Branches
The main schools of bhakti in Hinduism are five vaisnava sampradayas, among them very popular are speculative philosophers (advaita bhakti as taught by Sankaracarya, avatara of Shiva): Shaivas who worship Shiva, and the demigods and goddesses associated with them. On the other hand, the traditional bhakti school as explained in bona-fide scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita etc., does not worship Shiva above Vishnu or on the same level as Vishnu, but considers Vishnu above such demigods as Brahma and Shiva. Those who worship forms of Vishnu, his avataras, and others associated with him are known as Vaishnavas. Of apasampradayas, non-bona-fide schools of 'bhakti' are Shaktas who worship a variety of goddesses. Such schools are very popular because they can protect Vedas and Vedic demigods from the influence of other non-dharmic or non-vedic religions like monotheistic Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc.; thus speaking about Vishnu as God and not as some "demon" etc., like other non-vedic philosophers and religions/dharmas may do. These schools are not always exclusive of each other—a bhakti's devotional practices to one form of demigod does not preclude worship of another form.
The bhakti movement is eternal, but on Earth, in visible history, it began in South India and moved north, with an emphasis on devotion vs. ritual. It also opposed the caste system, with prominent bhakti poets Ravidas and Kabir both writing against the hierarchy of caste. Altogether, bhakti resulted in a mass of devotional literature, music, dance and art that has enriched the world and gave India renewed spiritual impetus, one eschewing unnecessary ritual and artificial social boundaries.
Read more about this topic: Bhakti Yoga
Famous quotes containing the word branches:
“It is comforting when one has a sorrow to lie in the warmth of one’s bed and there, abandoning all effort and all resistance, to bury even one’s head under the cover, giving one’s self up to it completely, moaning like branches in the autumn wind. But there is still a better bed, full of divine odors. It is our sweet, our profound, our impenetrable friendship.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A good word is as a good tree—
its roots are firm,
and its branches are in heaven;
it gives its produce every season
by the leave of its Lord.”
—Qur’An. Abraham 14:29-30, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)