Bhakti Poetry concepts and Aesthetics free essay sample

About the generic term bhakti, Krishna Sharma in the Preface to his book Bhakti and Bhakti Movement says, â€Å"The common man in India understands the word as religious devotion in a general sense, regardless of the differences in the forms of its manifestation, caused by variations of beliefs and practices. But the academics understand it differently. In all scholastic works, bhakti is treated a specific religious mode. It is defined in terms of a belief and an attachment to a personal God. † The medieval schools of bhakti believed that there is one supreme divine person whom the human soul, as a finite spiritual being, eternally seeks. They also believed that as long as the human soul does not realise its true spiritual nature, it wanders unhappy from birth to birth. According to them, the grace of god awakens the soul to its spiritual nature, which creates a longing for the infinite spirit, which they said was same as bhakti. â€Å"The history of bhakti is the history of a growing spiritualization of religion, i. e. to say of a movement increasingly away from external ritualism in practice and a growing sense of nearness of the deity in experience. 1 This moving away from ritualism and laying emphasis on the experience began in the southern part of India by the Vaishnavite Alvars and Shaivite Nayanars and came to be known as the Bhakti Movement. The movement spread throughout India in the due course of time. It not only had an impact on religious beliefs and rituals but also on arts and cultures. It led to the growth of regional languages, devotional songs and poetry. Poetry played an important part in Bhakti Movement. Though the aim of the movement in the south was same as in the north, the style of Bhakti poetry of the south 1 Susmita Pande(1982), pg? 12. differed with that of the north. When studying Bhakti poetry, we come across terms like Dohas, Ramainis and Pads: †¢ Dohas (two liners) or Sakhis (witnessings), also called sloks by Sikhs. These couplets can either be recited or sung. †¢ Ramainis are rhymed lyrics that end in a Doha †¢ Pads(verses) or Sabdas(words). These are sung compositions whose length varies from four verses to twelve or more. Each begins with a title verse that also serves as refrain. The Bhakti proponents of northern India were generally called sants or bhakts depending on the School the belonged to. The Schools we are talking about were the Nirguna and Saguna Schools. The Nirguna School did not believe in image worship as they believed that god was without attributes. They used the word Ram in their poems to address god. They believed, god was nameless, imageless. Their proponents were called sants. Famous amongst them were Kabir and Ravidas. On the other side was the Sagun School, which believed in god with attributes and they poems surrouned around the images and stories of Krishna and Rama. Their proponents were called bhakts. Among the famous bhakts were Surdas, Tulsidas and Mirabai. Irrespective of the schools, proponents of both sides propagated a doctrine that transcended the caste system and encouraged individuals to seek personal union with the supreme divine. Their messages of personal religion were conveyed to the people through the their pads. These pads and the Bhakti saints’ teachings had a great impact on the lives of the people of their times. I will now take one sant and one bhakt and look into their works and theories. Then I will look into the question of women in Bhakti poetry through Mirabai’s poems. KABIR THE SANT: Kabir, who lived around the 15th century, believed in the fundamental equality of man. His belief was based on the essential unity of God. In this regard, he says: Only the One I recognize Those who call him two will go to hell For they know not the reality. All human beings are sustained by the same air and water, And are illuminated by the same light. And all have been formed out of the same dust, And their creator is the same. 2 Kabir, a critic of his contemporary society questions the caste system by asking weather the Brahmans had milk in their veins and the Sudras had blood. If this was not so then why were Brahmans Brahmans and Sudras Sudras? He also questions that if the Brahmans were superior then why were they not born in a different way? Kabir does not stop only at caste but goes on to creed as well. He upheld the concept of the unity of God? head and denounced the differences between different religious followers, especially between Hindus and Muslims. Kabir’s poems can be categorized into two regions. One is the Rajasthan? Punjab western poetry and the others are the poems of Kabir from Banaras. Kabir is worshipped in the Kabir Panth (Kabir’s path), which is a community of people from humble backgrounds. These followers of Kabir have the responsibility for assembling the poetry collected in a volume called the Bijak. If we study the Bijak poems of Kabir closely, we find his poems oozing with confidence. Through these poems Kabir was ready to challenge any authority of any religion, be it the Qazi or the Brahmin. The Banarasi Bijak poems of Kabir do 2 Kabir’s Padavali, pg? 55. not acknowledge any deities. In his poems we can find the use of the word ‘Ram’ not as Lord Rama of the Ramayana but as a general word for God. If there is the mention of any Gods in any of Kabir’s Bijak poems then these are not to acknowledge them but rather in denial. There is no mention of Goddesses in any of the Bijaki poems of Kabir. On analysing the western style of Kabiri poems, we find many of Kabirs poems have been incorporated into the Sikh Granths. Along with poems of Sikh Gurus, Kabir’s poems are sung in congregational worship even today. In spite of different sects or religions following Kabir’s teachings, there is not even a slightest sign of any affinity to any religion in Kabir’s poems. What Kabir believed was the fundamental oneness of man and human spirit. He rejected the caste system as well as the inequalities based on the belief in superiority of a particular race or religion. He said that all human beings are made of