Welcome to the Exploring Bhakti podcast where we share timeless wisdom for modern seekers.
In this first episode I introduce the path of bhakti, the yoga of love, and explain why clear and accurate guidance is especially needed today. I discuss how bhakti is often misunderstood, why it has become so popular in recent years, and what makes it unique among the yoga traditions. Finally, I outline who this series is for and how the episodes will progressively unfold to give you a grounded, living understanding of bhakti’s essence, practice, and goal.
Introduction to Exploring Bhakti
Why Exploring Bhakti?
What if the love and happiness you’ve been searching for has been within you all along — just waiting to be uncovered? Exploring Bhakti is your invitation to find it.
I’m Pranada and I’m passionate about Bhakti. I’ve spent over 50 years living and studying bhakti — the yoga of love — and written three award-winning books on it. In Exploring Bhakti, I share the timeless truths, wisdom, and practices that can transform your inner life — in a way that’s authentic, inspiring, and easy to connect with.
It’s been intriguing to watch the explosion of interest in Bhakti and Kirtan in the past decade — and I’ve also found that an internet and YouTube search doesn’t come up with a clear, comprehensive answer about Bhakti. And some of what I found was inaccurate.
All this is to say that there appears to be a dearth of accurate, concise information about bhakti and what is available is either hazy or confusing – and worse you wouldn’t even know you were being misled unless you were quite adept.
Seeing the confusion, and understanding the specific needs of a Western audience, I’m offering Exploring Bhakti as an easy entry into the world of bhakti.
I’ve distilled the essence of hundreds of texts to present a concise overview from the perspective of the tradition itself to allow you entry into the mysteries.
This series is for anyone who’s heard the word bhakti — perhaps at a kirtan, yoga studio, or just in passing — and felt curious but unsure what it actually means.
Or maybe you know something of bhakti but want to know more. Possibly you’re a spiritual seeker who has looked to Eastern thought. Or perhaps you’ve sensed that there’s something more to life than what meets the eye.
This series is an invitation to explore that “something more.”
Welcome to all!
What Bhakti Really Is
Bhakti is often translated as “devotion,” but it’s much more than a feeling or emotion.
It’s not only a philosophy—it’s a way of living in love — a way of seeing the world as sacred — and a way of remembering that our true self is eternal, free, and blissful.
Why has bhakti become so popular?
Bhakti offers an understanding ourselves and of ways to relate with love and purpose.
It’s a spiritual path with roots in the ancient texts of India that leads toward the awakening of ecstatic sacred love.
Bhakti is the very heart and soul all the yoga systems and offers special spiritual insights and possibilities that everyone should have access to.
Some concepts central to Bhakti are easily misunderstood because they’re rooted in a worldview that’s quite different from a Western post-modern perspective.
My aim is to build a bridge between these two worlds to give you easy access to the bhakti knowledge. The episodes will be an unfolding journey that invites us to transformation.
How This Series Will Guide You
While each episode stands on its own, together they offer a progressive understanding of bhakti’s foundation, practice, and goal. I recommend watching them in order.
I’ll begin by discussing core principles and then move into deeper topics like spiritual identity, the nature of love, the great souls who embody bhakti, and much more.
I carefully roll out concepts and then build on them in subsequent segments.
So if you watch a video and feel like you don’t understand something it could be that you haven’t watched the earlier ones. Or maybe I didn’t explain something fully or clearly for you.
Either way, let’s have a conversation! Make comments here or contact me through my website with your questions and I’ll do my best to answer.
If necessary, I’ll produce an episode for you.
My hope is that through this series, you’ll find nuggets that stir your inner life and support you on your spiritual path — wherever you may be starting from or wherever you’re headed.
If you’re ready to go beyond theory and live from the deepest, most joyful part of yourself let’s explore bhakti together.
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Until next time, svasty astu visvasya: May there be good fortune throughout the universe and for you.
