Chapter LXXVIIb

The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.

The passage emphasizes a path of loving devotion and self-surrender ('Flee we,' 'touch we,' 'desire we') to a personal deity as the means of salvation.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

God is portrayed as a personal, responsive, and 'courteous' Lord who actively wills intimacy with the soul and teaches those who desire it.

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The passage centrally describes the soul's intimate connection with God through 'touching,' 'cleaving,' and becoming 'homely' with Him as the path to safety and salvation.

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The text concludes with an exhortation to 'desire we of our Lord' as a direct address and petition for divine teaching.

The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.

The text explicitly states that being 'like our Lord perfectly' is the very salvation and full bliss of the believer, defining the goal as transformation into divine likeness.