Humans are essentially creatures
of emotion. How much so ever the rational intellect may try to convince one of
the futility of emotions, the heart still reins supreme. As the romantic poets of India in the 4th thru 10th centuries of CE exploited the beauty of Sānskrit language to tell the many tales of love, ‘Love
of God’ also found its expression in the Hindu religion through the Bhakti
movement. The devotional Bhakti movement that had its humble beginnings in South
India during the early centuries of Common Era, expanded to envelop almost all
of India from the 8th Century CE through 17th century CE.
During this period, many famed temples came into being as the Kings found
everlasting glory in the consecration of grandiose temples rather than Yāga
rituals. India was not alone in this. Coincidentally during the same period,
very similar movements had spread over rest of the world through Christianity and
Islam
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| Ādi Sankara |
India’s most prolific
philosopher of Advaita Vedānta, Sri Ādi
Sankara, is supposed to have lived in the 9th Century AD. Ādi
Sankara was a great devotee of many of the Hindu Gods and composed beautiful
hymns to them even though his philosophy had anchored on an absolute God
principle rather than a human-like God with qualities of benevolence and
omniscience. Ādi Sankara offered himself as a living example on achieving the ultimate
state of realization by simultaneously pursuing the distinct paths of knowledge
and devotion. His primary inspiration for this came from the teachings of the
Bhagawad Gita, Upanishads and the Brahma sutra. He also formalized the many
devotional practices into six systems comprising worship of the Surya, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, Ganesha and Subramania. Sankara was also instrumental in consecrating many temples across India.
In Sankara’s philosophy
of Advaita (non-dualism), the world’s reality is not absolute. He
concluded that the world, which is conditioned by space-time and constrained by
relationships between causes and effects, could not be real in the absolute
sense. At the same time, Sankara did not totally deny the existence of the
world. According to him the world’s reality is true in a relative sense and he
called it as the ‘transitional reality’ (vyāvahārika satya). Brahman,
according to Sankara and the scriptures, is the ‘absolute reality’ (āthyanthika
satya) on which the transitional reality of the world is superimposed. Sankara also professed that within the transitional reality of the
world, a collective consciousness exists experiencing the three states of awareness waking,
sleep and dream states similar to an individual. This collective consciousness manifests
in the three states of consciousness of waking, dream and sleep states as the ‘Iswara’, ‘Virāt’ and ‘Hiranyagarba’ respectively. According
to Sankara, devotion was the relationship between the individual soul and this
collective consciousness in the transitional reality. However, in absolute reality, the
individual soul and the absolute Brahman are the same and devotion has no
relevance. As a realized soul who could simultaneously be aware of these two
states of reality, Sankara produced highly abstract philosophical texts about
Brahman as well as beautiful hymns brimming with devotion about Ishwara. He
also established four monasteries in the four corners of India to preserve and
propagate his philosophy. These monasteries have continued to flourish and
uphold his philosophy in spite of the many political upheavals India had
undergone in the past thousand odd years.
Sankara’s philosophy,
however, had failed to satisfy the fervor of the devotees whose
intensity of
devotion only continued to rise. It s not very clear if thoughts of
Christianity and Islam that had reached India around this time have had an
influence on this rise of Bhakti movement. Sri Rāmanuja, a11th
century philosopher from the South, offered a variant to Advaita philosophy
called Vishishta Advaita (Qualified non-dualism). He accepted the existence of
many individual souls as real and postulated a merger of the individual soul
with Iswara through intense devotion. However, for Ramanuja Vishnu was the only
God. Sri Ramanuja wrote his commentary on all the major Vedānta texts including
the Brahma Sutra, substantiating with logic his argument for a God who was
absolute but at same time possessed qualities like omniscience and benvolence.
Ramanuja’s philosophy has continued to attract many and the Sri Vaishnava School
he established continues even today as a dominant section of Hindu religion.
Two centuries later, another
brilliant philosopher from the south, Sri Mādhvachārya, went one more step
farther than Sri Rāmanuja and argued for a purely theistic interpretation of
Vedānta. His philosophy, Dvaita Vāda (Dualism), does not profess a merger of the
individual soul with God (Vishnu) but a permanent residence in God’s abode
through the merits of intense devotion. Unlike Sri Rāmānuja who had mostly chosen
to stay in the south, Sri Mādhvachārya traveled extensively through India,
challenging and defeating in debates many Vedānta scholars who held alternate
views. Under Sri Mādhvachārya’s influence, Vaishnavism and Dvaita philosophy
took strong roots in the regions of Karnataka and Konkan coast.
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| Meera Bhai |
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| Chaitanya Mahaprabhu |
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| Sant Tukka Ram |
However, the strongest proponents of the Bhakti movement were not the philosophers but the many poet
Saints who were living examples of ideal devotees. They also managed to bring
the Hindu religion to the ordinary humans, thus relieving it from the tight
clutches of scholarly knowledge and philosophy. These great poet saints
appeared in all parts of India during the ascent of the Bhakti movement. Most
notable among them are Sant Surdas and Meera Bhai (in the north and
north-west), Sant Tulsi Das (in central India), Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (in
the east), Sant Tukka Ram (in the west), Avvayar, Kodhai and the many Alvars
and Nāyanārs (in the south). Their poetry and music have continued to spread
devotion, peace and tranquility through India for many centuries.Through the
Bhakti movement, faith more than reason took the central stage in India and idol
worship became the most visible aspect of Hindu religion.
Bhakti movement and its
emphasis on unquestionable faith also had an undesirable effect of superstitious
beliefs spreading in the society. Uncertainty, insecurity and suffering that
had gripped the psyche of the Indian society during the period of Islamic and
colonial rules further fanned this. During this time, many God-men and
God-women who claimed to perform miracles became the pallbearers of Hindu
religion, casting a huge shadow on the religion’s
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| Swami Vivekananda |
philosophical roots. This sad
state of affairs continued until late19th century until few learned
western scholars happened to discover India’s rich philosophy that had
continued to stay alive like an under current. The educated Indians had initially
ignored the rich legacy they had inherited until they noticed that the western
scholars had started to appreciate them. Thanks to the awareness that started
developing among the more educated, India once again rediscovered its past
glory through the many great ambassadors of knowledge it produced. Most notable
among these great ambassadors of Hindu religion was Swami Vivenkānanda who
traveled to America and Europe taking the authentic message of Advaita Vedānta
to the west. Over this last century, the Hindu religion has once again returned to
its original mission of empowering dedicated students with knowledge, enabling them on thier 'wlak over the razor blade' to realize ultimate truth. for their benefit, the modern
saints of India, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and Sri Ramana Maharshi have lived exemplary lives on how both
Bhakti(devotion) and Gnana (philosophical
knowledge) could be effectively reconciled to live a complete spiritual life.
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| Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa |
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| Sri Ramana Mahrshi |
