The
Bhakti cult blossomed like a spring-flower in the nineteenth
century India in the form of Radhasoami Faith. The
traditions of Bhakti are very old and deep-rooted in the Indian
thought and religion. In fact, the ultimate aim of human life
as viewed by Hindu religion is emancipation (Moksha), for
the attainment of which they recognize three paths -
The path of action (karma),
The path of knowledge (gyana), and,
The path of devotion (bhakti).
The path of action: It is the one principally laid
down in Vedas, developed and systemized in the Brahmanas,
Kalpa Sutras and Mimansas and was popularized by Dharma
Shastras, Mahabharat and the Bhagwat Puranas. But when
the theory of metem-psychosis and the law of Karma arose,
it became apparent to the logical mind of Hindu thinkers that
action alone could not lead to deliverance and freedom. It
was necessary to discover some other means to break the rigid
chain of cause and effect and to make a searching question
as to the very nature of action and to find out the law of
its fulfillment and exhaustion. The Upanishads came
forth as the first embodiment of the bold speculation by the
forest recluses and then it spread far and wide.
The path of knowledge: Profound thinking, on cosmic
origin and human destiny, the nature of the ultimate reality
and its relation to individual, good and evil and means of
deliverance, led to the foundation of a number of religio-philosophic
systems such as Lokayata Buddha, Jain, Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta,
Shaiva, Vaishnava and Tantra. Among these, the Vedanta
takes for granted the cosmogony of ‘Sankhya’
and the eight-fold discipline of Yoga, but advance
a step further to inquire into the nature of Soul, matter
and God. According to Vedanta, Soul is not only consciousness
but also one and the same in all experiencing beings and that
the Soul (Atma) is identical with God (Brahman).
The soul enters the world overlaid with ignorance and then
undergoes suffering. Its release is possible only by removal
of ignorance and realization of its true nature. The Vaishnavites
went a step further to include worship and devotion (Aradhana
and Bhakti) as one of the methods of the attainment
of knowledge. The path of knowledge was confined to the learned,
the philosophically minded and the monks.
The path of devotion: Another path for the attainment
of liberation that might suit one and all was that of devotion
and faith (i.e., Bhakti Marg). Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita
proclaimed that it is by unswerving devotion to Him alone
that He is reached.1 Devotion in Bhagavad-Gita
implied "the dedication of all actions to Him2,
for the devotees live and have their being in god"3.
God, Gita says, may be beheld, known and entered through
devotion which is the means of mystic vision and
the unitive state.4 and that God is the father,
the Husband, the Mother and the Friend.5
The Narayana section of Shantiparvam of Mahabharata
also advocated the vision of the adorable through faith and
devotion.6 The Panchtantra Samhita also
recognized devotion (Nyasa or Bhakti) as means
of emancipation, besides knowledge.7 Bhakti
had a parallel development in other systems such as Mahayana
school of Buddhism and the Shaktas. But this
fact is beyond doubt that all these systems mentioned above
had only the emotional tinge and lacked the fierce glow of
passion, fervour and ecstasy. Their sparks of Bhakti were
lying dormant when Shankaracharya came forward with the sharp-edged
sword of reason to proclaim his Advaita philosophy.
Yet the sparks remained and could not be extinguished. The
petals of the flower of Bhakti could not just wither
away by the dry winds of Shankar’s Advait.
The impact of Islam: The impact of Islam on Indian
culture and life gave a new impetus in the popularity of the
path of devotion in comparison with the path of action and
of knowledge. The stream of Bhakti that began as a
little trickle in the Vedic times later became a mighty flood
sweeping over the whole land. The rites and ceremonies remained
static for all time; the philosophies and system of thought
could no more provide new channels; but devotion found multitudinous
expression in exuberant form in the medieval India. The Vishista
Advaita of Ramanuja caught hold of the Bhakti traditions
to become the spring-source of later developments in Bhakti-Marga.
