Part of the series on Hinduism
History  · Deities
Denominations
Beliefs and practices
Reincarnation  · Moksha
Karma  · Puja  · Maya
Nirvana  · Dharma
Yoga  · Ayurveda
Yuga  · Vegetarianism
Bhakti  · Artha
Mythology
Shruti : Upanishads
Vedas  · Brahmana
Smriti : Bhagavad Gita
Sutras  · Itihasa
Related topics
Hinduism by country
Leaders  · Mandir  ·
Caste system  · Mantra
Hindu festivals  · Murti

Bhakti is a Tamil or Sanskrit term from Hinduism that means intense devotion expressed by action (service). A person who practices bhakti is called bhakta. The concept of devotion is more or less the same in all religions. But in Hinduism there are certain extra subtleties which make it comparatively more complicated. These are : the One Reality versus many ‘Gods’ of worship; deity worship through ‘icons’ and ‘images’; the freedom to choose one’s own ‘favourite deity’, at the same time not being exclusive; and the interactive ramifications of God’s grace, fate and free will. Although some element of Bhakti was present even in the Vedic times, it is over the last six or seven centuries that Bhakti has taken the modern shape. The Bhakti movement started in Tamil Nadu and spread slowly northwards, becoming eventually a pervasive feature of Hinduism. The Alvars and Nayanars initiated the concept of Bhakti as a means of attaining salvation. Bhakti is considered the easiest and the fastest spiritual path in Kali Yuga. This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... This is the Devanagari symbol for the Hindu sacred syllable Aum. ... The Indus Valley Civilization existed along the Indus River in present-day Pakistan. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Hinduism encompasses many movements and schools fairly organized within Hindu denominations. ... Hindu philosophy (one of the main divisions of Indian philosophy) is traditionally seen through the prism of six different systems (called darshanas in Sanskrit) that are listed here and makes up the main belief systems of Hinduism. ... Past Lives redirects here. ... Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष, liberation) or Mukti (Sanskrit: विमुक्ति, release) refers, in general, to liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. ... KarmA (Sanskrit: कर्म from the root kri, to do, meaning deed) or Kamma (Pali: meaning action, effect, destiny) is a term in several Indian religions that comprises the entire cycle of cause and effect. ... PÅ«jā (alternative transliteration pooja, Sanskrit: reverence or worship, loosely) is a religious ritual which most Hindus perform every morning after bathing and dressing but prior to taking any food or drink. ... Maya in Hinduism In Vedic philosophy, maya is the illusion of a limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled, a veiling of the true, unitary Self, also known as Brahman. ... In the Indian religions Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, nirvāna (from the Sanskrit निर्वाण, Pali: Nibbāna -- Chinese: 涅槃; Pinyin: niè pán), literally extinction and/or extinguishing, is the culmination of the yogis pursuit of liberation. ... Dharma (sanskrit, roughly law or way) is the way of the higher Truths. ... Yoga (Sanskrit: Integration and union) is science, art and philophy of life. ... Ayurveda (आयुर्वेद Sanskrit: ayu—life; veda—knowledge of) or ayurvedic medicine is a comprehensive system of medicine, more than 5,000 years old and based on a holistic approach rooted in Vedic culture. ... In Hindu philosophy (and in the teachings of Surat Shabd Yoga) the cycle of creation is divided into four yugas (ages or eras): Satya Yuga or Krita Yuga Treta Yuga Dwapara Yuga Kali Yuga // The spiritual states of civilization in each yuga In Hindu tradition, the world goes through a... Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat, poultry, fish or their by-products, with or without the use of dairy products or eggs [2]. The exclusion may also extend to products derived from animal carcasses, such as lard, tallow, gelatin, rennet and cochineal. ... Artha is a Sanskrit term referring to the idea of material prosperity. ... The term Hindu mythology refers collectively to a large body of Indian literature (essentially, the mythology of Hinduism) that detail the lives and times of legendary personalities, deities and divine incarnations on earth interspersed with often large sections of philosophical and ethical discourse. ... Shruti (Sanskrit श्रुति, what is heard) is a canon of Hindu scriptures. ... The Upanishads (उपनिषद्, Upanişad) are part of the Hindu Shruti scriptures which primarily discuss meditation and philosophy and are seen as religious instructions by most schools of Hinduism. ... The Vedas (Sanskrit:- वेद), refers to collectively a corpus of old Indo Aryan religious literature that are considered to be revealed knowledge in Hinduism. ... The Brahmanas (Sanskrit ब्राह्मण, Brahmin Books) are part of the Hindu Shruti; They are composed in Vedic Sanskrit, and the period of their composition is sometimes referred to as the Brahmanic period or age (approximately between 900 BC and 500 BC). ... Smriti (Sanskrit स्मॄति, what is fit/deserves to be remembered) refers to a canon of Hindu religious scripture. ... Bhagavad Gīta भगवद्गीता, composed ca the fifth - second centuries BC, is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, located in the Bhisma-Parva chapters 23–40. ... Sutra (सूत्र) in Sanskrit is derived from the verb √siv, meaning to sew. ... Itihasa (Sanskrit: thus verily happened) refers collectively to the epic Hindu scriptures, detailing the actions of divine incarnations on earth while interspersing them with often large sections of philosophical and ethical discourse. ... The percentage of Hindu population of each country was taken from the US State Departments International Religious Freedom Report 2004 [1]. Other sources used were CIA Factbook [2] and adherents. ... These are some of the most noteworthy Gurus and Saints of Hinduism: Shankara Ramanuja Madhvacharya Ramakrishna Vivekananda Sree Narayana Guru Aurobindo Ramana Maharshi Sivananda Chinmayananda Yogaswami Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Swaminarayan A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Satya Sai Baba Shirdi Sai Baba Categories: Hindu religious figures ... The Gopuram of temples, in south India, are adorned with colourful icons depicting a particular story surrounding the temples deity. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In Tibet, many Buddhists carve mantras into rocks as a form of devotion. ... Murtis are deities or images used by Hindus and also by some Mahayana Buddhists during worship as points of devotional and meditational focus. ... Tamil is a classical language and one of the major languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. ... Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम्) is a classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Bhakti movements are Hindu religious movements in which the main spiritual practice is the fostering of loving devotion to God, called bhakti. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... The Alvars are Hindu saints, followers of Lord Vishnu. ... The Nayanars were the sincere and ardent devotees of Lord Siva. ... Kali Yuga is also the title of a book by Roland Charles Wagner. ...

