Shantanu Panigrahi
Bhakti is important to begin with if only because it is the fundamental question that is needed to be assessed by an individual in determining his future course of life on the actions that he takes moment by moment. But bear this in mind. God Vishnu or Sri Krishna does not have the need or mind to interfere in what we humans do with ourselves. We are human beings. God is there as Creator, but it is we humans who preserve our own planet and look after our children and develop our society. For this the jnana path is vital and takes over from the bhakti path once its limits of fruitful jnana is exhausted to the individual. And jnana then becomes a personal yogic pathway to liberation. No God is there to guide one to that end, it is for us human beings who should consider whether liberation within one's lifetime is worth the struggle for existence. Hence in Vishista-advaita Vedanta, we leave God alone for we have seen the the swirling of His Sudharshan Chakra that we need to navigate ourselves through for personal mental peace of mind and for whatever prosperity that we are destined to have when we nonchalantly, spontaneously and unpremeditatedly each moment take ourselves forward in the course of our life journey. So Sri Krishna is our Sadhguru but like all great gurus, He only points the way forward and then it is left to us to do what we can or wish to do with our freewill to live like human beings in acknowledgment only that we are children of God, and do not need to have bhakti in surrender for He does not respond to the surrender. It is self serving to consider that Sri Krishna should be worshipped through mental or physical rituals, which are not only a waste of time it causes stresses and are always presumptuous that God will listen to one's prayers. We must not live in fear of God as we must not live in fear of anything material. That is liberation from all spiritual and material considerations. All actions must be spontaneous from losing all ones ego, our attachments, our desires, missions, our arguments to assume the supremacy of our knowledge over others. When one is doing this the mind has become a Mahatman and the result is one lives like a purushottama Hindu. That is what a purnavatar is. So leave bhakti as it has served its purpose towards the acquisition of jnana, which is the most important need that helps us live our daily lives in peace within and without. Even the so-called awareness is an impediment to truth. Truth is what comes to the mind automatically when one is free and libertated.

Bhakti leads to jihadism if it continues beyond the maximal knowledge attainable through bhakti. Jnana is a yogic pursuit best attained from experience of Reality. There is nothing beyond knowledge acquired through yoga which takes one through dharma-yudha to pave the way to Realisation, the realisation that is supreme knowledge and wisdom leading to faultless actions every moment one is challenged.

Further, bhakti causes mental disorders like paranoid schizophrenia and persistent delusional disorders that leads one to engaging in conflicts with the rest of humanity in the false belief that one is acting according to instructions from God.