Of course the statue is not the God, the statue is just an image of the god.Kevin Solway wrote: Yes, provided he meant "personal god" in the physical and literal sense. For example, worshiping a statue and believing that the statue, and the statue alone, was truly God, would be complete madness, and if he was teaching that kind of thing then he was indeed compromising the truth.
Bhakti and Jnana are the same in their eventual fulfillment, but they start from different roads. Essentially in bhakti you start with a personal god, and then trust your god so much as to leave all egoistic pursuits and thinking behind, i.e. become a like a helpless child with the all wise mother to take care of you. This will kill the ego eventually and you will be enlightened.Kevin Solway wrote: Bhakti essentially means loving devotion (to God), but it certainly does not require that one has a single, personal representation of God. It just requires that you are lovingly devoted to Truth - to God.
In the words of Ramakrishna, "Knowledge and love of God are ultimately one and the same. There is no difference between pure knowledge and pure love." (from "Venom Crystals")
There is some danger in this path, as compared with the path of Jnana, if you fail in Jnana at least you get to become a philosopher, which is somewhat respectable. If your ego fails to die in this path, you risk having a very nutty world view.