Concept of God

Early stages of man’s introspection revealed the superiority of Nature over him. But in course of time he realised that however deep he penetrated into the complexity of nature there was something deeper than what he knew to be true. Before long he postulated a Supreme Cosmic Power as the motive force behind every expression of Nature. But the concept of God in Hinduism is more complex than this naive conception of a Cosmic Power. The Upanishads take pains to explain how every physical expression amenable to sense perception is nothing but an expression of the divine. The Upanishads declare that there is a substratum of existence behind all the manifest presentations to the mind. This is just like gold being the substratum of existence in all gold ornaments, or the movie screen being the base of all the presentations on the screen. The Upanishads (उपनिषद्, Upanişad) are part of the Hindu Shruti scriptures which primarily discuss meditation and philosophy and are seen as religious instructions by most schools of Hinduism. ...

Brahman, the Ultimate

This substratum – named Brahman, by the Upanishads – permeates everything in the world. It is the common content of all that has a name and/or form. For that very reason, it has no name or form for itself. It is spoken of as ‘THAT’ in the neuter gender by the Upanishads. This is the unique Godhead of Hinduism. There is no other. There is no second. It is the source of all energy, of all power, either in nature or in living beings. In this abstract concept, however, there cannot be any subject-object relationship. Brahman cannot be the object of cognition, since Brahman has no second. In fact nothing can be predicated about Brahman without delimiting the infiniteness of Brahman. Here the underlined vowels carry the Vedic Sanskrit udātta pitch accent. ...

The Bhagavata Purana describes three different'levels' of Brahman realisation. The first is an impersonal state of blissfull consciousness, similar to nirvana where one is aware of the great universal Brahaman effulgence permeating everything; the second is classified as Paramatma realisation, wherein one is actually able to see the Form of Godhead alongside one's own soul (atma); the third and ultimate realisation is described as Bhagavan, in this state one has a direct loving relationship with The Supreme Personality of Godhead himself, in one or more of His transcendental forms. The Bhagavata Purana (sometimes rendered as Bhagavatha Purana), also known as the Srimad Bhagavatam, written c. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... In the Indian religions Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, nirvāna (from the Sanskrit निर्वाण, Pali: Nibbāna -- Chinese: 涅槃; Pinyin: niè pán), literally extinction and/or extinguishing, is the culmination of the yogis pursuit of liberation. ... Universal has several meanings: For the concept of a universal in metaphysics, see Universal (metaphysics). ... In Hindu theology, Paramatman is Absolute Atman or Supreme Soul. ... (Redirected from ) This is a disambiguation page for the term atman (or atma). ... Bhagavan - (also Bhagawan or Bhagwan) is a religio/theological title associated with particular Hindu deities and/or saints, by their devotees. ... Transcendental in philosophical contexts In philosophy, transcendental experiences are experiences of an exclusively human nature that are other-worldly or beyond the human realm of understanding. ...

