In its classical understanding, Bhakti Yoga is inseparable from devotion to a personal form of the Divine. The very structure of this path is built around an intimate “I–Thou” relationship between devotee and Lord, whether envisioned as Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Devi, or another chosen deity. Traditional practices such as worship rituals, repetition of divine names, and singing devotional songs all presuppose a specific divine presence as the focus of love, surrender, and remembrance. From this standpoint, to remove the personal deity is to remove the central axis around which Bhakti turns.

At the same time, the language of devotion has been extended in various ways. Some perspectives speak of love directed toward a higher power, ideal, or even humanity, suggesting that what truly matters is the quality of selfless, devotional love rather than the precise form it takes. Others describe devotion to a formless Absolute or to abstract principles such as universal love or formless divine consciousness, while still borrowing the vocabulary and mood of bhakti. These approaches preserve the emotional and ethical flavor of Bhakti Yoga but stretch the term beyond its strictly theistic, classical sense.

From a traditional standpoint, therefore, Bhakti Yoga without a personal deity would generally be regarded as something different in kind, even if it shares certain devotional attitudes. From a broader, more interpretive standpoint, one might see these non-theistic or semi-theistic forms of devotion as bhakti in spirit, though not in the precise sense articulated in classical texts and by devotional saints. The tension between these views reflects a deeper question: whether the essence of this path lies primarily in the object of devotion, or in the transformative power of devotion itself.