Definition
Typically construed in English discourse as devotion, love, faith, or belief, bhakti can be understood as a striving for a radical transformative experience of divinity.
Main text
Experience, Being, and Restlessness: Bhakti as Ineffable Speaking
Bhakti was, and to some extent remains, one of the central features of the discursive and reason-based understanding of South Asian religions. It is therefore an important term not only for the study of Sikhism but also for the pan-subcontinental phenomenon of religion. This entry begins with a few comments on how bhakti has been rethought in the twentieth century by the concerted effort of Western and South Asian scholars in order to build a frame within which to construe “the religious.” The main purpose of this body of literature is to reconceive of bhakti as a socioreligious reform movement as opposed to a body of knowledge and practice which focusses on the...
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References
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Grewal, H.S. (2017). Bhagti (Bhakti), Sikhism. In: Mandair, AP.S. (eds) Sikhism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1_437
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1_437
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