Two schools, the Absolutist and the non-Absolutist

At this point, Hindu theory of Bhakti branches off into two distinct schools of thought , the Absolutist and the non-Absolutist. The former, (to which belongs the advaita school of Shankara), with a mathematical precision, postulates that the moment one wants to think of Brahman as an object of thought, one has already delimited Brahman and is only thinking of Ishwara, otherwise called Saguna Brahman, Brahman with attributes. The non-Absolutist schools on the other hand, generally identify Brahman with Iswaara though some of them do make modifications that tend to assign attributes to Brahman. Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita are two major non-Absolutist schools. Advaita Vedanta is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools of Hinduism, the others being Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita. ... Saguna Brahman, also called Iswara, in Hinduism, is God with personal characteristics or attributes. ... Vishisthadvaita is a qualified monism in which God alone exists but admits plurality. ... Dvaita, a school of Vedanta (the most widespread Hindu theology), made popular by Shri Madhvacharya, stresses strict distinction between God (expressed as Vishnu) and souls. ...

Ishwara, the all-powerful Almighty

Ishwara is the all-powerful Almighty that is talked about by all religions. By its very nature all names and forms suit it. The Vedic logic here is really very subtle. The Ultimate has no name or form and therefore it could be called by any name and could be given any form. The concept of idol worship is the practical consequence of this unique logic of Hinduism. Hinduism, the Smarta tradition, in particular, dares to carry the rationale of this to its logical conclusion. Hence it is one finds a plethora of ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ in the Hindu framework. Smarta is a Hindu follower of Smartism. ...

Names and Forms

No single name or form of God can fully describe the infinite grandeur that is God. Each name or form is only a symbol that points to something that is beyond this visual representation. Each is only a representation of some aspect or manifestation of the supreme Divinity. Therefore, it is the entire array of all names and forms of God that will approximate to the fullness that is the one Ishwara. It is in this spirit that Sahasranama stotras (1000 names of God) and ashtottara-stotras (poems of praise through 108 names) are found in abundance in Hindu religious literature for almost every deity. The word Sahasra-nāma in Sanskrit means 1000 names. Sahasra-nāma-stotra stands for a poem or a succession of verses (shlokas,) which contain thousand names of God. ...

Favourite deity worship

The Smarta tradition of Hinduism however, recommends that each person may choose his own deity of worship (ishta-devata). If the grossest manifestation is the only thing that suits one’s taste, or mood, or psychological make-up or intellect, one is free to worship God in that form. Even the same person may worship an idol at one time and at another time may meditate and attempt to merge in the transcendental nameless ultimate. One may choose a favourite as per one’s taste, and worship that as the Ultimate. It is this train of thought in the Smarta Hindu mind that lives with different puranas though they extoll different deities. Smarta is a Hindu follower of Smartism. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Ishta-Deva, or Ishta Devata is a term from Hinduism that means chosen Deity or revered aspect of God by a devotee and is a widely held concept in Smartism. ... The Puranas (Sanskrit पुराण, purāṇá ancient, since they focus on ancient history of the universe) are part of Hindu Smriti; these religious scriptures discuss varied topics like devotion to God in his various aspects, traditional sciences like Ayurveda, Jyotish, cosmology, concepts like dharma, karma, reincarnation and many others. ...

Six traditional favourites

When Divinity appears as a physical manifestation for a specific purpose, for that context, for that moment, that manifestation is considered to be Supreme. Smarta Hinduism therefore gives the privilege to each individual to choose an ishta-devata (favourite deity) and worship it as if it were the exclusive ultimate. There are six traditions, which may be listed as the worship of Smarta is a Hindu follower of Smartism. ...

