Kalidos 2021 Bhaktilaharī

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 2019

International Journal of Hindu Studies, 2017

Sikh Formations Religion, Culture, Theory , 2019

Daath Voyage: An International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in English, 2018

The medieval Indian period witnessed the emergence of bhakti saints and widespread impact of the Sufis in the creation of a mystical environment. They disseminated the idea of achieving mysticism through the creation of an intimate relationship with god. This paper is aimed to reveal that how the idea of a personal form of god can be seen present in the poetry of certain Bhakti and Sufi saints of medieval India by analyzing their selected compositions. This analysis will lead to the identification of a major point of convergence in the philosophy of the Bhakti and Sufi saint-poets and also determines a mutual influence on each other.

Sikh Formations, 2019

Background of Jain and Sikh studies project at Loyola Marymount University This special interreligious issue on 'The Music and Poetics of Devotion in the Jain and Sikh Traditions' is the product of papers adapted from those presented at the first Sikh-Jain conference held at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, 25-27 February 2016. It was made possible by a three-year endowment from generous individuals in the Jain and Sikh communities as well as the Uberoi Foundation who created a Clinical Professorship in Sikh and Jain Studies at LMU (2015-2018) focused on teaching, organizing conferences, and community outreach to bring the Sikh and Jain communities as well as University faculty and students into conversation. 1 The Jain and Sikh Studies project developed in the Department of Theological Studies at LMU due to a recognition of the need for more interreligious cooperation and support to enhance scholarship on these 'minority' traditions. This interreligious project arose from a friendship between two stalwarts from the Jain and Sikh Communities, Dr. Sulekh Jain a mechanical engineer, professor, author, and Ahimsa advocate and Dr. Harvinder Singh Sahota, the father of the perfusion balloon in angioplasty, generous supporter of Sikh Studies and Sikh awareness advocate. It was their vision to bring to light the historical cooperation, care and confluence of arguably the most ancient and most recent Indian religious traditions, Jainism dedicated to letting others live (ahimsa), and Sikhism dedicated to helping others to live (seva). Theme and rationale for the conference The theme for our first conference 'The Music and Poetics of Devotion' arose from my own background, scholarship and interest in the topic. In 2000 I began practicing the Sikh drumming tradition, the Amritsārī-Kapurthala bāj on the jorī-pakhāwaj, becoming its first female exponent. This led to my dissertation research at the University of Michigan on 'The Renaissance of Sikh Devotional Music: Memory, Identity, Orthopraxy' (2014). Through my research I gained an appreciation for the centrality of sonic expression and experience within religious practice. Emotive language and musical modes are effective tools to teach and transmit tradition over time, while promoting communal cohesion, meditative entrainment, and mystical engagement. This is the

South Asian Review, 2016

The Indian Bhakti (devotion) movement is a remarkable period, both for its steep bhakti rasa (essence of devotion) and its creation of a large corpus of religious verse that remains unparalleled in Indian literary history. It is interesting to note that the panorama of devotional verse takes a myriad forms in different parts of the world. Whether it is the intense devoutness of the poetry of the Christian saints or the mysticism of the Sufi poets, the devotional literature abounds in multiple approaches towards the Supreme. A cursory glance at some of these reveals an interesting panorama of bhakti in multiple hues. For instance, while St. George of the Cross approaches the Lord as his beloved, the Judeo-Christian tradition views bridal theology as a mystical marriage. In fact, Apostle Paul compares, in the Ephesians (5:22-23), the union of Christ and the Church to the union of a husband and wife. Nor is such a perspective alien to Sufi poetry as evinced, for instance, in the thirte...

2004

Bhakti and Sufi traditions are by far two of the most poignant spiritual movements that stirred people in the medieval world. It called for a whole new way of addressing the notion of God, of finding an almost unforeseen way of calling out to God. It took up the old forms of addressing God and transformed them into something so different, so distinctive. Bhakti and Sufi sought to bring people from almost every strata of society and equip them with the means to address God, and to find their own way to God. It gave a voice, an agency, to all those people who for so long were kept away from finding a path to God. The inception of the Bhakti and Sufi tradition in the medieval period marked the start of weaving tale, a tale like none other that was told before. A tale that brought people together. But how did these movements weave this tale? What constituted the thread that connected the broken fragments of the different strata of society. This paper aims to look at how Bhakti and Sufi movements sought their own ways to offer the common mass of people a whole new and almost unprecedented way to find their way to God.

ISFNR Newsletter , 2019