The Bhakti and Sufi saints treated …

1. Their essential belief was in the need to unite with God.
2. They laid stress on love or devotion as the basis of the relationship with God.
3. To achieve all this a Guru or a Pir was needed.

• The Bhakti saints attacked the rigidity in religion and the objects of worship.
• They stressed the need for tolerance among humans and religions.

THE BHAKTI MOVEMENT

1. The development of Bhakti movement took place in Tamil Nadu between the seventh and twelfth centuries.
2. It was reflected in the emotional poems of the Nayanars (devotees of Shiva) and Alvars (devotees of Vishnu).
3. These saints looked upon religion not as a cold formal worship but as a loving bond based upon love between the worshipped and worshipper.
4. They wrote in local languages, Tamil and Telugu and were therefore able to reach out to many people. The Bhakti saints did their entire teaching in the local vernacular language to make it comprehensible even to simple minds.
5. In course of time, the ideas of the South moved up to the North but it was a very slow process. Sanskrit, which was still the vehicle of thought, was given a new form.
6. Thus we find that the Bhagavata Purana of ninth century was not written in the old Puranic form. Centered around Krishna’s childhood and youth, this work uses Krishna’s exploits to explain deep philosophy in simple terms. This work became a turning point in the history of the Vaishnavite movement which was an important component of the Bhakti movement.
7. A more effective method for spreading of the Bhakti ideology was the use of local languages. The Bhakti saints composed their verses in local languages. They also translated Sanskrit works to make them understandable to a wider audience. Thus we find Jnanadeva writing in Marathi, Kabir, Surdas and Tulsidas in Hindi, Shankaradeva popularising Assamese, Chaitanya and Chandidas spreading their message in Bengali, Mirabai in Hindi and Rajasthani. In addition, devotional poetry was composed in Kashmiri, Telugu, Kannad, Oriya, Malayalam, Maithili and Gujarati.
8. The first important feature of bhakti movement was the concept of oneness of God and brotherhood of all human beings. It did not discriminate against anyone on the basis of caste or gender.
9. Its second important feature was surrender into God, who is all pervasive and capable of solving the problems of the devotees.
10. The third important feature of bhakti was an intense personal devotion to God with an emphasis on a good moral life. It was felt that chanting the name of God constantly purified the soul and prepared one for His grace. A true devotee does not want heaven or moksha. He only wants to chant the Lord’s name and be born again and again to sing His praise.