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Wellsprings
hindu-devotionfeatured in 2 works

Devotion (Bhakti)

Whole-hearted love of God — not a lesser path, but for many the highest one.

Bhakti is devotion — the loving, trusting, whole-hearted attachment of a person to God. More than an emotion, it is a complete orientation of the self: hearing about, remembering, serving, and surrendering to the Lord. In the great Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva traditions, bhakti is not a lower path for the simple but the highest relationship there is, because the goal itself is eternal loving communion with God. It transformed Hindu religious life from roughly the mid-first millennium onward.

How it traveled

  1. Bhagavad-gītā
    Kuru-Pañcāla region · -150
    explains
  2. Śiva-stotrāvalī
    Kashmir Valley · 950
    explains

Key passages(15)

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

Very high

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

Very high

Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

Very high

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

Very high

Gītārtha-saṃgraha · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

Very high

Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

Very high

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Very high

Stotraratna · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

High

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

High

Stotraratna · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

High

Spanda-kārikā · Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa

Moderate