Bhakti has been defined as "the worship of a personal
deity in a spirit of love."8 It has also been
adjudged as "the personal faith in a personal God, love
for him as for a human being, the dedication of everything
to his service and the attainment of the Moksha by this means,
rather than by knowledge, of sacrifices or works."9
In other words, Bhakti is nothing but an adoration
and devotion fixed upon the Lord after acquiring a knowledge
of attributes of the adorable one.10 Thus, Bhakti
is the emotional aspect of religion, its root lies in the
feeling or affective side of human consciousness.
Sant-Mat: Those who followed the path of Bhakti
and reached Ultimate reality through faith and devotion may
be called Sants (Saints). In fact this word signifies
certain qualities of head and heart such as benevolence, intelligence,
humility and humanity. According to the original interpretation
of Sanskrit word, Sant stands for Pure existence that
is eternal, identical and self-consistent and synonymous with
the Highest Reality11. In Sanskrit and Pali literature,
it has been so often used to mean a calm and cool-headed person
who devotes his life to the service of the world at large12.
Therefore, a real saint can only be visualized as a
person who has attained the highest Truth and achieved the
permanent values to become identified with the one and indivisible
Truth through simple faith and devotion.
The ‘Sant’, according to Radhasoami Faith,
is one who has realized the Highest Reality through love and
devotion and has reached the region of eternal Truth, Bliss
and Light i.e. Satloka.13 Such Sants
as were Kabir, Nanak, Dadu, Paltu and Tulsi Saheb inspired
the humanity and led it from darkness to light through their
mystic revelations and easy teachings. The gospel of love
was taught and preached by them to people in people’s
language. The sublime thought was put in the garb of emotional
poetry and thus gushing rhythm opened the flood gates of a
self–evolved thought which can easily be styled as Sant-Mat.
Sant-Mat thus signifies the Bhakti side of Vedanta
adorned by the layer of love more emphatically put by these
Sants to provide solace to suffering humanity.
The Sant-Mat expounded a clear conception of the Ultimate
Reality and presented a clear cut way for realizing it. Such
a realization is known ‘Sat’ or all Truth.
The Ultimate Reality, therefore, has been styled as Sat.
Many have called the same as ‘Sat-Purush’.
The generation of love towards the Sat-Purush is the
devotion or Bhakti from the viewpoint of a Sant.
This love for the Sat can be cultivated in man’s (or
woman’s) heart through his contact with one who has already
generated this love and has become, identical with it. He
is the Satguru.14 The need of such a Satguru
for the total redemption of the Jiva has been greatly
emphasized by the leaders of Sant sects. With the appearance
of such leaders on the religious screen of medieval India,
the stagnant and prosaic Gyan (knowledge) was surcharged
with the poetic dynamism of Bhakti. It was a renaissance
of its own type dawning on the Indian horizon of the middle
ages which exhorted the Indians to rise from deep slumber,
rethink the old values and devote the life in pursuit of Supreme
Being by shunning away the narrow difference of caste, colour
or creed.
Kabir Panth: The leader of such a Sant tradition
was Kabir. The message that Kabir delivered to the suffering
humanity forms the backbone of Sant-Mat and it provides
a firm foundation to other Sant-sects such as Radhasoami
Faith in the nineteenth century. As Nabhaji says, "Kabir
refused to acknowledge the caste distinctions or to recognize
the authority of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, nor
did he set any store by the four divisions of life prescribed
by Brahmins. He held that religion without Bhakti
was no religion at all and that asceticism, fasting and
alms giving had no value if unaccompanied by Bhajan
i.e., devotional practice.15 The mission of Kabir
was to preach a religion of love which would unite all castes
and creeds.16 Laying greatest emphasis upon the
intuitive aspect of religion, he impartially condemned the
external forms of Hinduism and Islam both. The Muslim Sufis
shaped to some extent the teachings of Kabir. Like the Sufis,
Kabir often compares the relation of individual with God as
that of wave and Sea.17 Kabir speaks of the wine
and cup of love,18 of the lover (ashiq, habib)
and the beloved (mashuq, mahabub).19 Kabir was
a mystic saint and a poet-saint too who directly hit at the
social evils.
