BHAKTI AND SUFI MOVEMENTS

BHAKTI AND SUFI MOVEMENTS

Bhakti Movement: A Symphony of Love and Devotion:

The term ‘Bhakthi’ refers to ‘devotion’. As a movement, it emphasized on the mutual intense emotional attachment and love of a devotee toward a personal god and of the god for the devotee.

This movement originated in South India in the 7th and 10th CE, mostly in the poems of Alvars and Nayanars. These poems were composed in Tamil, the poems were addressed to Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva respectively.

Central Themes:

• Personal Devotion: Bhakti emphasized emotional and devotional attachment to a chosen deity, often Krishna or Rama, as the path to liberation (moksha).
  
• Accessible Path: It offered a more accessible and intuitive path to spirituality, open to all, regardless of caste or gender.
  
• Emotional Expression: Bhakti saints expressed their devotion through passionate songs, poems, and dances, highlighting the emotional and intuitive aspects of faith.
  
• Divine Grace: Many Bhakti saints emphasized the importance of divine grace (prasad) in achieving salvation, recognizing the limitations of human effort.
  

Reasons behind the movement

The movement began in response to the abuses and malpractices that has taken place in Hinduism. Some of the other reasons due to which this movement spread throughout the country were:

• The spread of Islam.
• Emergence of great reformers.
• Influence of Sufi sects.
• Impact of Vaishnavism and Shaivism ideologies.
• Evils practices in the Hindu society.

Contributions Of Bhakti Movements

• Social and Religious Reforms: Bhakti Movement made necessary social reforms, eradicated caste-based bias as well gender biases.
  
• Religious Concord: It strengthened the communal amity among Hindus and Muslims.
  
• Universal Brotherhood: The Bhakti saints propagated purity of mind and action and preached for universal brotherhood.
  
• Vernacular Literature: The use of the love language led to being a live literature in specific regions. Ex- Bengali( Chaitanya Mahaprabhu), Sikh and Punjabi( Guru Nanak ji).
• Plainness in Worship: The denomination promoted simple practices of worship, belittling the importance on elaborate rituals. Ex- Mirabai and her love and devotion towards Lord sri Krishna.
  
• Spirit of tolerance, harmony and mutual respect: Under it’s influence, spirit of tolerance and harmony started to spread among the people. (Ex- Akbar and his some Hindu scholar associates).
  
• Influenced the rulers: Ex- Shivaji’s swarajya concept was founded on the base of Bhakti movement.
  

Common teachings among Bhakti saints:

It preached equality: Compared to the real world in which there were differences based on religion, caste etc., (Disciples of Ramananda - weaver, cobbler, barber)

Preached about universal brotherhood: which is based on feeling like love, care and affection etc for all in the society. E.g Kabir through his Dohas learnt us on international brotherhood.

It worked hard to cleanse the religion and society of many social evils that had crept in it over time. Ex: Guru Nanak spoke out against the years of inequality and also spoke against the religious rituals performed like having a bath in sacred rivers

One of the important highlights of this movement was that it advocated for path through ‘Bhakthi’ and ‘Devotion’ and not merely following rituals to attain god and salvation.(Ex- Mirabai and Ramanucharya).

SUFI MOVEMENTS:

The medieval period witnessed the rise and development of a large number of Muslim religious movements, mystic organizations, religious cults and attitudes. The Islamic mysticism was known as Sufism. It aims at establishing direct communion between God and man through personal experience of mystery which lies within Islam.

The Sufi movement is a mystical and spiritual tradition that originated in the Islamic world and has gained followers across the country. The Sufi Movement focuses on finding a special connection with God through practising meditation, prayer, and thinking deeply. People who follow Sufism are called Sufis, and they want to feel even closer to God.

Features of Sufism:

There developed a number of sufi orders or silsilah in and outside India, each had their specific characteristic but had some common features:

• Stress the importance of traversing the sufi path (tariqa) as a method of establishing direct communion with divine reality (haqiqat).

• Sufi path could be traversed only under the strict supervision of a spiritual guide (shaikh, pir or murshid) who had himself successfully traversed it and consequently established direct communion with God.

• Disciple (murid) progressed through the “stages” and “states” by practicing spiritual exercises. e.g: self mortification (subjugation of desire by self discipline),recollection of God’s name for concentration.

