Bhakti movement is the most influential socio-cultural reform movement in Indian history, that Bhakti has become almost synonymous to religiosity for many. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE, gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaiṣṇava Āḻvār and Śaiva Nāyaṉmār before spreading northwards, then swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE, Bhakti managed to do what the combined onslaught of Śramaṇa or ascetic reform movements couldn’t do, viz., the absolute demise of Vedic Ritualism to utter irrelevance in the religious landscape of the Subcontinent.
Its probably both the best and the worst thing to ever happen in Indian history, in my opinion.
It broke away the social distinctions; casteless(anti caste in some cases), localized the religion and traditions, brought them to the common, under-privileged public, although in many cases it were the brahmins only who pioneered this movement. Vernacular languages & literature got importance. Many bhakti saints composed in regional languages only, although there is a great chunk of bhakti literature in sanskrit as well. Orthodox Bhakti traditions were indeed casteist, but they also gave more for laymen and casteism was mainly about certain rituals, customs and practices. The overall best outcome of the bhakti movement (Orthodox, Unorthodox or heterodox) was that it made the Indian traditions or Hinduism more and more laymen oriented and brought flexibility to many aspects of hindu traditions.
It transitioned the dharmic culture from knowledge-logic based to belief-faith oriented; From truth seekers to blind believers. If we see the earlier ancient traditions , schools they all used logic and analytical points to support their stance, they critically examined other schools , and refuted them. This type of critical thinking was completely absent post bhakti movement. Some later sects ‘apparently’ tried to put their beliefs logically, but in actuality they just appropriated the concepts given by earlier ancient knowledge based schools co-opting them somehow. They didn’t produce anything significantly new like the earlier ones did. With becoming more belief-faith oriented India also saw the rise of personality cults, which is prevalent till now,(Ramrahim, kabir panthis, asaram, nithyananda, Rkmites, etc) logic declined, emotional thinking prevailed.
Bhakti has made Indians over emotional, sensitive fools more or less like abrahamics.
Over dependency on authority/Institution
This is especially found in Orthodox bhaktas. Hindus have stopped thinking on their own. One thing I observed If you ask or try to discuss Śāstra, with any hindu, almost all of them will say not to read the scriptures on their own, and recommend to study under some guru or lineage only or listen from some vācaka, and most importantly not to use own brain. It’s like they themselves admitting that they are too dumb to understand some scripture and need spoonfeeding , which they can trust blindly. And worst of all they are damn proud about it that they even boast about this.
Decline in the persuit of knowledge!!
If we see the pre bhakti movement India then it is filled with scientific discoveries, astronomical studies, mathematical treatises and other fields of science and humanities, such as metallurgy, medicine, hippology, sexology, epistemology, economics, etc. But there is hardly any major significant scientific discovery or development in from India post the rise of bhakti movement. And worst thing is astronomy got eclipsed by astrology. I don’t think that this decline in persuit of knowledge with fall of knowledge-logic oriented schools and rise of devotional sects, is a co-incidence. Ancient indians dealt with problems by exploring through the different Fields of what we can call today as academia, but bhaktas deal with problem by chanting and praying, just like abrahamics.
The Orthodox Bhakti sects not just appropriated the concepts of ancient know based atheistic schools of thought, but also their prominent proponents as their own, superimposing their bhakti on to those teachers retroactively.
Read : Vaiṣṇavism and Avatāravāda
Change in epistemology
If we see the ancient knowledge based schools, their epistemology is primarily based on “perception”(pratyakṣa) & “inference”(anumāna) and at last the scriptures (Śabda). But at present the only epistemology the majority hindu people can think of is what their gurus feed them and and basically the scriptures. Most hindu folk, who are bhakta minded, can’t even think beyond the scriptures. Many even troll those who use their brain and tell something apart from the scriptures, just like the abrahamics. I myself have had such interactions with bhaktas very often. As per them only the book has value, human intellect does not. And this has also led to the belief in infallibility of the scriptures, again similar to abrahamics. And most bhaktas as I already said above, don’t even read the Scriptures. They just blindly believe in what they are being fed in the Pravacana(Sermons), even if it contradicts the very scripture they claim to adhere. Its like they are allergic to reading.
I visited the 2019 Kumbh at Prayāga. There I did a little experiment. One day, while returning back to my camp, from bathing in Ganges, I decided to sit for a while on the sandy banks. I saw some devotees bowing down to everything while on their way to the Ganges. So I started to recite some anti god verses from Cārvāka. When they came near me. They literally bowed down to me, thinking me to be some Yogi-Ascetic. My traditional clothing also helped create such perception.
I was shocked to see the level of blind belief that exists in India.
Messainism
Because of the prophecies in purāṇa, Hindus have become highly messianic. I have seen many just simply waiting for the kalki to arrive.
Sanātana Dharma; resistance to reforms, innovation
Now as I have already explained the issues with the usage of this terminology and its implications in previous blogs:- Hindu identity. This Sanatan Dharma mindset is absolutely identical to abrahamic worldview that everything that has been “revealed” or anything that has been traditionally followed is absolutely perfect and requires no change whatsoever. This Sanatani thing goes even farther than the abrahamics , declaring itself to be eternally valid. This type of mindset comes from creationism, where the creator has created some sort of infalliable prescriptions to be followed devoutly. And creationism is an integral part of bhakti.
Rise of sensitivity
Majority Hindu folk at present are a bunch of sensitive, emotional and easily offendable sheeps. Bhakti invokes emotion and is very emotionally appealing, like christianity, that’s why only it’s the most widespread form of religiosity. And when person thinks emotionally or is attached to certain beliefs emotionally , then automatically he becomes sensitive to any contrasting or critical view. The rise of rigidity amongst hindus is also because of this only.
Standardization
It has led to massive standardizations of hinduism, to the extent when criticizing bhakti is being termed as Anti hindu. If you ask a regular hindu laymen, about what is hindu, you will get the most pathetic lame standardized replies. Sanskrit has been standardized and limited to merely a language of rituals and chants, which is one of the most unfortunate thing ever. The standardizations are so much prevalent, that once I heard from a bhakta, that one who doesn’t chant “Jai Shri Rama” or says “Hare Krishna” is not a hindu.
Bhakti has made hindus more and more like abrahamics. Not on a collective basis, but in individuality, bhakta approach is very identical to abrahamics. What’s left now is just the violence part. But I fear that may also rise in coming years, I have been accused of blasphemy by many bhaktas multiple times already. What we see now(Jai Shri rama violence) is just mainly political violence fueled by beliefs, and is Majorly retaliatory in nature, but that may change to abrahamic like fanaticism in future.
Now, I am not saying that these things didn’t exist before also, or this things happened only because of bhakti, but at present as per my observation and from 13 years of experience in a bhakti sect, I see all of these are related to bhakti only. Bhakti in my opinion has outlived its purpose, and is a bane in Indian civilization.
This is about the general population. I know there are exceptions as well. Bhaktas who are in field of sciences, presently are mostly because of the professional reasons and many of them follow religion as per their convenience, most of them are as superstitious as the general population. Their might be some exceptions, but they are very obscure, comparatively to the predominantly bhakta population.