Bhakti

bhakti (bŭk`tē) [Skt.,=devotion], theistic devotion in Hinduism. Bhakti cults seem to have existed from the earliest times, but they gained strength in the first millennium A.D. The first full statement of liberation and spiritual fulfillment through devotion to a personal god is found in the Bhagavad-Gita. The Puranas (from the 1st cent. A.D.) further elaborated theistic ideas. Devotion to Shiva and Vishnu and to the latter's avatara (incarnations), Rama and Krishna, continues to be practiced throughout India. Intense love for God and surrender to Him, reliance on His grace rather than on rituals, learning, or austerities, and the continuous repetition of His name are the means to the goal of His constant presence. The devotee may worship the chosen deity as child, parent, friend, master, or beloved. The bhakti tradition has tended to stress authentic inner feelings as opposed to institutional forms of religion and to disregard caste distinctions. Great devotees and saints such as the Alvars of S India (a Vaishnavite group of wandering singers), Mirabai, Tukaram, Tulsidasa, Kabir, and Chaitanya have continuously inspired the cults, founded their own sects, and produced a great literature of songs and poems in their vernaculars.

---

bhakti

Southern Asian devotional movement, particularly in Hinduism, emphasizing the love of a devotee for his or her personal god. In contrast to Advaita, bhakti assumes a dualistic relationship between devotee and deity. Though Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti (see shakti) all have cults, bhakti characteristically developed around Vishnu's incarnations as Rama and Krishna. Practices include reciting the god's name, singing hymns, wearing his emblem, and making pilgrimages. The fervour of South Indian hymnists in the 7th–10th centuries spread bhakti and inspired much poetry and art. Poets such as Mirabai conceived of the relationship between the worshiper and the god in familiar human terms (e.g., the lover and beloved), while more abstract poets such as Kabir and his disciple Nanak, the first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikhism, portrayed the divinity as singular and ineffable.

---

Bhakti 

a popular religious sectarian movement in India, widespread between the 12th and 17th centuries. One of the religious doctrines of Hinduism underlies the teachings of the ideologists of bhakti; this doctrine is encountered in the ancient classics of Indian religious philosophical literature under the name “bhakti.” The doctrine of bhakti received a particularly full formulation in the Bhaktiratnavali, a work of the late 14th century. The followers of bhakti believed that boundless love of god was itself sufficient for the “salvation” of a person, that it was not necessary to either honor priests or perform rites. The bhakti movement proclaimed the equality of all people before god and rejected caste divisions. Sikhism was one of the latest ideological forms of bhakti.

REFERENCES

D’iakov, A. M. Natsional’nyi vopros i angliiskii imperializm v Indii. [Moscow] 1948.
Piatigorskii, A. M. Materialy po istorii indiiskoi filosofii. Moscow, 1962.
Radhakrishnan, S. Indiiskaia filosofiia, vols. 1-2. Moscow, 1956-57 (Translated from English.)

A. M. OSIPOV