Bhakti

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Bhakti (Skt., either from √bhaj, ‘to share, be loyal’, or √bhañj, ‘to separate’). Devotion in love and adoration, especially to one's chosen manifestation of the divine (iṣṭadeva); but it may be guru-bhakti (surrender to a guru) or vaidhibhakti (willing acceptance of a guru's instructions). In its theistic form, it perhaps appears in the Ṛg Veda (5. 85. 7 f.; 7. 87. 7), in hymns imploring Varuṇa to forgive the offences of his devotees. But it became a major way of Indian religious life (owing much to the religion of Tamil Nadu), in which the grace (prasāda) of God modifies the strict causality of karma. Bhakti-marga (the way of bhakti) has produced some of the world's most moving theistic poetry, as well as the formalization of the stages through which union with God can be attained, in Bhakti-yoga. The Bhagavad-gītā is the foremost exposition and expression of bhakti addressed to Kṛṣṇa. See also VAIṢṆAVA; ŚAIVA; ŚRI-VAIṢṆAVISM.

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