Bhakti story sammery
Answers
(i) Shankara, one of the most influential philosophers of India, was born in Kerala in the
eighth century.
(ii) He was an advocate of Advaita or the doctrine of the oneness of the individual soul and
the Supreme God which is the Ultimate Reality. He taught that Brahman, the only or Ultimate
Reality, was formless and without any attributes.
(iii) He considered the world around us to be an illusion or maya, and preached renunciation
of the world and adoption of the path of knowledge to understand the true nature of
Brahman and attain salvation.
(iv) Ramanuja, born in Tamil Nadu in the eleventh century, was deeply influenced by the
Alvars.
(v) According to him, the best means of attaining salvation was through intense devotion to
Vishnu. Vishnu in His grace helps the devotee to attain the bliss of union with Him.
(vi) He propounded the doctrine of Vishishtadvaita or qualified oneness in that the soul even
when united with the Supreme God remained distinct.(i) We know more about Guru Nanak (1469-1539) than about Kabir. Born at Talwandi
(Nankana Sahib in Pakistan), he travelled widely before establishing a centre at Kartarpur
(Dera Baba Nanak on the river Ravi). A regular worship that consisted of the singing of his
own hymns was established there for his followers.
(ii) Irrespective of their former creed, caste or gender, his followers ate together in the
common kitchen (langar). The sacred space thus created by Guru Nanak was known as
dharmsal.
(iii) It is now known as Gurdwara. Before his death in 1539, Guru Nanak appointed one of his
followers as his successor. His name was Lehna but he came to be known as Guru Angad,
signifying that he was a part of Guru Nanak himself.
(iv) Guru Angad compiled the compositions of Guru Nanak, to which he added his own in a
new script known as Gurmukhi. The three successors of Guru Angad also wrote under the
name of “Nanak” and all of their compositions were compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604.
(v) To this compilation were added the writings of other figures like Shaikh Farid, Sant Kabir,
Bhagat Namdev and Guru Tegh Bahadur. In 1706 this compilation was authenticated by his
son and successor, Guru Gobind Singh. It is now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy
scripture of the Sikhs.
(vi) The number of Guru Nanak’s followers increased through the sixteenth century under
his successors. They belonged to a number of castes but traders, agriculturists, artisans and
craftsmen predominated. They were also expected to contribute to the general funds of the
community of followers.
(vii) By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the town of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) had
developed around the central Gurdwara called Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple). It was
virtually self-governing and modern historians refer to the early seventeenth century Sikh
community as ‘a state within the state’.
(viii) The Mughal emperor Jahangir looked upon them as a potential threat and he ordered
the execution of Guru Arjan in 1606.
(ix) The Sikh movement began to get politicized in the seventeenth century, a development
which culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. The
community of the Sikhs, called the Khalsa Panth, became a political entity.
(x) The changing historical situation during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
influenced the development of the Sikh movement. The ideas of Guru Nanak had a huge
impact on this development from the very beginning. He emphasized the importance of the worship of one God.
(xi) He insisted that caste, creed or gender was irrelevant for attaining liberation. His idea of
liberation was not that of a state of inert bliss but rather the pursuit of active life with a
strong sense of social commitment. He himself used the terms nam, dan and insan for the
essence of his teaching, which actually meant right worship, welfare of others and purity of
conduct.
(xii) His teachings are now remembered as nam-japna, kirt-karna and vand-chhakna, which
also underline the importance of right belief and worship, honest living, and helping others.
(xiii) Thus, Guru Nanak’s idea of equality had social and political implications. This might
partly explain the difference between the history of the followers of Guru Nanak and the
history of the followers of the other religious figures of the medieval centuries, like Kabir,
Ravidas and Dadu whose ideas were very similar to those of Guru Nanak.