skin, blood and bones and there can be no differentiation on the basis of religion. Kabir, as I have stated earlier, lived around the 15th century. If we reflect back today and see, for a person of the lower caste, like Kabir, to write about unity, equality and brotherhood of all at a time when society believed in religious and racial superiority truly looks revolutionary. TULSIDAS’ AESTHETICS OF POETRY: Tulsidas is considered to be one of the best poets of Hindi literature. He was a liberal Brahmin who translated the Ramayana into popular Hindi. His Ramayana would later become northern India’s single most important religious text. His Ramacharitamanasa according to A. A. Macdonnell, is ‘a kind of Bible to a hundred millions of people of northern India. ’ Nothing elated M. K. Gandhi ‘like the music of Gita and Ramayana of Tulidas. ’3 His writings are rich with deep thoughts and inspiring sentiments. Of all the Bhakti poets, Tulsidas took an integrated and holistic view of society and this is very much visible in his poetry. Tulsidas talks about the aesthetics of Bhakti poetry. In this regard he says that a word and its meaning are very closely related. One that is meaningless is beyond usage and exists only in the mind of a thinker but would certainly not have any place in poetry. According to him though a word and its meaning look separate, they are actually not. â€Å"Tulsidas observes that the word is one with its meaning, as water with the wave, though they are distinguished in speech. †4 Tulsidas uses the words sundara, madhura and manjula for beauty but does not give a definition of beauty. Beauty, he thinks, cannot be described; for sight is without speech and speech is without sight. †5 Tulidas finds it impossible to depict the beauty of Rama and Sita in words. In his poetry we find that he has handled the sentiments of love and humour with morality and propriety. He is very definite on the concept of poetry. In regards to the Constituents of Poetry, Bharadwaj says that, â€Å"Composition is diverse according to its words, meanings, figures of speech, and metres. It consists of various kinds of emotion, sentiment, rasa, excellence, and defect. Bhamaha, Dandi, Kesava and some others laid emphasis on figures of speech (alankara); Vamana on style (riti), Kuntaka on innuendo (vakrokti), 3 Bharadwaj(1979), pg? 340. 4 Ibid pg? 267. 5 Das(1922) I? pg? 228 Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta on sonus (dhvani); and Bharata muni and Visvanatha on rasa. But Mammata demanded that a literary composition should be full of merits (guna) and be devoid of defects (dosa), even though there were or were not any figures of speech or embellishments. In a like strain Tulsidas admits many kinds of word, meaning, metre, and composition, and lso innumerable varieties of emotion, sentiment, rasa, excellence and defect,†¦.. †6 it was therefore necessary, that a poet should have mastery over vocabulary (kosa), figures of speech (alankara), coalition (sandhi), flow (gati), concord (maitri), and choice of words and letters (varnavichara). 7 WOMEN IN BHAKTI POETRY: Bhakti poetry was not only lyrical. It also through its lyrics raised a voice aga inst many prevailing social values and traditions. Whenever we think of devotees of lord Krishna, few names like Surdas, Chaitanya and Mirabai come to our minds instantly. Mirabai’s devotion for Krishna can be termed as love and by publicly expressing this love in the form of singing and dancing Mirabai violated the existing norms of her times. Mirabais poems can be classified roughly into four categories: 1. Poems of salutation, 2. Poems of love for Krishna, 3. Poems of dissatisfaction with the world and a certain Rana, and 4. Poems of separation. Mirabais most powerful poems are those in which she accepts Krishna as 6 Bharadwaj(1979) pg? 268. 7 Ibid pg? 267. her husband and describes her loving devotion to him. In most of her compositions, the body is female and the love is wound. In one of Mirabai’s poems, the translation reads: He has bound my heart with the powers he owns, MotherHe with the lotus eyes. Arrows like spears: this body is pierced, and Mother, he’s gone far away. When did it happen, Mother? I don’t know but now it’s too much to bear. Talismans, spells, medicinesI’ve tried, but the pain won’t go. Is there someone who can bring relief? Mother, the heart is cruel. Here I am, near, and you are not far: Hurry to me, to meet. Mira’s MountainLifter Lord, have mercy, cool this body’s fire! LotusEyes, with the powers you own, Mother, With those powers you’ve bound. In this poem we see that Mirabai is addressing a female friend with the general expression ‘Mother’. As the poem proceeds we realise that she is actually appealing to Krishna. Her friend may stand near her, but Krishna is the person she really hopes is ‘not far. ’ This is who she really wants to meet. 9 He re we can study gender realities? male is the inflictor of injury (Krishna) and female is the 8 Hawley (2005), 168 9 ibid injured party (Mirabai herself). Mirabai’s poems also contain a sense of longing and erotic love. There is a double fantasy of weakness and control. CONCLUSION: The Bhakti movement cannot be called a mass movement for it did not directly aim at changing the living conditions of the masses. It was a movement whose aim was individual salvation. For the Bhakti proponents, real devotion was not the renunciation of the world. Devotion for them was repeating God’s name and seeking him within oneself while carrying out the daily duties. They propagated humanism and individualism. They were against any form of organised or institutionalised religion. Its ultimate goal was mystical union with god and it used poetry to achieve this goal. Bhakti poetry reached the masses and showed them the path to reach God. Till today many people read the Gita or Quran without actually understanding it but Bhakti poetry was not only read, recited or sung by the masses but their deep rooted meanings were understood by the people. Bhakti perfected the notion of man and god and of ritual and conduct. The movement liberated many people spiritually.