Bhakti

Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्त) means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity".[1] It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to devotion and love for a personal god or a representational god by a devotee.[2][3] In ancient texts such as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, the term simply means participation, devotion and love for any endeavor, while in the Bhagavad Gita, it connotes one of the possible paths of spirituality and towards moksha, as in bhakti marga.[4]

bhakti

Bhakti in Indian religions is "emotional devotionalism", particularly to a personal god or to spiritual ideas.[5][6] Thus, bhakti requires a relationship between the devotee and the deity.[7] The term also refers to a movement, pioneered by Alvars and Nayanars, that developed around the gods Vishnu (Vaishnavism), Shiva (Shaivism) and Devi (Shaktism) in the second half of the 1st millennium CE.[2][3][8][9][10][11]

Bhakti ideas have inspired many popular texts and saint-poets in India. The Bhagavata Purana, for example, is a Krishna-related text associated with the Bhakti movement in Hinduism.[12] Bhakti is also found in other religions practiced in India,[13][14][15] and it has influenced interactions between Christianity and Hinduism in the modern era.[16][17] Nirguni bhakti (devotion to the divine without attributes) is found in Sikhism, as well as Hinduism.[18][19] Outside India, emotional devotion is found in some Southeast Asian and East Asian Buddhist traditions, and it is sometimes referred to as Bhatti.[20][21][22]

The Sanskrit word bhakti is derived from the verb root bhaj-, which means "to worship, have recourse to, betake onself to" or bhañj-, which means "to break."[12][23][24][25] The word also means "attachment, devotion to, fondness for, homage, faith or love, worship, piety to something as a spiritual, religious principle or means of salvation".[1][26]

The meaning of the term Bhakti is analogous to but different from Kama. Kama connotes emotional connection, sometimes with sensual devotion and erotic love. Bhakti, in contrast, is spiritual, a love and devotion to religious concepts or principles, that engages both emotion and intellection.[27] Karen Pechelis states that the word Bhakti should not be understood as uncritical emotion, but as committed engagement.[27] She adds that, in the concept of bhakti in Hinduism, the engagement involves a simultaneous tension between emotion and intellection, "emotion to reaffirm the social context and temporal freedom, intellection to ground the experience in a thoughtful, conscious approach".[27] One who practices bhakti is called a bhakta.[28]

The term bhakti, in Vedic Sanskrit literature, has a general meaning of "mutual attachment, devotion, fondness for, devotion to" such as in human relationships, most often between beloved-lover, friend-friend, king-subject, parent-child.[12] It may refer to devotion towards a spiritual teacher (Guru) as guru-bhakti,[29][30] or to a personal God,[12][31] or for spirituality without form (nirguna).[32]

According to the Sri Lankan Buddhist scholar Sanath Nanayakkara, there is no single term in English that adequately translates or represents the concept of bhakti in Indian religions.[33] Terms such as "devotion, faith, devotional faith" represent certain aspects of bhakti, but it means much more. The concept includes a sense of deep affection, attachment, but not wish because "wish is selfish, affection is unselfish". Some scholars, states Nanayakkara, associate it with saddha (Sanskrit: Sraddha) which means "faith, trust or confidence". However, bhakti can connote an end in itself, or a path to spiritual wisdom.[33]

The term Bhakti refers to one of several alternate spiritual paths to moksha (spiritual freedom, liberation, salvation) in Hinduism,[34] and it is referred to as bhakti marga or bhakti yoga.[35][36] The other paths are Jnana marga (path of knowledge), Karma marga (path of works), Rāja marga (path of contemplation and meditation).[34][37]

The term bhakti has been usually translated as "devotion" in Orientalist literature.[38] The colonial era authors variously described Bhakti as a form of mysticism or "primitive" religious devotion of lay people with monotheistic parallels.[39][40][41] However, modern scholars state "devotion" is a misleading and incomplete translation of bhakti.[42][43] Many contemporary scholars have questioned this terminology, and most now trace the term bhakti as one of the several spiritual perspectives that emerged from reflections on the Vedic context and Hindu way of life. Bhakti in Indian religions is not a ritualistic devotion to a God or to religion, but participation in a path that includes behavior, ethics, mores and spirituality.[42] It involves, among other things, refining one's state of mind, knowing God, participating in God, and internalizing God.[42] Increasingly, instead of "devotion", the term "participation" is appearing in scholarly literature as a gloss for the term bhakti.[42][43]

