Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 121

Bhakti as Popular Movement

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When Rama visited Shabari’s hermitage, along with his
younger brother Lakshman and wife Sita:
“Shabari stood with folded hands before Rama, and as
she gazed upon the Lord, her love grew yet more ardent. “How
can I hymn your praises?” she said, “I am a woman of mean de
scent and of dullest wit - of those who are the lowest of the low,
women are lower still; of women again, I am the most dull-headed,
O destroyer of sin!”
“Listen, lady, to my words,” said Rama, “I recognize no
relationship except that of faith. Despite caste, kinship, lineage,
piety, reputation, wealth, power, connections, accomplishments,
and ability, a man without faith is of no more account than a cloud
without water.”
“Now I tell you the nine types of devotion; listen atten
tively and live them up in your mind. The first in order (or stage)
is fellowship with the saints; and the second, fondness for the leg
ends relating to me. The third is selfless service to the lotus feet of
the Guru; the fourth consists in the hymning of all my virtues with
a guileless heart. The repetition of my mystic “Name” with stead
fast faith constitutes the fifth form of adoration as revealed in the
Vedas; the sixth consists in the practice of self-governance and
virtue and detachment from manifold human activities, with cease
less pursuit of the course of conduct prescribed for the good. He
who practices the seventh type sees the entire world equally in
stinct with me and regards the saints as greater even than myself
He who cultivates the eighth type is content with whatever he has
and never dreams of spying out faults in others. The ninth form of
devotion demands that one should be simple and undesigning in
one’s dealings with all and should in his heart cherish implicitly
faith in me without either exultation or depression.”
“Whoever practices any of these - man or woman, ani
mate or inanimate - is, O Lady, very dear to me; and you have
them all in the highest degree. The blessed state which ascetics
scarcely attain is today within your easy reach. The most incom
parable reward of seeing me is that the individual soul attains to
its own original state.”^^
Thus, complete faith and devotion have been pointed out to be the most
important considerations in the path of Bhakti and, for the seekers, the Guru’s
status has been exalted as almost equal to that of the Supreme Person Himself A