Bhakti yoga

Bhakti yoga is a Hindu path toward spiritual liberation through loving devotion to a personal deity. It cultivates a relationship with the divine through practices such as prayer, worship, and remembrance.

Bhakti: Bhakti is loving devotion to a deity, expressed through worship, service, and remembrance. Bhakti yoga organizes this devotional love into a path of spiritual practice.
Moksha: Moksha is liberation from the cycle of rebirth and the limits of worldly existence in Indian religions. It is the spiritual goal bhakti yoga seeks to reach.
Alvars: The Alvars were Tamil poet-saints who composed devotional hymns to Vishnu between the sixth and ninth centuries. Their hymns helped establish an influential South Indian tradition of personal devotion.
Raja yoga: Raja yoga is a path of meditation and mental discipline, often associated with Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It stresses concentration and disciplined awareness rather than devotion as the primary practice.
Japa: Japa is the repeated recitation of a sacred name or mantra, aloud or silently. Repeating a deity’s name can focus attention and express devotion.
Karma yoga: Karma yoga is a path of spiritual discipline through action performed without attachment to its fruits. It emphasizes selfless action, while bhakti yoga centers loving devotion.
Nayanars: The Nayanars were Tamil poet-saints who composed devotional hymns to Shiva between the sixth and ninth centuries. Their Shiva-centered devotion developed alongside Vaishnava bhakti in Tamil regions.
Advaita Vedanta: Advaita Vedanta is a nondual school of Hindu philosophy that identifies the deepest self with ultimate reality. Its account of nonduality differs from devotional traditions that preserve a personal relation to God.
Kirtan: Kirtan is devotional singing, often performed responsively by a group. Shared singing makes praise and remembrance into a communal devotional practice.
Jnana yoga: Jnana yoga is a path to liberation through knowledge and discernment of ultimate reality. Its emphasis on knowledge differs from bhakti yoga’s devotional relationship.

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