NCERT Book Class 7 Social Science (History) Chapter 6 Devotional Paths to the Divine

6 devotional paths
to the divine

Y ou may have seen people perform rituals of
worship, or singing bhajans, kirtans or qawwalis,
or even repeating the name of God in silence, and The beginning of
noticed that some of them are moved to tears. Such Bhakti
intense devotion or love of God is the legacy of various Worship of certain
kinds of bhakti and Sufi movements that have evolved deities, which
since the eighth century. became a central
feature of later
Hinduism, gained in
The Idea of a Supreme God importance. These
deities included
Before large kingdoms emerged, different groups Shiva, Vishnu, and
of people worshipped their own gods and goddesses. goddesses such as
As people were brought together through the growth Durga. These deities
were worshipped
of towns, trade and empires, new ideas began to through Bhakti, an
develop. The idea that all living things pass through idea that became
countless cycles of birth and rebirth performing good very popular at
deeds and bad came to be widely accepted. Similarly, this time. Bhakti is
the idea that all human beings are not equal even at generally understood
as a person’s
birth gained ground during this period. The belief that
devotion to his or
social privileges came from birth in a “noble” family or her chosen deity.
a “high” caste was the subject of many learned texts. Anybody, whether
rich or poor, belonging
Many people were uneasy with such ideas and to the so-called ‘high’
turned to the teachings of the Buddha or the Jainas or ‘low’ castes, man
according to which it was possible to overcome social or woman, could
differences and break the cycle of rebirth through follow the path of
personal effort. Others felt attracted to the idea of a Bhakti. The idea of
Bhakti is present in
Supreme God who could deliver humans from such the Bhagavad Gita, a
bondage if approached with devotion (or bhakti). sacred book of
This idea, advocated in the Bhagavadgita, grew in the Hindus.
popularity in the early centuries of the Common Era.
devotional paths
61 to the divine

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