1. Aditya, the Sun-God; 2. Devi or Ambika, the Mother Goddess, in her three forms of Durga or Parvati, Lakshmi and Saraswati ; 3. Vishnu, belonging to the classic Trinity and His concrete manifestations in the forms of Rama, Krishna and other avatars ; 4. Ganesha, the elephant-faced deity, considered as the primal God of all worship; 5. Maheshvara or Shiva, the third God of the classic Trinity; and 6. Subrahmanya, the six-faced deity known also as Murugan or Kumaran to the Tamil world. Who dare interfer in my wrk# In Hinduism, the Adityas are a group of solar deities, sons of Aditi and Kasyapa. ... Devi as Vaishnodevi Commonly known as Devi (goddess), Vaishnodevi (देवी, DevÄ« in Hindi and Sanskrit) is the Divine Mother of Hinduism. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Popular image of Lakshmi In Hinduism, Lakshmi or Laxmi (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी) is the goddess of wealth, light and fortune, as well as (secondarily) luck, beauty and fertility. ... Saraswati, goddess of education Saraswati is the first of the three great goddesses of Hinduism, the other two being Lakshmi and Durga. ... For other uses of the name Vishnu, see Vishnu (disambiguation). ... Deities of Sri Sri Sita (far right), Rama (center), Lakshmana (far left) and Hanuman (below seated) at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, Watford England Lord Rama (center) with wife Sita, brother Lakshmana and devotee Hanuman. ... Lord Krishna revealing his Universal form to Arjuna Krishna (कृष्ण, pronounced as kŖιŞhÅ…É™, Sanskrit for black), is according to common Hindu tradition the eighth avatar of Vishnu. ... Lord Ganesha In Hinduism, Ganesha (or lord of the hosts, also spelled as Ganesa and sometimes referred to as Ganapati in Marathi, Gujarati and other Indian languages) is a son of Shiva and Parvati, and the husband of Bharati, Riddhi and Siddhi. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In Hinduism, Kartikeya (also Murugan, Subrahmanya, Skanda, Kumaran, Swaminanda) is a deity born out of a magical spark created by Shiva. ...

All-encompassing eclecticism

In addition, the choice of ishta-devata, also became, over the centuries, a choice of one among the thousands of temples scattered throughout the country and the deity chosen may very well be the particular deity enshrined in that specific temple, though certainly belonging to one of the six major streams listed above. It is this variety and possibility of ‘to each according to his needs and capabilities’ that brings together under one banner of Hinduism people with varying practices, attitudes and states of evolution. Accordingly carving of images of gods both for worship at home and in the temples became one of the most highly developed art and profession in India. The religious life of India was thus nourished through the ages on a visual statement, unmatched perhaps, in the history of civilization. Ishta-Deva, or Ishta Devata is a term from Hinduism that means chosen Deity or revered aspect of God by a devotee and is a widely held concept in Smartism. ...

Classifications of Bhakti

Narada Bhakti sutra by sage Narada distinguishes eleven forms based on the different relationship to God that the devotee can assume. (Click here if you were looking for the band also called Narada) Narada Narada is the Hindu divine sage, who is an enduring chanter of the name Hari. ...

Prahlada, as explained in Srimad Bhagavatam, enunciates Nine Expressions of Bhakti. In Hinduism, Prahlada was a son of Hiranyakashipu, a Daitya who hated the devas, and most especially, God or Vishnu, the followers of whom he began to torture. ... The Bhagavata Purana (sometimes rendered as Bhagavatha Purana), also known as the Srimad Bhagavatam, written c. ... It was Prahlada, a five-year old boy, spiritually oriented even as he was born, who taught his boyhood contemporaries the Nine Expressions of Bhakti – a concept that is most well-known in Hindu religious world. ...

Adi Shankara, in his verse #61 of Sivanandalahari lists Five analogies of Bhakti. See Five Graded Analogies of Bhakti. Bhakti is Intense Devotion to Divinity or a noble cause. ...

Sathya Sai Baba, talks about Three stages of Bhakti, namely, External Worship (“Bahya bhakti”, like worshipping in temples and holy places), Exclusive Worship of one deity (“Ananya bhakti” like that of Tulsidas or Thyagaraja), and Intimate Internal Worship (“Ekantha bhakti” like the self-effacing worship of the Gopis of Brindavan). Sathya Sai Baba Sathya Sai Baba (born Sathya Narayana Raju with the family name Ratnakaram, circa 1926-1929) is a popular, controversial Indian guru who has millions of followers (victims) and hundreds of Sathya Sai Baba groups in many countries. ... Bhakti is intense devotion and dedication to anything that is divine or noble. ... Goswami Tulsidas (1532-1623; Hindi: तुलसीदास) was a medieval Hindi poet and philosopher. ... Sri Tyagaraja (17??-1848), an ardent devotee of Sri Ramachandra, was one of the principal composers of Carnatic music, and is also regarded as the most important of the trinity of composers. ...

