Bhakti yoga can take you to the stark awareness of your mulprakriti, the true nature of your being. All three types of yoga—Karma Yoga (steadfastness in action), Jnana Yoga (steadfastness in knowledge), and Bhakti Yoga (steadfastness in devotion)—overlap in some way or another. But devotion to whom? The answer to the question is easy: Brahma, the Supreme Being. From here on out, it gets hard for a devotee to know whether he should worship and meditate on the form of Brahma that is not visible or the visible form of Brahma. Both have pros and cons. In both cases, the devotee must completely surrender all thoughts, logic, and reasoning to Him to become one with similar attribution.

To follow Bhakti Yoga, there are nine forms of devotion that are thought to be the best ways to give Him the ecstasy of your love. 

In the Shrimad Bhagavata, nine forms of bhakti yoga are prescribed for devotees. They are Sravana (hearing of God’s stories), Kirtana (singing of His glories), Smarana (remembrance of His Name and presence), Padasevana (service of His feet), Archana (worship of God), Vandana (prostration to the ‘Daata’ – God), Dasya (cultivating the Bhava of a servant with God), Sakhya (cultivation of the friend-Bhava), and Atmanivedana (complete surrender of the self).

Any of the nine methods that a devotee chooses will result in a divine experience and absolute liberation.

• SRAVANA 

Sravana is the way of devotion when a devotee hears ‘Daata’s’ – God’s’ virtues, stories, and glories. While hearing His stories, devotees become obsessed with them, which leads to the realisation of divine illumination. The mind drifts away from mundane things and corporal life.    

• KIRTANA 

In the form of Kirtana, the devotee is overcome by a spontaneous emotion for ‘Daata’ – God, and he or she loses his or her physical identity. He feels submerged in the divine eruption of feeling originating from within in perpetual divine love. He is overwhelmed by his love for the Supreme Soul, who sheds tears while chanting God’s name and listening to His Glory. They happily narrate to others, making them join their dances and sing in memory of God. Such devotees are directly connected with the ‘Daata’ as we are all Jeev, the soul, but most of us are ignorant and believe we are humans. These devotees are in the pure consciousness of their souls. They are constantly aware of the presence of Brahm, the Supreme Being, within and with themselves, which erodes their ego, prejudices, and societal conditionings and transforms them into a realised soul.

• SMARANA

Smarana is the form of devotion in which the devotee remembers the ‘Daata’ of his/her time. In this stage, the devotee’s mind gets engrossed with the memory of God. Nothing exists in his/her mind, only the ‘Daata’ and his glory. One of the ways to remember the Supreme Being is to read the rosary, Jaap, and chant. These are some of the most difficult things that happen in the devotion to keep complete control of the mind, free it from all worldly things, and elevate it to meditate all the time, even while sleeping and dreaming.

• PADASEVANA

Padasevana is the method of devotion where he/she serves the ‘Daata’. We must remember that doing Him in the physical form is impossible for any mortal being. If we look minutely, all the beings on the planet are, first of all, Jeev, the soul, whether human or insect. Their being in bodily form is secondary. So, serving Jeev, the soul, is a serving towards Him as He exists in all beings.    

• ARCHANA  

Archana is a type of devotion in which a devotee worships the ‘Daata,’ an idol, or a picture or mental form that is appropriate for the devotee. External material offerings and internal Bhava, an overwhelming feeling, an advanced form of worship, are the two types of worship. In the mental form of devotion, the devotee can worship however they want. In both cases, the devotee yields all the ego and falls in love with the ‘Daata’, which purifies their heart and composes their mind with memories of God. Such devotees see Him in all the jiva, the soul, serving hermits as He appears to them in all the forms of the universe as his Virat–Swarup, the larger form. He possesses Iswara–Bhava in all the beings, which can be considered the highest form of worshipping.      

• VANDANA

Vandana is the form of prayer in which a devotee prostrates humbly touching the earth in the eight limbs of the body, which is addressed as Sashtanga–Namaskara, with acute faith and admiration, before a form of the ‘Daata’, God, or bowing to all beings of the world, believing them to be forms of that ‘One’ – the Supreme Being, being obsessed in love with the divinity. In scripture, it is said that the Brahm combines the sky, air, fire, water, and river. Seas and all the sentient and insentient entities of the universe, so before them is bowing to Him. The devotee abandons all Ahamkara, or ego, by practicing Vandana Bhakti Yoga.

• DASYA

Dasya–Bhakti is a form of devotion when the devotee considers themselves a slave of the ‘Daata’ and serves the whole of humanity through servant sentiment, serving saints and sages, poor people, animals and sick people. In Dasya–Bhakti, the devotee seeks to receive the perpetual divine love and grace of the ‘Daata’ – God.

• SAKHYA

Sakhya–Bhava is a form of devotion when the devotee develops an amiable sentiment toward the ‘Daata,’ – the Supreme Being. In Shakhya–Bhava, the devotee takes Him as a member of his family, as a relative, as a friend, and loves Him as a beloved. What a love humans possess for each other, the profundity of emotion, such an emotion devotee develops towards Him when their love surpasses the physical world to the spiritual realm, which leads to their complete transformation from a mundane being to an eternal being. 

• ATMA-NIVEDANA

A devotee in Atma–Nivedana form recognises himself as a part of the Supreme Being, purifies his spiritual intellect, and surrenders to Him everything he or she possesses as a human being – mind, body, and soul – in order to find an abode in Him. Such a devotee has no individuality, no personal and independent identity. They exist in the universe as space. They feel merged with the ‘Daata’. They regard all human emotions, such as grief, sorrow, pleasure, and pain, as gifts from the Supreme Being. They experience eternal bliss within.