bhakti Yoga without fearing a loss of normal joy?

If your interest in Bhakti Yoga is genuine, developing disinterest in normal joyful life is not an unfavourable consequence for you. On the contrary, that disinterest will help you attain your end goal for which you are planning to enroll on the path of Bhakti yoga, faster. The mind becomes still in whatever one has fondness or interest Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, explains, “Does your mind wander while counting money?... Now tell me, the mind remains focused there (in counting money) but not during worship (Bhakti). Why this difference? One remains focused even when buying vegetables but not in Bhakti, what is the reason? It is because it (Bhakti) is mandatory; one has no choice but to do it. People do it out of fear that if they don’t, then something bad will happen. Should you not have as much interest in God as you do for money (or a normal joyful life)? So why don’t you have it?... The mistake is one of fondness (liking or interest). You are influenced by societal values and thus behave accordingly. People claim there is happiness in money (in normal joyful life) and so you believed this. You did not listen to God. God has said, ‘there is no happiness in living in accordance with societal dictates. By living according to the dictates of a Gnani Purush (the Enlightened One), there is liberation.’ People believe there is happiness in money and sex, and if you believe the same, then you are not listening to God. God has asked you to walk according to what the Gnani says. Remain in the happiness, as defined by the Gnani.” What does Bhakti mean? Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, has said, “People take bhakti into the relative (worldly) plane. They consider singing religious songs as bhakti. Bhakti can never be without Gnan (knowledge). Bhakti will make one become the One who he does Bhakti of.” When we attain Gnan, Bhakti arises automatically When we receive Gnan (the right knowledge), faith initiates inside us for it. Then, even without us having to enforce it; Bhakti (devotion) begins to arise naturally. Such knowing is called Knowledge. Our faith arises in proportion to the knowledge we have of the One we wish to be devoted to. As much our knowledge is right, that much our faith will be right. That’s the principle! And with the right faith and devotion, we will approach nearer and nearer, and the day will come when we’ll be one with One towards whom our Bhakti is. When we follow according to the knowledge, that is called ‘Bhakti’ Suppose you have to go to the airport, you can’t say, “As I’ll start walking, I’ll reach the airport.” One may ask, “Do you have the knowledge of the path?” And you will reply, “No, I do not know the way.” And now suppose, you have in your hand the knowledge (the map, etc.) of ‘how to reach airport’; does that mean you reached the airport? No! It means after attaining the right knowledge, you have to follow it. When you follow according to knowledge, that is called ‘Bhakti’. The end goal of spirituality is liberation The fact that you wish to dedicate your life for the spiritual path implies that your end objective is to liberate yourself from the vicious cycle of birth and death. When the end goal is liberation, the first step on that path is Self-Realization. The right method to achieve this end goal is: - to first attain from Gnani the knowledge of the Self (Gnan) i.e. attain Self-Realization, and - thereafter to follow that knowledge (Bhakti) as instructed by Gnani, and attain salvation, the end objective of Self-Realization. The path of knowledge is said to be right only when it helps us attain Self-Realization. And the path of Bhakti is right only when, as its end result, we attain salvation. The Akram Path – a perfect combination of Gnan and Bhakti Lord Krishna gave Arjun the knowledge of Self-Realization, without making him renounce his wife or his kingdom nor the war. He gave Arjun such Self-Realization that inspite of fighting the huge war of Mahabharata, Arjun did not bind any karma and he attained salvation. If we too happen to meet a Living Gnani, then with his grace, we can directly attain the knowledge of Self-Realization, without doing any penance, chanting, meditation, renunciation, etc. That’s the Akram path, a combination of the Gnan and the Bhakti path! Here, the Living Gnani first gives us the experiential knowledge of ‘who am I? What is Self (Aatma) and what is non-Self (Anatma)? How do I recognize Self? What are the properties of Self?’, and then inspires us to do the right Bhakti of this knowledge. This Bhakti after receiving Gnan (Self-Realization) will help us approach nearer and nearer to our end objective of salvation. From our side... We only have to go to the Living Gnani with absolute humility, “I don’t know anything about the pure Soul (the Self). I heartily wish to get this knowledge. Please give me the knowledge of Self-Realization.”- only this much is required from our end and our work is done through the most Revered Akram Gnani!!! To read more, visit: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/