Bhakti | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The path of bhakti, the major form of Hindu worship and communal religious practice in India, refers to the devotional love of a deity or deities. The reason for much Indian artistry, bhakti is demonstrated in statues, paintings, temples, and elaborate feasts. The most accepted etymology derives the word from the Sanskrit root bhaj, which means "to worship," "to share in," and "to belong to." In the bhakti tradition, love and concern are shared between the god or goddess and the worshiper.

Most forms of Hindu bhakti are monotheistic, emphasizing the worship of a single, personal god, who created the world and cares for its inhabitants. However, some forms also worship a divine couple, a divine family, or a deity and his or her emanations and incarnations. The goals of this worship are to glorify the god or goddess and to gain blessings in life and salvation after death.

Elements of bhakti are found in the earliest Indian religious texts, the Vedas and Upanishads. The worship of the gods Indra and Varuna in the hymns of the Rig Veda contain devotional elements, and the Upanishads speak of a "supreme person" or "inner controller," a view of an ultimate reality or an impersonal Brahman that can be understood as a belief in a personal god. The Katha and Mundaka Upanishads also speak of the ultimate reality bestowing grace on those it chooses. In the Bhagavad Gita, a part of the epic story known as the Mahabharata, the god Krishna describes in detail the importance of bhakti and declares it superior to other forms of religious belief and practice.

The earliest devotional poetry comes from South India, in hymns to the god Murukan of the third century CE. From the fifth to the ninth centuries CE hymns were written in the Tamil language to the gods Siva and Vishnu, who remain highly popular in India. The bhakti style of worship spread throughout the rest of India in texts such as the Puranas and in the performances of wandering poets, singers, and storytellers.

The bhakti tradition was appealing because it emphasized the equality of all people in worship. It thus denied India's caste inequities, giving new religious status to low-caste people, to women, and to outcastes. It also emphasized that religious emotion was of greater value than classical knowledge of written texts, so people who were illiterate and uneducated could still be great bhaktas, or devotees.

The Hindu tradition includes three major bhakti groups. The largest group worships the god Vishnu, and its members are called Vaishnavas. Vishnu is most popularly worshiped as Rama and Krishna or Hari, though he has many other forms. The second-largest bhakti group worships the god Siva, and they are known as Saivas or Saivites. The third-largest group worships the goddess as Mother of the Universe, most often as Shakti, Durga, Lakshmi, or Kali. Worshipers of the goddess are called Shaktas. Each of these groups has various subgroups with different understandings of the nature and actions of the deity, different lineages of teachers with their own interpretations of texts and preferred ritual practices, and different regional languages and traditions. Smaller bhakti groups worship other deities.

While some devotees are renouncers, who spend their lives in prayer and service to the god or goddess, most are householders, who worship daily at a home altar and on various holidays and festivals at temples and shrines. The major form of bhakti worship is puja, in which the deity, in the form of a statue, picture, or iconic symbol, is presented ritual gifts. The god or goddess is offered flowers, fruit, incense, and other valuable or cherished items, accompanied by prayers and songs. It is believed that the food is accepted by the deity and transformed into prasad or sanctified food. This food is eaten by the devotees, who then share in the deity's grace. Sometimes devotees who love the god intensely may have a direct sense of the god's presence, called darshan, which involves mutual sight, recognition, and caring between god and devotee. Puja may be performed on holidays as a part of traditional yearly worship or at other times to gain special favors. It may be performed to fulfill a promise made to the god or as a form of service to the god and the temple or shrine.

Bhakti rituals also include singing hymns, called bhajan or kirtan, chanting the god's name or sacred Sanskrit words and phrases, called mantrajapa, and reenacting the adventures of the god or goddess in plays and dances. Visualizing the god or goddess and his or her heavens and chanting mantras or sacred words are a part of disciplined bhakti yoga. More ascetic bhakti practices involve difficult pilgrimages to distant holy places, fasting, and extended meditation on the god or goddess.

The goal of bhakti practice is a closer relationship with the god or goddess. The various bhakti groups define this relationship differently, and the most complex literature on the topic derives from writers in the Bengali Vaishnava tradition. Human emotions, bhavas, correspond to universal emotional essences or rasas, and the goal of bhakti is a full appreciation of these emotions. The most intense emotion is divine erotic love, the passionate love of the god Krishna. He may be loved through five basic relationships: god as master and devotee as servant; god as child and devotee as parent, which is sometimes reversed; god as beloved and devotee as lover; god and devotee as friends; and god and devotee as ultimately one shared spirit, which is the least desirable for Vaishnavas as it lacks passion and drama. Love may be selfish or selfless, but the highest form of love is selfless prema, in which the only goal in life is loving and serving the god.

In South Indian Vaishnava bhakti, the most important act is self-surrender (prapatti), the worshiper's total dependence on the god Vishnu. This dependence makes a person a devotee. Morality is important; the devotee must refrain from malice, lying, egotism, and unfriendliness. The god may be loved in his divine or heavenly form or in his earthly incarnations, called avatar forms.

The Indian tradition of Saiva-siddhanta includes four stages of love for the god Siva. The devotee follows first the path of the slave, doing temple services such as cleaning, lighting lamps, and growing flowers; then the path of the good son or daughter, meditating on Siva as light and preparing for ritual worship; then the path of the associate, yogic practice; and finally the path of truth, full awareness of Siva. The devotee must have knowledge, ritual action, yogic practice, and a virtuous way of life. When the devotee reaches union with Siva, the sweetness of that state is compared to sugarcane and honey. Love of the god is reflected in the love of all humanity.

The goddess may be worshiped as the single Mother of the Universe; as a couple, with her consort Siva; or in one of her ten manifest forms as the ten Wisdom Goddesses or dasa mahavidyas. In Bengali Shaktism the major devotional roles portray the goddess as protective mother and the devotee as child or the goddess as innocent daughter and the devotee as nurturing parent. Worship of the goddess may also be yogic or tantric, in which emotion is less important than detachment and wisdom.

In all these forms of Hindu bhakti, devotion to the god is more important than knowledge, caste and purity rules, and social status. Bhakti is a religious path of love, dedicated to the god or goddess and reflected in compassionate behavior toward humankind, creativity in literature and the arts, and the practice of religious ritual.

June McDaniel

Caste; Hindu Philosophy; Hindu Values; Hinduism—India; Sanskritization

Archer, William G. (1960) The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry. New York: Grove Press.

Bailly, Constantina Rhodes, trans. (1995) Meditations on Siva: The Sivastotravali of Utpaladeva. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. (1991) The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War. New York: Bantam Books.

Ramanujan, A. K., trans. (1985) Speaking of Siva. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books.

Schelling, Andrew, trans. (1993) For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai. Boston: Shambhala Publications.

Sinha, Jadunath. (1966) Rama Prasada's Devotional Songs: The Cult of Shakti. Calcutta, India: Sinha Publishing House.

Woodroffe, Sir John George, comp. and trans. [Arthur Avalon, pseud.]. (1981) Hymns to the Goddess and Hymn to Kali. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Press.

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