• Sufis practiced sama (musical recital) which was intended to induce a mystical state of ecstasy. Ulema were hostile to this practice.

• Organisation of the sufis into various orders (silsilah). e.g. Suhrawardi, Qadiri, Chishti etc.

• Hospice (khanqah) was the centre of the activities of a sufi order. Here, pir imparted spiritual training to his disciples. The popularity of the khanqah and its capacity to attract disciples depended on the reputation of the pir.

ROLE OF SUFI MOVEMENT IN PROMOTING COMMUNAL HARMONY:

1) Like the bhakti movement, Sufism also contributed to a great extent in molding the character of the medieval Indian society.

2) The Sufis stressed the essential unity between different religions and showed an attitude of toleration towards other religions and tried to bring about reconciliation between the Hindus and the Muslims.

3) The ideas of the brotherhood of Islam and equality among its adherents appealed to the low castes among the Hindus. It led to large-scale conversions.

4) The Sufis emphasized the unity of God and superiority of the path of devotion over rituals, ceremonies, pilgrimages and fasts.

5) The liberal and tolerant attitude adopted by Akbar and his successors made the Sufi literature and thought popular among the Hindu intellectuals.

6) The Sufi doctrine of Universal Brotherhood (sulh-i-kul) was adopted by Akbar in his attempt to establish a national state in India.

7) The Sufi movements promoted a feeling of religious toleration between the Hindus and Muslims and became instrumental in maintaining the social equilibrium of the medieval society.

8) The healthy religious atmosphere created by the Sufi movements enabled Akbar to adopt a broader outlook in religious matters culminating in the foundation of a syncretic religion Din-i-Ilahi.

9) It is important to note that the bhakti reformers and the Sufi saints directly as well as indirectly created an atmosphere of brotherhood and fellow feelings between the Hindus and the Muslims.

This enabled the Mughal Emperors to follow a policy of religious toleration.

10) The bhakti movement and sufi movement prepared the way for Akbar’s glorious rule that tried to transform the predominantly Muslim character of the Mughal state into a national state.

INFLUENCE OF SUFISM ON BHAKTI MOVEMENT:

Many scholars argue that all variants of bhakti movement and the doctrine of bhakti itself came into being as a result of Islamic influence both before and after the 12th century.

This claim is on the basis of many similarities between Islam and the bhakti cults, but it is not so because: Bhakti and sufi movements had indigenous origins. Bhakti as a religious concept had developed in the religious tradition of ancient India.

Older South Indian bhakti movement came into being even before the advent of Islam in South India.

It would be more appropriate to understand the bhakti movements of medieval India in their immediate historical context rather than searching for far-fetched sources of inspiration in any particular religion.

However, Islam did influence the bhakti cults and, in particular monotheistic movements.

Islamic influence on monotheists:

Monotheistic bhakti movement and Islam seems to have been one of mutual influence and Sufism provided the common meeting ground.

Non-conformist saints picked up many ideas of Islam. e.g.: Non-compromising faith in one God, their rejection of incarnation, their conception of Nirguna bhakti and their attack on idolatry, Rejection of the caste system.

Sufi concepts of pir and mystic union with the “beloved” (God) coincided in many respects with the non-conformist saints’ concepts of guru and devotional surrender to God.

Few non-conformist saints had interaction with sufis. Guru Nanak’s encounters with sufis are described in the janam-sakhis.

Sufism and the monotheistic movement were historically independent of each other, there was remarkable similarity in many of their basic ideas, including their common rejection of Hindu and Muslim orthodoxies.

Islamic influence on vaishnava bhakti movements:

They didn’t have any influence as they neither denounced idolatry and the caste system nor the theory of incarnation and believed in Saguna bhakti.

Influence of the bhakti movement on Sufism:

Interaction between the Chishti sufis and the Nathpanthi yogi: During the 13th and 14th centuries, Nathpanthi movement had attained considerable’ popularity in Northern India, in particular among the lower sections of the society.

Interactions are: Nathpanthi yogis used to visit khanqahs of the leading Chishti sheikhs and had discussions with them on the nature of mysticism.

Early Chishtis’ approved some of the ethical values of the nathpanthi yogis and their collective way of life. Even before the advent of Sufism in India, translation of the Yoga treatise Amrit-kund into persian from Sanskrit led to the adoption of many meditative practices by the Sufis.