Bhakti

Bhakti is the path of devotion within the Hindu traditions: the cultivation of a direct, felt relationship with the divine through love, surrender and remembrance, rather than through philosophical analysis alone. Its roots run through the Bhagavad Gita and the medieval bhakti poets, and its most recognisable contemporary form is kirtan: call-and-response chanting of the names of the divine, often accompanied by harmonium and drum.

In the West, bhakti is most visible through the kirtan and Krishna-devotional scene, teachers who trained in India, often in the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage connected to Neem Karoli Baba, bringing chanting and devotional practice to a broader audience. The practice can look ecstatic and communal, but its core question is intimate: what happens when longing is offered rather than resolved.