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heartfully
23 November 2009, 11:16 AM
I have seen Kabir referred to as a Bhakta Sufi. He couldn't have been the only one, lol, but he's the only one I can find when I google. Are there any other sages who blended Bhakti yoga and Sufism?

With Love from,
Heartfully

devotee
23 November 2009, 08:54 PM
Namaste Hf,

Sufism is Bhakti Yoga only. The differences are only in terminologies & some practices. If you are seeking Truth-seekers who took the essence of Bhakti/devotion from both Hinduism & Islam then Guru Nanak was another. In fact, Ramkrishna Paramhansa also tried this path & achieved One-ness/Non-duality.

OM

harekrishna
23 November 2009, 11:02 PM
I have seen Kabir referred to as a Bhakta Sufi. He couldn't have been the only one, lol, but he's the only one I can find when I google. Are there any other sages who blended Bhakti yoga and Sufism?

With Love from,
Heartfully

Dear hf,
Kabir's philosophy and thoughts were very similar to Advaitic strain of Hinduism. It is not fully correct to classify a person as a Sufi or Bhakti tradition, because today's understanding of these terms can be very different from what Sant Kabir thought. One has to read his poems to understand what he meant.

There is a poem by him - "Jhini jhini re bini chadariya" where he draws parallel about a weaver weaving a cloth and, how God has created human beings. He clearly talks about Maya and Atma. How the Ida/Pingala are the nerves that connect ones understandings to a divine experience. There are various verses where his philosophy turns out to be very similar to Vedantic teachings.

At the other end, he criticized the prevailing rituals of that time. He thought that they did not elevate one's spirituality. One of the dohas - he talks about - Mullah shouting Azan from the mosque and, then asking has God turned deaf? Because of this type of criticism, there are stories of his persecution by Moslem emperors.

Through his poems, I think that, Kabir is portraying a puritan strain of Hinduism.

Regards,
Hare Krishna

Harjas Kaur
28 November 2009, 08:49 PM
Kabir Ji was a shishya of Sant Ramanand, a Vaishnav Bhakta. He chanted the Names of God as Ram and Hari. Hence, he was not ever a Sufi, but clearly a Vaishnav bhakta. His own movement the Kabirpanthis to this day define themselves as "Hindu."

There is no official blend of Sufism and Vaishnavism. Sufism developed as a product of the time of Mughal Raj in power during the heyday of the Sant Mat tradition. It is largely a result of forced conversions of Hindus into Islam under threat of torture and death. Mystical Sufism incorporated mystical Hindu spirituality in a hidden way. Sufism has always been marginalized and suppressed by fundamentalist Islam as a corruption of Koranic teaching with pagan thought. Many Sufis have been executed by fundamentalist Muslims as having beliefs heretical to Islam. This includes teachings about reincarnation, inducing trance states, Guru-disciple transmissions, etc all traceable to Hindu influence. The Sant Mat tradition is actually a blend of Kashmiri Shaiva Nath yoga, Vaishnav bhakti, esoteric Tantric Buddhism. But it cannot be said there was ever a true union of these philosophical yoga paths and Islam. As mentioned, this "union" was due to the near extermination of these philosophical schools under the suppression of the Mughals and the forced conversions of Hindus. So these yoga based teachings became a form of Islam to avoid extinction.

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/a/a1/bb5/aa1bb510-cb38-5aa4-ab4c-23c945cdfea7.preview-300.jpg
Standing in the ruins of an ancient shattered Buddha destroyed by Taliban intolerance. Sufism is a remnant of ancient Sadhu practices and esoteric yoga teachings subsumed into a bhakti cult still rejected by fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. Any sages such as Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji who tried to moderate the conversionary attack of Islam into peaceful tolerance and coexistence wound up fighting bitter wars of desperate survival in his own succeeding Guru lineage. Hence, there are no sages who blended bhakti yoga and Islam. There were only Hindu's trying to not to become obliterated.
Guru Arjan Dev Sahib ji's Martyrdom
"A martyrdom that gave birth to thousands of martyrs to never abandon their faith in the face of oppression and tyranny..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClKdm8MvPN0