Bhakti Traditions in Medieval India

Raziuddin Aquil

Led by reformers from lower sections of the society, several strands of medieval bhakti movements condemned religious rituals, criticized caste or jati-based hierarchies and discrimination and advocated the need to discover Ram, a formless God, inside one’s heart. Some traditions of bhakti are also identified as Hindu religious movements, revolving around Sri Ram of Ayodhya as an epitome of virtues and juxtaposed with forms of popular Islamic spirituality identified as Sufism. Though saint-poets such as Sant Kabir and Guru Nanak transcended contentious political boundaries of Islam and Hinduism, religious fields were often marred by violent formations of communities. The gurus were involved in 'competitive spirituality' of sorts and often fed off each other, in terms of appropriating ideas and attracting followers, not necessarily to organize them as sparring communities.

In many cases, however, the followers completely transformed the original teachings of their spiritual gurus, and communities – panths and sampradays – formed around them often sought to use political power to demean and subdue each other. The terrible struggles between Muslim and non-Muslim followers of Kabir and Nanak over their dead bodies is a case in point. These saintly figures, who challenged religious boundary-markers and hypocrisies, were to be buried or cremated depending upon which group dominated funeral proceedings. It was in the fitness of things that the bodies disappeared, by miracle or design, so that these fine souls could not be easily trapped into the politics of religious identities.

One of the most respected scholars of bhakti movements, David N. Lorenzen has recently explored the question of religious identities (Hindu, Muslim, yogi and Sant) in the teachings of Gorakhnath and Kabir. Though much of the lives and teachings of both Gorakhnath and Kabir remain shrouded in legends, it is possible to cull out some of the essence of their teachings through compositions attributed to them since medieval times. Gorakhnath may have lived in the period between eleventh-twelfth centuries and some of his religious ideas, subsequently compiled in Gorakhbani, are significant in the current context of the politics of Hindutva.

As an accomplished yogi, Gorakhnath distinguished himself from formal and ritualistic Hindu traditions and considered himself closer to Sufi-oriented Islam. He says: he originated as a Hindu, matured as yogi and was a Muslim by intellect (utpati hindu jaranam yogi akli pari musalmanin). Paying tribute to Muslim intellect might sound contradiction in terms in these times of all-round deterioration, but Gorakhnath lived in an age when Muslims were still setting standards of excellence in many fields of expertise. Though Gorakhnath, like Kabir subsequently, could notice how the ignorant guardians of Islam (mullas and qazis) were unable to follow the correct path (raah), he recognized that through established spiritual practices and deep contemplation the Sufi dervishes were able to discover the door to the house of the Lord (darwesh soi jo dar ki janain) and, therefore, they belonged to the caste of Allah (so darwesh alah ki jati). Several other verses strongly reject Muslim and Hindu rituals and highlight the virtues of a separate and superior yogic tradition.

Anticipating Kabir’s iconoclasm, Gorakhnath strongly proclaimed: Hindus worship in temples and Muslims go to mosques, but the yogis spend time in meditation in the presence of the omnipotence, where there is neither a temple nor a mosque (hindu dhyawai dehura musalman masit, yogi dhyawai parmad jahan dehura na masit). Further distancing himself from both Hindu and Muslim traditions which were based on particular readings of scriptures such as Vedas and Koran, Gorakhnath pointed out that the verses on the secrets of the Supreme Being are understood only by the yogis, whereas the rest of the world is lost in this-worldly illusions and enterprise (te pad janan birla yogi aur duni sab dhandhe laayi).

Gorakhnath’s compositions clearly bring out four distinct religious positions – the dominating and formal Islamic and Hindu traditions as well as the mystical world of the yogis, which was confident enough to recognize the value of the mystic path of the Sufis. Preaching in the latter half of the fifteenth and early decades of the sixteenth centuries, Kabir went a step further. Locating himself right at the centre of the marketplace (kabira khara bajaar mein), the latter sharply criticized not only Hindu and Muslim religious leaders, but also found faults with self-styled Sufis and yogis. Kabir criticized the ritual of animal sacrifice among Hindus, but he reserved his choicest language for condemnation of slaughter of animals by Muslims (bakri murgi kinh phurmaya kiske kahe tum chhuri chalaya…din ko roja rahat hai raat hanat hai gai). For yogis, Kabir’s advice was that spiritual practices like pranayam and other forms of meditations are of no use till the time the heart of the person concerned is not cleansed and Ram discovered within.