Bhakti Assignment PDF

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Introduction of BhaktiBhakti in Sanskrit means devotion is derived from the word Bhaj and emphasizes the love of a devotee towards a personal goal. Bhakti consists in firm and overwhelming affection for God with the full sense of his greatness for it is through this alone can there be emancipation. ...

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Introduction of Bhakti Bhakti in Sanskrit means devotion is derived from the word Bhaj and emphasizes the love of a devotee towards a personal goal. Bhakti consists in firm and overwhelming affection for God with the full sense of his greatness for it is through this alone can there be emancipation. Bhakti is the sadhana, and moksha is the goal yet it is the sadhana stage that is the best because those who enter or become one with brahman experience the bliss in their self but their devotee or the bhakta who enjoys God not only with their senses but also the Antahkarana are better than ordinary householders. The Bhakti Movement The bhakti movement is basically known to be a literary movement. In India, the image of the singer-songwriter manifested itself to its fullest in what came to be known later as the Bhakti movement. The rigid caste system, the complicated ritualism that constituted the practice of worship, and the inherent need to move to a more fulfilling method of worship and salvation perhaps spurred this movement. Bhakti poets emphasized surrender to god. Equally, many of the Bhakti saints were rebels who chose to defy the currents of their time through their writings. The Bhakti tradition continues in a modified version even in the present day. The Bhakti movement was a product of a transitional society where a number of changes were taking place in the socio-political, economic, and social front. There is a close relationship between social political and economic trends in religious activities. On the social front, there was brahminical oppression of the worst kind. in order to maintain their status, they performed Complex rites and rituals for practice. The caste system was so rigid that those who did not fit into any of the four castes were termed as outcasts. since the only brahmins understood the Sanskrit text, in which most of the religious texts were, this made various rites and rituals their monopoly. Hindu society was suffering from the burden of certain social and religious practices, which were incompatible with the doctrine of the brotherhood of man. It was a caste-ridden society that encouraged segregation and untouchability and where idolatry or image worship and polytheism or worship of many gods were common practices. Because of this, Islam was able to win over thousands of followers from among the Hindus, especially those belonging to the lower castes. But in Islam also there existed sharif zars or high castes and ajlaf zars or low castes. Although these differences were ignored when it came to prayer and worships but continued to exist in social relations and therefore did not make an individual change his old environment which was deeply influenced by caste distinction and a general social exclusiveness As a social movement the bhakti movement everywhere in India, challenged caste hierarchy, emphasized the individual's direct connection to god and the possibility of salvation for all through good deeds and simple living. As a literary movement, it liberated poetry from singing the praises of kings and introduced spiritual themes. From a style point of view, it introduced simple and accessible styles like vachanas and other forms in various languages to literature and ended the hegemony of Sanskrit metrical forms. The Bhakti movement empowered the underprivileged of Indian society in fundamental ways and also provided the required impetus for the growth of vernacular literature. This tradition of those deemed “low" singing and writing did not, however, end with the Bhakti movement into the mainstream.

The movement of Bhakti may be divided into two distinct periods. The first was from the time of the Bhagvad Gita to the thirteenth century. The second period extends from the thir teenth to sixteenth century, an epoch of profound intellectual fermentation, the natural result of the contact between Islam and Hinduism. Bhakti as a movement arose in the southern part of India between 7-10th century and it was the Alwars and Nayanars saints who composed hymns in Tamil to the Gods Vishnu and Shiva. These poets used poetry in the sense of a devotee expressing deep love to the beloved and here the beloved was God. Bhakti soon spread to North India and appeared mostly in 10th century Sanskrit texts the Bhagavad Purana. All the schools of thought of the Bhakti cult believed in the existence of a God supernaturally revealed to man. Bhakti cult did not deny the existence of competing deities but explained or accepted the competitors as mere manifestations of its own omnipotent deity. The principal Bhakti cults are those of Shiva, Vishnu, and Shakti. The chief mark of this movement is the attitude of the soul with regard to the Supreme Being. The Bhakti cult cut across distinctions of high and low birth, the learned and the unlettered, and opened the gateway of spiritual realization to one and all. The mystics and saints of the age, both in the North and the South, were unconventional and anti-ritualistic and either ignored the age-old restrictions of caste and creed, or attached little importance to them. Each of the three major divinities, Vishnu, Shiva, and the various forms of goddesses have distinct devotional traditions. Vishnu bhakti is based on Vishnu's avatars particularly Krishna and ram, devotion to shiva is associated with his manifestations on earth, and devotion to the goddess is more regional and is expressed in temples and festivals devoted to various incarnations like Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, and many others. If we look at the concept of Bhakti then one finds that Madhava Vallabha and Jeev Goswami were all indebted to the Bhagavad Purana and held it in high reverence. Each of them a commentary in the Bhagavad Purana where they have discussed the concept of bhakti. Bhakti is regarded as parallel to other rasas because it affects the manas and the body with intense delight and affection or sthai bhav is a dominant phase of the bhakti rasa. Whenever there is a discussion within bhakti of a complete identity of the self and the brahman, it is basically to show that the oneness can be philosophically supported and this oneness is just one of transitory phase but it ultimately leads to a spiritual immersion in God. The Bhakti movement was a product of the society and its ideology serve the purpose. Its Saints were not ideal philosophers on shared reformers. They mostly came from the lower sections of society and work for their living. The bhakti saints were protesting in loud voices against various injustices out in society. the creation of a casteless society was the need of time and hence the clamor for total changed but the question that arises is that but this is the case for every section of the society. The answer to the question is NO. A very interesting phenomenon emerges that though the Saints were clamoring for various reforms and great change women were completely left out. A large number of mystics belonged to the traditional Saguna school which believed that God has many forms and attributes and that he manifests himself in incarnations such as Rama and Krishna, and that his spirit is to be found in the idols and images worshipped at home and in temples. But the others followed a new path and formed the Nirguna school, which believed in a God without forms or attributes, but nevertheless merciful and responsive to human prayers. Both the Nirgun saints and Sargun saints have a different take on the position of women in society. While the former was talked about by Kabir, Tulsidas, Dadu Dayal where they refer

