Bhakti as Dissolution of False Self

Bhakti yoga doesn't preserve the ego; it systematically unmakes it through devotion to something greater. For Mirabai, this meant releasing her identity as princess, dutiful wife, and respectable woman—roles that confined her spirit. Bhakti teaches that the self you grieve was always a false construction, a costume worn for society. This reframing is radical: your grief isn't a loss of something real, but a necessary death of something illusory. The practice involves singing, dancing, and emotional abandon—ways of literally moving the constructed self out of the body. By approaching grief as spiritual work rather than psychological problem, bhakti offers permission to feel fully without needing to resolve or transcend the feeling quickly. The dissolution is the point.