“Bhakti is when your yoga mat becomes your altar.
Your voice becomes your prayer.
And your practice becomes an offering.”

Yoga has never been just about movement for me. Even in my earliest days on the mat, I sensed something deeper stirring. Something sacred. But it wasn’t until I found Bhakti Yoga that I truly understood what I had been feeling all along. Bhakti gave it language. Bhakti gave it breath.

What is Bhakti Yoga?

Bhakti Yoga is known as the path of devotion, one of the core spiritual limbs of traditional yoga practice. It is the yoga of the heart. It is not about performance or perfection. It is about relationship. With the divine. With the Self. With love itself.

This path invites you to soften, to surrender, to remember. It asks nothing of you but your presence and your longing. Bhakti is the current that flows beneath chanting, prayer, poetry, tears, joy, and silence. It is the sacred connection that turns your daily practice into a love letter.

Ram Dass and Krishna Das: My Gateway to Devotion

My heart first opened through the teachings of Ram Dass. The way he spoke about service, love, suffering, and truth felt like someone was finally naming everything I had always believed. He helped me understand that being human is not a mistake. It is the path.

Then I found Krishna Das, and everything shifted again. His voice, his chants, his presence cracked me open in the gentlest way. Chanting with him—whether live or through headphones—pulls me straight into the center of my heart. It’s never just music. It’s medicine.

Together, these two teachers showed me that my yoga didn’t have to be confined to the mat. It could become prayer. It could become offering. It could become a doorway to something greater.

Sound, Sadhana, and the Bhav

One of the most transformative experiences of Bhakti I’ve ever felt was at Bhakti Fest down in Joshua Tree California. If you’ve ever been there, you know what I mean. Being in the bhav—the devotional atmosphere—surrounded by hundreds of hearts chanting and crying and dancing under the stars, felt like finally coming home.

I didn’t have to explain myself. I didn’t have to hold back. I could just be. And in that space, I felt the pulse of something divine. That is what Bhakti does. It dissolves the illusion that we’re separate.

Now, I’m bringing that energy into my daily sadhana. I’ve started weaving in sound—playing my handpan and soon, my new shruti box. These instruments are becoming sacred companions in my practice. The handpan lets rhythm move through me like a heartbeat. The shruti box holds a steady drone that feels like the breath of God.

I am so excited to start incorporating these into my chanting practice and sharing them in my classes and offerings. There is something ancient and alive in this sound. It doesn’t ask for performance. It asks for presence.

My Practice Today: Movement, Mantra, and Devotion

Now I’m bringing the spirit of Bhakti Yoga into my daily sadhana, weaving in tools like the handpan and shruti box for devotional chanting.

When I step onto my mat, I light a candle. I chant. I breathe.
Sometimes I move. Sometimes I weep.
Sometimes I sing with trembling lips.

Every posture is an offering.
Every note is a prayer.
Even silence becomes sacred.

This is what Bhakti has given me.
A way to remember. A way to return. A way to love.

Want to Practice With Me?

If you’re longing for more than just movement
If you’re craving ritual, connection, and sacred space
If you want your practice to feel like a homecoming
I would love to share this path with you

You can practice with me Saturdays in Astoria, or follow along here as I continue to explore what it means to live Bhakti on the mat and beyond it.

May your breath be your prayer.
May your practice become your altar.
May you remember that you belong.

With love,
Kelli Mack
Mantra. Movement. Devotion.