to them as horrible as hell, worse than poison, the enemy of men, and was termed as someone whose only purpose in this world is to serve her husband no matter what. On the other hand, although the latter does not look down upon them they maintained the notion of women being an obstacle in the path of salvation. Bhakti may be classified as fala (fruit) as sadha rop means and as sargun. The sagun bhakti is of three kinds, a part of meditation, a part of knowledge, and a part of karma. Bhakti as a fruit is only of one kind where bhakti as a means or sadhan is of two kinds as part of knowledge or as leading to emancipation. According to the proponents of the bhakti movement the principal means by which bhakti is attained so the race of god is the purity of heart and sixteen means are prescribed to attain purity of heart. Some of which are external and some internal. The external means are sacrifices, ablutions, the practice of meditation and image worship followed by the development of the satva character of mind, cessation of attachment, showing reverence, to the revered/divine, kindness to the poor, and regarding as all beings as equal followed by yam and niyam. Listening to the scriptures from teachers, chanting of God’s name, universal sincerity, good association and finally, absence of egoism are all essential through which bhakti can be attained. There is a difference between the two important schools of the Bhakti path. A) the mariyada bhakti path who believe that bhakti can be attained by one’s own efforts and following specific courses of duties and practices and B. Pushti bhakti who believe that bhakti can be attained by the grace of God alone. So far as the fruits of bhakti are concerned there are diverse opinions where one may attain a great power of experiences the nature of God, one may have continual contact with God, one may be devoted in the service of God but all of these come about only because of the affection of God. According to the followers of the bhakti marg even when one is engaged in duties one can fix one’s mind on God and slowly the love for God develops and attachments get destroyed. The bhakti rises sometimes spontaneously, sometimes in association with other devotees, sometimes through favorable practices and gradual development of bhakti have been described in seven stages in ascending order 1. Bhava 2. Prem 3. Pranay 4. Sneh 5. Raga 6. Anurag 7. Vyasana It is the vyasana of god that is the deepest manifestation of affection and here the worldly attachments become an obstacle and the householder may end up giving up ordinary duties So far as the obstacles to bhakti are concerned they are namely udweg which means fear caused by evil persons or unsteadiness of the mind through sins, pratibandh obstacles of a general nature, and third bhoga, ordinary experiences of pleasure and pain of body and mind. All these obstacles can be removed by comprehending the false nature of causes that give rise to them and true knowledge by which these obstacles can be removed consists in the conviction that everything is given by God and everything is brahman. Nature of Bhakti When it comes to elaborating on the nature of bhakti it is stated in the bhakti sandarbh and the sat sandarbh that the jivas are paths of god’s power but because of the absence of true knowledge of the ultimate reality there mind is turned away from it and through this weakness their self-knowledge is obscure by maya. As a result they identify themselves with the

