The Bhagavata Purana stands at the heart of many living Vaishnava traditions by presenting Krishna not merely as an avatāra of Vishnu, but as Svayam Bhagavān, the supreme and original form of the Divine. This Krishna-centered vision has become the theological backbone of several Vaishnava lineages, which orient their worship around his līlās, especially those in Vṛndāvana. The text offers a narrative theology in which stories of Krishna’s childhood, youth, and kingship are not just myths but vehicles of doctrine, shaping how devotees understand divine transcendence and immanence. Through these narratives, it also sets forth moral and ethical ideals, with figures such as Prahlāda, Dhruva, and the gopīs serving as enduring exemplars of humility, steadfastness, and total surrender.

Equally influential is the Purana’s articulation of bhakti as the supreme spiritual path, especially through the well-known scheme of navadha-bhakti, the nine forms of devotion such as hearing, chanting, and remembering. These modes of devotion map directly onto contemporary practice: public kathā gatherings, daily scriptural hearing, kīrtana and saṅkīrtana, and the constant remembrance of Krishna’s names and deeds. The text’s emphasis on emotional, personal devotion has encouraged a style of worship in which intimate relationships with Krishna—servitude, friendship, parental affection, and conjugal love—are cultivated as distinct spiritual ideals, with prema, pure divine love, held up as the highest attainment. This inner orientation has shaped not only private sādhana but also the ethos of humility, tolerance, and compassion that many Vaishnava communities seek to embody.

In the sphere of ritual and temple life, the Bhagavata Purana provides a template for deity worship (arcana), treating the mūrti as a living presence to be bathed, adorned, fed, and ceremonially put to rest. Many liturgical patterns in Krishna temples, including the worship of his childhood and youth forms, draw their authority from its descriptions. The same text undergirds major festivals such as Janmāṣṭamī, Govardhan Pūjā, and various līlā-based celebrations, which reenact episodes from Krishna’s life and thus keep the scriptural narratives woven into the annual religious calendar. Public recitations like Bhāgavata-saptāha have become important communal events, where hearing the text itself is regarded as a potent act of devotion.

The Purana also sacralizes specific geographies—Vṛndāvana, Mathurā, Dvārakā—so that pilgrimage circuits, temple networks, and local ritual cultures in these regions are structured around its narratives. Its influence extends into art, music, dance, and drama, where Krishna’s līlās, especially the rāsa-līlā and the devotion of the gopīs, inspire iconography, classical and folk performance, and congregational singing. Within this broad cultural and devotional world, the guru–disciple relationship receives scriptural grounding through the many guru-śiṣya dialogues in the text, reinforcing the centrality of lineage and oral transmission. Modern bhakti movements, particularly those in the Gaudiya tradition and groups such as ISKCON, explicitly draw on the Bhagavata Purana as their primary scriptural foundation, using its narratives and teachings to shape daily practice, theological reflection, and global outreach.