Bhakti literally means ‘apportioning’ or ‘sharing’. It is, therefore, in spirit a yajna (sacrifice), which is also paraspara-bhavana (participation, mutual understanding). Bhakti has an additional meaning, ‘to wait upon’, ‘to serve’, ‘to seek support’ and therefore, to be suppliant before a higher entity; it is an extension of the concept of upasana (a form of worship). The path of bhakti is thus not a negation of Vedic yajna; it is a re-arrangement and reaffirmation of the underlying principle, the blinding together of the finite and infinite.
The Vedic sacrificial rite (yajna) is an enactment of the
first act of creation, it is an effort to integrate oneself with reality
through disintegration of one’s ego. Analogously, bhakti seeks fulfillment through
self-effacement. Bhakti gained popularity because it simplified the procedure
of spiritual discipline and made it available to all. Moreover, since bhakti evolved
out of the flexibility of the Hindu concept of yajna, it could easily accommodate
both elaborate and abbreviated forms of spiritual practice.
Bhakti could bloom out into a full-fledged ritual of worship
having 64 steps. It could be contracted to sixteen steps. It could be further
reduced to five steps and with the fervor of devotion intensified, it could be contained
in repetition of the divine name, in offering hymns, in chanting bhajanas (devotional
songs), or simply in propitiation in all purity and humility of mind.
Hinduism has always put the greatest premium on internalization, and therefore the external form of worship is always deemed to be inferior to the internal one. However, at the same time, Hinduism takes the practical aspect into consideration, for otherwise it would turn into a dogma. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, explaining this practical aspect, tells Arjuna – ‘Those who go for the abstract have to face more impediments in the way; the abstract is reached after great trouble by one who has a concrete form. It is, therefore, advisable to proceed from concrete to abstract, from shape to shapeless, and from phenomenon to concept.'