David Lorenzen states that bhakti is an important term in Sikhism and Hinduism.[18] They both share numerous concepts and core spiritual ideas, but bhakti of nirguni (devotion to divine without attributes) is particularly significant in Sikhism.[18][19][44] In Hinduism, diverse ideas continue, where both saguni and nirguni bhakti (devotion to divine with or without attributes) or alternate paths to spirituality are among the options left to the choice of a Hindu.[18][34]

Scholarly consensus sees bhakti as a post-Vedic movement that developed primarily during the Hindu Epics and Puranas era of Indian history (late first mill. BCE-early first mill. CE).[52][53] The Bhagavad Gita is the first text to explicitly use the word "bhakti" to designate a religious path, using it as a term for one of three possible religious approaches.[54] The Bhagavata Purana develops the idea more elaborately,[12] while the Shvetashvatara Upanishad presents evidence of guru-bhakti (devotion to one's spiritual teacher).[35][55]

The Bhakti Movement was a rapid growth of bhakti, first starting in the later part of 1st millennium CE, from Tamil Nadu in southern India with the Shaiva Nayanars[10] and the Vaishnava Alvars. Their ideas and practices inspired bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India over the 12th-18th century CE.[9][10] The Alvars ("those immersed in God") were Vaishnava poet-saints who wandered from temple to temple, singing the praises of Vishnu. They hailed the divine abodes of Vishnu and converted many people to Vaishnavism.[10]

Like the Alvars, the Shaiva Nayanar poets were influential. The Tirumurai, a compilation of hymns by sixty-three Nayanar poets, is still of great importance in South India. Hymns by three of the most prominent poets, Appar (7th century CE), Campantar (7th century) and Sundarar (9th century), were compiled into the Tevaram, the first volumes of the Tirumurai. The poets' itinerant lifestyle helped create temple and pilgrimage sites and spread devotion to Shiva.[57] Early Tamil-Shiva bhakti poets quoted the Krishna Yajurveda.[58] The Alvars and Nayanars were instrumental in propagating the Bhakti tradition. The Bhagavata Purana's references to the South Indian Alvar saints, along with its emphasis on bhakti, have led many scholars to give it South Indian origins, though some scholars question whether this evidence excludes the possibility that bhakti movement had parallel developments in other parts of India.[59][60]

Scholars state that the bhakti movement focused on the gods Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti and other deities, that developed and spread in India, was in response to the arrival of Islam in India about 8th century CE,[61] and subsequent religious violence.[2][3][62] This view is contested by other scholars.[62]

The Bhakti movement swept over east and north India from the fifteenth-century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.[63] Bhakti poetry and ideas influenced many aspects of Hindu culture, religious and secular, and became an integral part of Indian society.[10] It extended its influence to Sufism,[64] Christianity,[14] and Jainism.[15] Sikhism was founded by Nanak in the 15th century, during the bhakti movement period, and scholars call it a Bhakti sect of Indian traditions.[65]

The Bhagavad Gita, variously dated to have been composed in 5th to 2nd century BCE,[68] introduces bhakti yoga in combination with karma yoga and jnana yoga,[69][70] while the Bhagavata Purana expands on bhakti yoga, offering nine specific activities for the bhakti yogi.[71] Bhakti in the Bhagavad Gita offered an alternative to two dominant practices of religion at the time: the isolation of the sannyasin and the practice of religious ritual.[72] Bhakti Yoga is described by Swami Vivekananda as "the path of systematized devotion for the attainment of union with the Absolute".[73] In various chapters, including the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes bhakti yoga as one of the paths to the highest spiritual attainments.[74] In the sixth chapter, for example, the Gita states the following about bhakti yogi:

The Navaratnamalika (garland of nine gems), nine forms of bhakti are listed: (1) śravaṇa (listening to ancient texts), (2) kīrtana (praying), (3) smaraṇa (remembering teachings in ancient texts), (4) pāda-sevana (service to the feet), (5) archana (worshiping), (6) namaskar or vandana (bowing to the divine), (7) dāsya (service to the divine), (8) sākhyatva (friendship with the divine), and (9) ātma-nivedana (self-surrender to the divine).[80][81] 041b061a72