Example of Towering Giants of Bhakti

God never lets down His devotees – is the clarion call of all bhakti literature. Over the centuries there have been innumerable devotees who have exemplified this in their very lives. In historical time numberless devotees of the Lord have been reported to have lived an exemplary life of devotion. Bhakti itself came to be defined by their actions and pronouncements. One has only to read the biographies of Thyagaraja, Appar, Mira, Ramadas, Kabir, Vedanta Desika, Prabhupada, Ramana or Ramakrishna and scores of several others. Every one of their lives would show how devotion is always followed by the descent of the Grace of God on the devotee. Chandra X-ray Image of Mira Mira (ο Cet / ο Ceti / Omicron Ceti) is a binary star in the constellation Cetus consisting of the red giant, Mira A or just Mira, and a white dwarf, Mira B or VZ Ceti. ... Kabir (कबीर) (1440 - 1518)(better known as Kabira) was an Indian Mystic who preached an ideal of seeing all of humanity as one. ... Swamy Vedanta Desika, Sri Vaishnava Philosopher Vedanta Desika (1269 – 1370) is the second great name in Vaishnavism. ... Srila Prabhupada under a painting of Krishna A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (September 1, 1896–November 14, 1977) was born Abhay Charan De, in Calcutta, West Bengal. ... Ramana Mahrishi as portrayed in a loving oil painting by Jayalakshmi Satyendra Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi is regarded by some as one of the greatest saints of Hinduism in the 20th century. ... Sri Thakur Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (February 18, 1836 - August 16, 1886) was one of the foremost Hindu saint to grace India. ...

Theory of Grace

In any theory of Grace it is the surrender to God’s Will and humility that matter. And one has to surrender by one’s own free will. Man has the free will to obey or disobey God. The so-called fatalist view in religion is only a fragmentary part of Hinduism. Man’s fate is reflected mainly in his tendencies that he has created for himself through his past actions. He has total free will to surrender to God or not. But if he surrenders to Him heart and soul, He promises that He will take care of his Yoga (security), and Kshema (well-being). Whosoever offers to Me with love, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water, says the Lord, I shall partake of his offering and bless him, says Krishna in the Gita. So we have only to purify the feeling behind every act of worship of ours in order to win His Grace. Bhagavad Gīta भगवद्गीता, composed ca the fifth - second centuries BC, is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, located in the Bhisma-Parva chapters 23–40. ...

Take the first step

If that feeling of bhakti is so important, why can’t God Himself give us that feeling? –God certainly grants that bhakti. But we have to receive it. If our minds are closed, we may not receive it even when it pours. He keeps on pouring His love but very often we do not look to Him for that Love. Actually He waits and waits until we take the first step towards Him out of our own free will. Why should He submit Himself to this ‘agony’ of waiting for His children to become His devotees is one of the mysteries of God. In His ‘agony’ He grabs us even when we take a simple step towards Him. He consumes us with His love.

One Purpose of prayer and worship

But generally devotees want only petty things from God. The theory of Bhakti is He keeps giving us the petty things we want, so that in due time we would want what He wants to give us all. All our temples, gods and goddesses and the innumerable ways by which we may propitiate the divine in these places of worship, as well as the uncountable methods of offering our private prayers, with or without the ritualistic mantras – all of them have that one objective, that we should ultimately want to go back to where we came from, that is, merge in Him and His glory or be with Him in His blissful Presence.

Sources

• Swami Nikhilananda, Hinduism, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1958
• D.S. Sarma, Hinduism through the ages, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1973
• Swami Chinmayananda, Love Divine – Narada Bhakti Sutra, Chinmaya Publications Trust, Madras, 1970
• Swami Tapasyananda, Bhakti Schools of Vedanta, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, 1990
• A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam (12 Cantos), The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust,2004

See also

• bhakti yoga
• bhakti movement
• South India's 75 Apostles of Bhakti

Bhakti yoga is the Hindu term for the spiritual practice of fostering of loving devotion to God, called bhakti. ... Bhakti movements are Hindu religious movements in which the main spiritual practice is the fostering of loving devotion to God, called bhakti. ... South Indias 75 Apostles of Bhakti are the twelve Alvars (also, Aazhvaars, Aazhwaars) and sixty-three Nayanmars (also Nayanars, Naayanars, Naayanmaars). ...

Esternal Links

• ISKCON official website
• Awakening the Inner Woman - Bhakti and the Doctrine of Love by Sri Nitin Kumar
• Krishna.com
• Hare Krishna News