ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>SANT TRADITION</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="SANT,TRADITION"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279SANT TRADITION comprises those medieval monotheistic and devout personalities belonging to different shades of Indian society who are supposed to have been quiet, tranquil non-sectarian, opposed to Br&#257hma&#7751ical ritualism, piously tired of the duplicity of the world but otherwise deeply conscious and critical of the outrageous anamolies professed by certain vested interests among the people around. In general terms these mystical personalities are known as <i>nirgu&#7751 <u>bh</u>aktas</i> or more commonly <i>sants</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Sanskrit form of the term <i>sant</i> is rooted in <i>&#347am</i> meaning 'appeased' or 'pacified'. Sometimes this tradition is directly linked with Vedic and Upani&#7779adic thought but very often it is accepted as influenced by Sahajy&#257na, an offshoot of Buddhism. Commonly the practices of Sant tradition are remembered as Ha&#7789hayogic, however, with the exception of Sikhism which, sufficiently influenced by this tradition, has repudiated all sorts of mortifications of body through Ha&#7789hayoga. Very early the term <i>sant</i> had acquired two specific connotations. On the one hand, it served to designate a school or rather a particular group of Vai&#7779&#7751ava <i>bhaktas</i> devoted to the incarnations of Vi&#7779&#7751u and hence called <i>sagu&#7751v&#257dins</i> but on the other we find Gur&#363 N&#257nak, Ravid&#257s, Kab&#299r, D&#257d&#363, Pal&#7789&#363, etc., who without getting led astray by excessive emotionalism never miss to delineate their last aim of liberal attitude, universal thinking and hence a pure ethical code of conduct. The vast literature of this tradition radiates a specific dynamic energy containing in it a challenge of frankness and fearlessness.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It is significant to note that often the term <i>sant</i> is distinguished from <i>bhakta</i> by calling them <i>nirgu&#7751v&#257dins</i> and <i>sagu&#7751v&#257dins</i>, respectively. In Mar&#257&#7789h&#299 literature the worshippers of qualified God and the meditators of the unattributed Supreme Being, both are called <i>bhaktas</i> and the latter ones <i>sants</i>. However, there is a sharp difference in their dispositions. We find <i>bhakta</i> literature replete with the warm emotions for the incarnations of God but in <i>nirgu&#7751a</i> literature the <i>sants</i> contradict this theory. They don't involve themselves in the riddles of hell and heaven and their worship is realizational and not based on <i>&#347&#257stras</i>. The <i>sants</i> seem little bothered about the hollow premises and rhetoric. They spread from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries of the Christian era throughout the whole of north India and part of the Deccan. Within the tradition on itself the term <i>sant</i> seems to have been used as a synonym for <i>s&#257dh</i> or <i>s&#257dhu</i> in the sense of one who has "perfected" or "accomplished" the ultimate unitary experience. The <i>sant</i> tradition of medieval India, though predominantly theistic and devotional unlike the &#347rama&#7751a tradition, is however supposed to have carried forward the moral and social ideas and ideals of non-Br&#257hma&#7751&#299cal origin first diffused by the ancient <i>munis</i> and <i>&#347rama&#7751as</i>. In this medieval period the emphasis on a personal God stems from a tendency, in Indian religions, which became prominent in the Upani&#7779ads, to find divinity present, immanent in nature and by extension, in the very being of man. We must also note that the personalization of the deity in Vai&#7779&#7751avite religion and in certain sects which worshipped local anthropomorphic forms of the deity was countered by the general pantheistic tendency of the Upani&#7779ads with their emphasis on the identity of all with the Divine. Caught between the various sectarian developments and driven towards a personalization of deity on the one hand and accepting the monistic tendency of much of earlier Indian philosophy on the other, the people of India, drew on the earlier tradition of <i>munis</i> and <i>&#347rama&#7751as</i> to establish numerous sects of practitioners of the discipline of <i>yoga</i> and of wandering <i>sants</i> and <i>yogis</i> with differing degrees of spiritual realization and theories about the manner of achieving it. The influence of Mah&#257y&#257na Buddhism, especially of its esoteric variety lingered in India long after the final disappearance of the Buddhist Sa&#7749gha in its homeland. Further, the institution of the Buddhist monks and several philosophical moral doctrines of Buddhism became incorporated into Hinduism in its reflowering from the eighth century of the Christian era onwards.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In this milieu the Sant tradition was essentially a synthesis of four principal dissenting movements, a compound of elements drawn from the Mah&#257y&#257nism of the <i>siddhas</i>, the <i>vai&#7779&#7751ava bhakti</i>, the Ha&#7789hayoga of the N&#257th-yogins and with a marginal contribution from S&#363f&#299sm. The non-vedic strand in the Sant tradition was an important legacy of Buddhism and the numerous terms and concepts of Buddhism of the <i>siddhas</i> found a lasting home in the writings of the <i>sants</i>. In several respects, however, <i>the sants</i> disagreed with traditional <i>Vai&#7779&#7751ava-bhakti</i> also and some of these differences were fundamental, such as their (<i>sants</i>') rejection of <i>avat&#257rv&#257da</i>, accepted by all <i>Vai&#7779&#7751ava bhaktas</i>. Their devotion directed to an invisible all-pervading Reality to be realized 'within' was a novel experience for the people of medieval northern India, for they had been habitually worshipping some sort of 'qualified' visible anthropomorphic gods or goddesses. The <i>bhakti</i> of <i>sants</i> is generally termed as <i>Vai&#7779&#7751ava-bhakti</i> but in this <i>bhakti</i> a monistic and strictly non-idolatrous attitude was injected by their chief exponents like Kab&#299r, Ravid&#257s, Rajjab, etc. The <i>sants</i> eschewed all forms of idolatry, most clearly seen in those times in the worship of R&#257ma and K&#7771&#7779&#7751a. True, the <i>sants</i> were prone to use term <i>nirgu&#7751a</i> in speaking about God but the term seems related more to a rejection of its antithesis, the <i>sagu&#7751a</i> concept of divine <i>avat&#257rs</i> than an appropriation of the metaphysics of <i>Advaita Ved&#257nta</i> of Sa&#7749kara. Further, their expression of love for God was through inward meditation and devotion, a method which involved certain disciplines controlling the senses and emotions and not the easy path of traditional <i>bhakt&#299</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Traces of the <i>N&#257th</i> school are also by no means absent during the earlier stages of this movement but they are not prominent, and in some cases they may even represent later additions. It was not until the time of Kab&#299r that <i>n&#257th</i> concepts assume a significant role and the influence of <i>siddhas</i> and <i>n&#257ths</i> emerges in much of Kab&#299r 's thought and basic terminology in the form of rejection of all exterior formal&#299ties, ceremonies, caste distinctions, sacred languages and scriptures. It further lays strong emphasis on the interior unitive experience which destroys duality, caste distinctions and prejudice for sacred languages and scriptures. The stress is put on the importance of the <i>satgur&#363</i>, the power of <i>&#347abda</i> and the related notion of "<i>sumiran</i>," which leads the soul to the mystical experience of <i>parach&#257</i> through which the <i>j&#299va</i> is reabsorbed into the unity of R&#257m, the mysterious state of <i>sahaj</i>. A further indication of siddha--n&#257th influence is Kab&#299r's use of <i>ul&#7789ab&#257&#7749s&#299s</i>, the use of language with often reversal of usual meaning of words. This kind of enigmatical speech with intentional meanings hidden under the cover of obvious meanings was employed extensively by the <i>siddhas</i> like Sarahap&#257d and K&#7771&#7779&#7751ap&#257d. However, as characteristically indicative as any in this regard is Kab&#299r's essentially pragmatic approach to the mystery of human destiny. Like the <i>siddhas</i> and the <i>yogis</i> before him, Kab&#299r seeks to penetrate the mystery rather than to triumph over death.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The <i>sants</i> were basically monotheists, but the ultimate Reality (<i>paramatattva</i>) whom they addressed and with whom they sought union was in no sense to be understood in anthropomorphic terms. His manifestation was through His immanence in His creation and, in particular, through His indwelling in the human soul. It was there that He, by grace (<i>pras&#257d</i>), revealed Himself, and man's appropriate response was love and devotion (<i>n&#257msumiran</i>) as a means of merging with the Divine. Great importance was attached to the <i>gur&#363</i> who might be a human teacher or who might be understood not as a person but as the inner voice of God. The <i>sants</i> attached little importance to celibacy and asceticism and hence together with the <i>s&#363fis</i> they were commonly laymen or householders rather than monks or ascetics in the formal sense. The spirit of the movement was essentially non-sectarian though many of the <i>sants</i> left their names to the sects which sprang up in their wake, of which certain ones still survive today.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Their beliefs the <i>sants</i> expressed not in the classical Sanskrit language, but in a language which was closely related to that of the common people to whom they addressed their teachings. There seems to have evolved a "dialect" which, with minor modifications, was used by the <i>sants</i> all over northern India. The basis of this dialect, which has been called Sadh&#363ka&#7771&#299 was Kha&#7771&#299 Bol&#299, mixed with old R&#257jasth&#257n&#299, Braj, Pañj&#257b&#299 and P&#363rv&#299 Bol&#299 spoken in what is now eastern Uttar Pradesh. Most of the <i>sants</i> were generally poorly educated or completely illiterate, and hence their compositions were usually oral utterances which came to be written down only after a period of oral circulation.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Sant movement was composed of two principal groups during its period of greatest importance and influence, from the fourteenth to eighteen centuries of the Christian era, the one centred in north India and the other centred in Mah&#257r&#257sh&#7789ra, the latter being the older.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It was this <i>sant</i> tradition which provided the basis for Gur&#363 N&#257nak&#8217s thought, an inheritence which he interpreted in the light of his own personality and experience. Before the advent of Sikhism, when the onslaughts of the hordes of invaders were rampantly crushing the people, the Indian mind and body unable to withstand it, started preaching, on the contrary, the doctrine of illusory nature of the world. People were advised to accept the non-existence of the very world in which they were being cramped. Sikhism asserted itself as the most self-respecting and fearless religious way of life to accept the challenge and to look into the real cause of the malady of helplessness of men. Sikhs could not remain passive onlookers and thus a very constructive culmination of Sant tradition is obvious in the advent of Sikhism. The thought of Gur&#363 N&#257nak was a reworking of the Sant synthesis, which he received and passed on, which was in some measure amplified, and in considerable measure clarified and integrated.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"><i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib J&#299</i><BR> <li class="C1"> Varma, Ramkumar, <i>Sant Kab&#299r</i> .Allahabad, 1957<BR> <li class="C1"> Machwe, Prabhakar, <i>Namdev: Life and Philosophy</i>. Patiala, 1968<BR> <li class="C1"> Chaturvedi, Parashuram, <i>Sant K&#257vya</i>. Allahabad, 1967<BR> <li class="C1"> Shikoh, Dara, <i>Majma' ul-Bahrain</i>. Edited and English translation by Mahfuz ul-Haw. Calcutta, 1929<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">David C. Scott<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>