Bhakti causes total disregard for liberation.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.33)
On the simplest level, Western and Eastern cosmologies differ on a basic question: is the world one or two?
In Western thought, the question can be traced back to the very first writings of ancient Greek thinkers. They held that there are two completely different realities: the world of spirit and the world of material things. This idea is constant throughout the history of Western thought and has a strong influence on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
By contrast, many branches of Oriental philosophy, including Hinduism, build upon the notion of advaita, non-dualism. Advaita is the notion that reality is one. In particular, it posits that spirit or soul and material reality are non-different.
Advaita claims that there is only one reality, and that any belief to the contrary is an illusion (māyā). If it seems that my material existence (my body) and my spiritual existence (my soul) are different, it is only because I have not understood in what way they are the same.
For advaita, the individual soul (ātma) and impersonal absolute reality (brahman) are non-different. They are part of one and the same reality. The famous verse from the Upanishads ‘tat tvam asi’ confirms this: ‘that thou art.’
The idea of advaita is dominant in Vedic thought thanks to the teachings of ĀdiŚaṅkarācārya, who wrote influential commentaries on the Vedas.
Advaita was authoritative until the appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who introduced the practice of bhakti, devotional service, as the highest spiritual path. But unlike traditional advaita, which held that spiritual reality is impersonal, Mahāprabhu taught that the divine is personal. Its essence is neither unified knowledge nor unified action, but feeling.
Where traditional Vedic thought sees the highest form of spiritual life as the individual soul becoming one with the divine, bhakti sees the highest form of spiritual life as the individual soul entering into a personal relationship with the divine.
For bhakti, the individual soul and the divine are indeed one, as advaita claims. But unlike advaita, they are also different. The soul is both part and parcel of God and unique. One can both be divine and be in a loving relationship with the divine.
In theory, this paradox is called bhedābheda (oneness and difference); the individual soul is both the same as God and different from it.
In practice, this paradox is confirmed by the fact that Lord Caitanya is both one (Kṛṣṇa) and yet appeared as two (Rādhā and Mohan). He is the living demonstration that it is possible to be one with God and be in a loving relationship with God. This paradox of love is the model for the lives of all those who practice bhakti.
The paradox becomes especially important in relation to liberation (mokṣa), considered by Vedic thought as the ultimate goal of life. Achieving mokṣa means entering into union with the divine and ending the cycle of birth and death.
In Vedic thought, this means that the individual soul truly becomes one with God, dissolving into the divine, with all of its individuality also dissolving. In bhakti, mokṣa means perfecting the loving relationship with God from the two sides of spiritual and material, and continuing it in purely spiritual consciousness.
We are all sisters, brothers, and part and parcel of God. Yet our everyday spiritual life is attached to our individual deepening of our love for God by deepening our loving service to other individuals. The nature of bhakti is to experience the divine in others, and thereby strengthen our own relationship with the divine.
Advancing in spiritual practice means nothing other than learning how to love. It means me discovering the divine in myself, by loving the divine in you.