This world is under the control of God. God, in turn is under the control of Mantra(Divine name/word). Vedantis worship God in "Abheda Bhava"(considering themselves as one with God), while Bhaktas worship God in "Bheda Bhava"(considering themselves as separate from God).

The worshippers of Lord Shiva tend to tread the vedantic path, while worshippers of Lord Vishnu tend towards the path of devotion. Generally we see that the former are called as Shiva Yogis or Shiva Jnanis while the latter are called Hari Bhakthas or Bhagavathas. So we see that Bhakthi or devotion is best done with Lord Vishnu. Since the path of Bhakthi has Smaranam(Constant remembrance of Lord), Shravanam(Constantly hearing about Lord) and Keerthanam(Singing the names and glories of the Lord) as its major foundations, we require a deity who has beauty, who is easily approachable, who has an enjoyable legend of sports and deeds to capture our heart naturally. All this is fully manifested with SriHari. Hence the domain of bhakthi is dominated by Hari bhakthas.

If we closely study the life history of various "vedantic sages", we find that they have attained the vedantic realisation through the grace of a deity. Even those sages who declined to lean on a deity for realisation, certainly had a guru. Guru, is but a manifestation of divinity. Hence though they did not worship a deity directly, indirectly by accepting a guru, they have come to "Dwaita Bhava"(worship with duality- considering themselves seperate from God/Guru) Infact, we see that they have shown more intense devotion to their guru than that seen with upasakas(dualistic worshippers of a chosen deity).

Attaining Abheda Bhava is not possible without worshiping in Bheda Bhava-(though the amount of time and intensity of the transition may be different from case to case).

Bhakthi is a thing of beauty. It is a feeling, which can be understood by very few people. Since it is a feeling, it has no limit and we cannot really teach how to do Bhakthi!. It is a spontaneous feeling of love from the innermost depth of one's heart. A mother, naturally and without any compulsions, loves her child. Similarly the love towards God should be natural and spontaneous. We cannot induce ourselves to love God!. Pure love is known solely by the total absence of any expectation(including liberation or Moksham) from God. It is an end by itself. In this state of Prema Bhakthi(Pure love), the devotee doesn't care about any of the difficulties he faces. He does not confound worldly mundane matters with Bhakthi.

Since God-the almighty is omnipresent, upadesam(or the spiritual instruction) need not come directly through a spiritual teacher(guru) or a deity. Each and every experience in this world is a upadesam.

Though it's a well known fact that most of the saints have attained the exalted state by severe penance and austerities("Sadhanas"), it is only due to God's grace, that they had the perseverance to go in the spiritual path. To get rid of the illusory relative existence(Maya) we need the grace of God who is untainted by this Maya. Without God's grace, it is impossible to get liberated from Maya.