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Bhakti Yoga

Swami Vivekananda

The path of love for God. Vivekananda defines bhakti as 'a real, genuine search after the Lord' that begins, continues and ends in love, and follows it from preparatory devotion—with symbols, images, names and the need for a teacher—to supreme devotion, in which lover, love and beloved merge. He defends image worship as a legitimate step against reformist critics and reconciles it with non-dual Vedanta.