Back to Home Page or Contents Page or Hinduism Bhakti, in
Hinduism, teaches the path love and devotion as opposed to the
path of knowledge, or jnana. Bhakti is the expression of love
and adoration centered upon the Supreme Person rather than the
Supreme Abstraction. It is a popular, folk, movement, traceable
to the post-Vedic period, though it probably originated earlier
among the pre-Vedic, pre-Aryan peoples of the Indus and
elsewhere, and climaxing with a peak expression during the
Middle Ages. Bhakti is manifested in the worship of various
deities, the most popular being Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti, all
originally non-brahminical. The bhakti movement was long opposed
by the brahminis because it disregarded Vedic rituals, ignored
caste differences (many of the bhakti saints and leaders were of
the lower castes), and stressed devotion over knowledge. Calm
speculation about the all-pervading Brahman was eschewed in
favor of the mystical exuberance. But, when the bhakti movement
gained popularity, it quickly att