Bhakti: The Yoga of the Heart

Of all the paths yoga tradition offers, bhakti — the yoga of devotion — is perhaps the most misunderstood in modern secular contexts.

The word bhakti comes from the Sanskrit root bhaj, meaning to participate in, to share in, to love. It is not mere sentimentality or religious ritual, though it may include these. At its heart, bhakti is the orientation of the entire being — thought, feeling, action — toward the divine.

Mirabai abandoned a royal court for the love of Krishna. Kabir wove cloth and sang poems that exploded the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim, sacred and ordinary. These poet-saints were not escaping the world; they were transfiguring it through the alchemy of love.