sorrows associated with the cycle of birth and death but those jivas who y their religious practices become inclined towards God are able to realise God. The process of astang yog, performance of karma or one’s duties are always which lead one to a realisation of God. The true devotee finds a natural pleasure enchanting the name of God and absorbing himself in meditation upon God’s merciful action for the sake of humanity when it comes to the bhakti marg, the gyan marg and the karma marg, it is the path of bhakti which is regarded as superior. True philosophical knowledge where one realises that brahman, parmatma and bhagwan are one and the same then the devotee not only becomes inclined towards god but egoism is destroyed, all doubts are destroyed and all bondages of karma are also destroyed. Man is a part of God in the sense that both externally and internally he is in direct connection with God but still he has his own instincts tendencies, habits and it is these that separate him from God. It is because of this that man is unable to indulge in his true devotion to God except through the grace of God. Since beginning of time, man is ignorant of God and is disinclined from him and this natural impediment can only be removed by association with true devotees and the best devotee is he who perceives God in all beings and also perceives all beings as parts of himself and of GOD as he reveals himself in him. The other type of devotee is one who has love for God, friendship for his devotees, mercy for the ignorant and indifference with reference to his enemies and the lower types of devotees who worship the image of god with faith and devotion but has no special feeling for the devotees of god or other persons. From another perspective Bhakti has also been defined as service or seva as by that which everything can be attained. Bhakti is again regarded as three fold in nature, as external (aropa siddha), due to association with other devotees (sanga siddha), and due to a sincere spirit of natural affection for god, (svarupa siddha). In the first two cases bhakti is termed as kitava meaning fictitious and it is only in the last it is called real, akitava. Thus, if one looks at bhakti the most direct action to be performed is to listen and is to recite the names and glories of god and dedication of all actions to god. In so doing the devotee not only dedicates fruits of his religious duties, the fruits of actions thar come about ecause of passion and imperfections of his nature so that all his wrongdoings are washed away. The dedication of one’s action to god can be two-fold. A. One may perform the action with the aim of pleasing god. B. He may simply perform action without any desire to reap their fruits. The former is karma sannyasa and the latter is phala sanyasa. Bhakti is also regarded as associated with karma – A. When one becomes devoted to god for the fulfilment of ordinary desires.This is skaam bhakti B. When one concentrates upon God, enters into the path of Yoga, practices its detachment then it is kaivalya kama bhakti C. When one is reciting God’s name and glory, worshiping him and look at all people as manifestations of God, this is bhakti associated with karma and gyana. Bhakti has also been divided into two classes A. Where one devotes oneself to God, without any motive, it may involve to work and think always in a manner agreeable to God, to stop from anything that may displease God, have strong faith that he will protect to consider oneself a very humble being waiting for the grace of god to descend on oneself. B. In the other kind of Bhakti, the devotee looks upon God as if he were a human being and may turn to it with all the intensity of human emotions and passion.

The realisation of the highest bliss consists in the realisation of the ultimate reality which can happen only through the cessation of one’s ignorance and the consequent ultimate cessation of one’s sorrows. Only when God is pleased can one secure the ultimate extinction of sorrow and the attainment of eternal happiness. Conclusion The missionary activities of the saints introduced important changes in social and religious outlook of people. Their undivided and all absorbing devotion to a personal. God whether worshipped as Rama or Krishna or Shiva emphasized the fact that all these representations of gods were only symbols of the one eternal Supreme Being and thus helped the revival of monotheistic ideas. They purified and ennobled religion by purging it of formal rituals and ceremonies and emphasizing sanity of thought, purity of life, selfless sacrifice, and singleminded devotion. Thus the missionary activities of this brilliant succession of saints tempered the rigidity in caste system, freed the masses from the tyranny of priests, checked the excesses of polytheism, encouraged the spirit of tolerance, emphasized the value of pure life of charity and devotion and improved, in general, the moral and spiritual tone of society. The various kinds of Bhakti cults developed by eminent thinkers and spiritual personalities produced far-reaching results as these brought about reforms in Hindu religion. Besides, the reformers preached in their vernaculars. Ramananda and Kabir preached in Hindi. Their verses are brilliant specimens of Hindi literature. Namdeo gave an impetus to the development of Marathi literature. Mira Bai spoke in the people’s language. Nanak and his followers encouraged Punjabi. In Bengali, the famous poet was Chandi Das. In addition to the development of vernaculars great encouragement was given to translations. Muslim rulers of Bengal encouraged scholars to translate the Ramayana and the Mahabharata into Bengali. The entire movement influenced the mindset of Akbar and Shivaji. It promoted some understanding between Hindus and Muslims, stimulated Hinduism into a kind of introspective examination by preparing the ground for cultural synthesis in the Mughal period. By and large, it influenced the social thought of Hindus and Muslims. The first institution that has to be protected in times of change is the family and women who are over looked upon as a folders of morality of society. The explanation for this can probably be sought in the male apprehension of female sexuality. Hence every attempt it is made to control it. The bhakti saints attitude is a case in point do clamoring for change and protesting vocally against the prevalent injustices in the society the conveniently left out women relegating them to the background and the home. She had no place in the change that was being sought. It was a change Defined by male parameters. Since the change was being within a given structure it did not attempt at changing the past after of society vis-a-vis men and women. The perception of change and the need to come to terms with it were not seen as synonymous with a radical ideology in favor of total change. There was no attempt at reorganisation of the social relationships within the family. Therefore the element of protest and Bhakti movement was Limited for it left out women totally....