The God of the Kabir is both transcendent and immanent, impersonal
and personal, infinite and finite, without qualities and qualified,
the non-being and the being, neither manifest nor hidden,
neither one nor two, both within and without and yet above
and beyond all pairs of opposites. The individual soul, according
to Kabir, was in the Supreme Being before creation, and it
came into existence when this light illuminated this. The
first creation was ‘Shabd’ whose offsprings
were distinct spirit entities. Kabir recognized individuality
and yet did not forget the unity that lay behind to avoid
an atomic view of personality.20 Kabir proclaimed
boldly that the destiny of the individual is the ultimate
realization of union with God and nothing short of it, not
even paradise, would satisfy him.21 For the attainment
of the goal it is of the utmost importance to select a Guru
and he announced to the people to consider the Guru
as Govinda (God).22 Taking inspiration from
the Sufi orders, Kabir advocated that the real meditation
(Dhyana) is of the Guru’s form and the
real worship is of the Guru’s feet. The Guru
as Kabir revealed, directs the devotee upon the path which
is the discipline of the soul and in the three worlds and
nine regions none is greater than the Guru.23
In fact, Guru is the manifested form of the merciful (Dayavan)
and gracious lord (Meherban) and a devotee who seeks
his protection (Saran) is never disappointed. By constant
repetition of his name, by indifference to pain and pleasure,
by suppressing the five evil tendencies of the mind, by abandoning
anger and the pride, by the acquisition of humility, poverty,
patience and discrimination, the self is efface and the devotee
dies while living.24
The dying of self does not mean to Kabir complete retirement
from the world and living in forests. He professed that both
asceticism (yoga) and enjoyment (bhoga) are
in the house-holder’s life.25 Kabir’s
personal life was an example of his teachings. Kabir also
preached that love through which the mystic union can be attained,
but the path is not easy. There are many disappointments and
obstacles and it is like walking on the keen edge of a sword.26
But when the devotee performs the ‘Sahaj Yoga’ with
love and adoration, the Lord stands self-revealed. Kabir condemned
the Hindu worship of idols, gods and goddesses, Brahmin supremacy,
caste difference, prejudices concerning touchability and food.
He asked the Musalmans to give their exclusiveness, their
blind trust in one prophet and His Book, their externalism
in the performance of rites, pilgrimage to Mecca, fast and
regulated prayers, Auliya, Pir and Paigambar.
The religion of Kabir, was a conscious attempt to reconcile
Hinduism and Islam. He fulfilled the divine mission and made
attempt to lay an universal path by first proclaiming a religion
of the center – a middle path – and his cry was
taken up all over India and was re-echoed from almost every
corner.
The Radhasoami Faith has its genesis in the teachings of Kabir.
The Shabd is the first emanation in the creation is
the view taken by the exponents of Radhasoami Faith from Kabir.
The idea of an impersonal and personal God; Guru as
the manifestation of the Lord; the emphasis on Guru
Bhakti; the importance of the Guru much more
than Govinda for the devotee; the rejection of the
existing social evils, are some of the concepts that might
be traced in Radhasoami faith, which originated and developed
on the Kabirian traditions. The lamp of love that was lit
up by Kabir flickered through ages but was destined to become
a magnificent and luxuriant glow in the hands of the founders
of Radhasoami Faith, who not only vitalized the original teachings
of the saints but introduced the nineteenth century rationalism
and reorientation to create a renaissance in the so-called
Sant-sects of India. The founders of Radhasoami
Faith followed Ramanuja – the leader of Bhakti
school in medieval ages, and rationalized the Sant
tradition adhering to Kabir’s gospel of love and truth,
to suit the needs of nineteenth century.
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