Bhakti Yoga in Advaita — Love as a Bridge to Non-Duality
Bhakti Yoga (devotional love) in Advaita Vedanta is the path through which the ego is dissolved in love for Ishvara — ultimately revealing the non-dual nature that was always already present.
Bhakti Yoga (the yoga of devotion) occupies an interesting position in Advaita Vedanta: Shankara himself composed many devotional hymns (to Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Subramanya) of great lyrical beauty, even as his philosophy insisted on the non-dual absolute (Nirguna Brahman). The resolution: Bhakti is practiced toward Saguna Brahman (Ishvara — the personal God) and is a legitimate and powerful path toward the same recognition as Jnana Yoga. How? Genuine devotion progressively dissolves the ego: in love, the focus shifts from 'my' interests to the beloved's beauty; in deep devotion, the sense of a separate 'I' dissolves in the divine Beloved. The mature devotee discovers that the union with the divine Beloved that Bhakti sought is not possible because the union was always already the case — there was never a real separation, only its appearance in Maya. Ramakrishna's life demonstrated that the deepest devotion leads to the same non-dual recognition as the most rigorous Jnana.
What the devotee calls union with God, the Jnani calls recognition of the Self — but they are pointing to the same recognition.
Research on 'self-transcendent experiences' (Yaden et al.) — moments of profound connection in which ordinary ego-boundaries dissolve — documents that devotional and relational contexts (including intense love) are among the most reliable triggers of these experiences, consistent with the Advaita view that Bhakti can lead to genuine non-dual recognition.
Gospel of Ramakrishna