This is Priya's story. She asked us to share it, hoping it might reach someone who is standing where she once stood — at the edge of something they cannot yet name, feeling the pull of something deeper than the life they have built.
Before the Ashram
Priya was 34 when she first came to Premkutir. By every external measure, her life was successful — a senior position at a Bangalore tech firm, a comfortable apartment, a full social calendar. But beneath the surface, she describes a persistent sense of hollowness. 'I would finish a project, get the recognition, and feel nothing,' she says. 'I kept thinking the next achievement would fill it. It never did.'
A colleague mentioned a weekend kirtan event at the ashram almost as an afterthought. Priya went out of curiosity, expecting something between a concert and a yoga class. What she found was something she had no category for.
The moment the chanting started, something in my chest cracked open. I don't know how else to describe it. I started crying and I couldn't stop. I didn't even know what I was crying about.
The Practice Begins
She returned the following weekend. And the one after that. Devi Prema noticed her and invited her to stay for the Sunday morning satsang. Over the following months, Priya began a daily japa practice — 108 repetitions of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra each morning before work, using a tulsi mala she bought from the ashram shop.
A simple home altar — the starting point of Priya's daily practice
The changes were subtle at first. She noticed she was less reactive in meetings. The anxiety that had been her constant companion since her twenties began to soften. She started waking up earlier, not because she had to, but because she wanted the quiet of the early morning for her practice.
What Bhakti Actually Is
Devi Prema describes bhakti yoga not as a set of rituals but as a reorientation of the heart. 'Most of us spend our lives loving conditionally — loving people because of what they give us, loving experiences because of how they make us feel. Bhakti is learning to love without condition, without agenda. You start with the divine as the object, but eventually you realize that love itself is the divine.'
Devi Prema Dasi on the Path of Bhakti
A teaching on the nature of devotion and how to cultivate it in daily life
The Nine Limbs of Bhakti
The Bhagavata Purana describes nine forms of devotional practice, each a complete path in itself. Priya found herself naturally drawn to kirtan (devotional chanting) and smarana (constant remembrance of the divine name). Over time, she also developed a home puja practice and began reading the Bhagavad Gita daily.
- Shravana — hearing the glories of the divine
- Kirtana — singing and chanting
- Smarana — constant remembrance
- Pada-sevana — service at the feet of the divine
- Archana — ritual worship
- Vandana — prayer and prostration
- Dasya — cultivating the attitude of a servant
- Sakhya — friendship with the divine
- Atma-nivedana — complete self-surrender
Bhakti is not about becoming religious. It is about becoming loving — so completely loving that the boundary between the lover and the beloved dissolves.
Two Years Later
Priya still works in tech. She has not renounced the world. But she describes her relationship to her work, her relationships, and herself as fundamentally transformed. 'I still have hard days,' she says. 'But there is something underneath now that doesn't move. A kind of ground. I think that's what they mean by peace.'