Bhakti Yoga Becoming Love Itself
Human beings, like all living creatures, are designed to adapt to their environments. Yet, unlike most other animals, we have taken this adaptation beyond survival, transforming our surroundings to serve not only our needs but our wants. In doing so, we have reshaped the natural world to such an extent that we have severed our intuitive relationship with creation. This separation has not only alienated us from the earth but also from the energy of creation itself—the divine, which is called by many names.
In our contemporary culture, the divine has been confined to forms, images, and structures. God is often depicted as a man, worship is confined to buildings, and devotion is dismissed as irrational or outdated. Yet, true divinity cannot be limited in such ways. God is not a figure or a place; God is the energy of creation, present everywhere, within everything. The divine is not bound by gender, space, or time. It exists in the relationships between beings, the rhythms of nature, and even the unseen connections that extend beyond what we can sense. Bhakti, the practice of devotion, is the path that helps us dissolve these artificial limitations and return to an authentic experience of the sacred. Within each of us lies an intimate connection to the divine: our breath. While the audible sound of breath is a “struck” vibration, born from the movement of air, it serves as a gateway to something deeper. In yogic philosophy, the “unstruck sound,” or anahata nada, is the subtle vibration of life—the resonance of omnipresent energy that arises without external cause. Through chanting to the divine, we engage the struck sound of our breath and body, creating vibrations that ripple through our being. Each chant becomes a sacred offering, a bridge between the physical and the subtle. As the chant subsides and silence arises, the awareness cultivated in the practice deepens. In this stillness, one can attune to the nadam . This unstruck sound, ever-present within us, is not heard with the ears but perceived with the heart—a resonance that reveals the eternal connection to the energy of creation. Every breath and every chant leads us closer to this essence, where the struck dissolves into the unstruck, and the outer merges with the inner. Chanting and singing are extensions of this sacred vibration. When we chant, we amplify the unstruck sound, giving it form and intention. In my own practice, I have experienced how chanting mantras opens the heart. At first, the words felt like beautiful sounds, external to me. But as I immersed myself in the practice, these vibrations began to dissolve the walls around my heart. They became a bridge—a way back to the divine energy that exists not only within me but everywhere. With each repetition, the separation between “self” and “other” faded, and I began to feel the presence of the divine in all things.
The essence of Bhakti lies in this experience of unity. It is not merely about worshipping a deity or following a prescribed ritual. Bhakti is the practice of dissolving the ego, of recognizing that love is not something we possess but something we are. When the heart opens through devotion, whether through chanting, singing, or acts of selfless service, we begin to see the divine everywhere.
The boundaries between “I” and “you,” “human” and “nature,” “sacred” and “ordinary” begin to blur. We are taught to compartmentalize the sacred—to see it in specific places or forms. But Bhakti teaches us to see divinity in every aspect of existence. It reminds us that the energy of creation is not confined to temples or altars; it is alive in the trees, the wind, the animals, and the people we encounter every day. It is present in our own breath, the unstruck sound that sings within us, guiding us back to the heart of creation.
For me, Bhakti has been a journey of unlearning the limitations imposed by the culture I was raised in and reconnecting with the divine through experience. It is through practices like chanting and singing that I have been able to feel this reconnection most deeply. In those moments, the mind quiets, the heart softens, and the walls of separation fall away. What remains is a profound sense of unity—a knowing that the divine is not something outside of me but something I am immersed in, always.
Through Bhakti, we remember that God is not a distant figure or an abstract concept but the living energy that animates all beings, places and objects. We return to a state of love—not as a fleeting emotion but as the essence of our being. This return is not only a personal transformation but a collective healing. As we awaken to the sacredness of life, we begin to live in harmony with creation, honouring the divine in every breath, every being, and every thing.
To live a life of Bhakti is to see the world not as a collection of separate parts but as an interconnected whole. It is to recognize the sound of my breath as the song of the divine, the reminder that I am never truly apart from the sacred. When I live this way, I not only come closer to love; I become love itself.