‘Yogic Bhakti' in Early Modern Vernacular Nāth and Sant Literature

Flourishing primarily from the 14th-16th centuries, the Sants - represented by such paragons of North Indian devotional religion as Kabīr, Ravidās, and Dādū - are generally considered to be the supreme models of nirguṇ bhakti, or devotion to the formless Divine. These “truth-exemplars” shared a socio-spiritual milieu with Nāth Siddhas in which principles of yoga and bhakti were freely exchanged, leading to the development of a religious path of devotion interiorized within the yogic body, which I refer to as ‘yogic bhakti'. This paper will explore how Nāth and Sant authors of vernacular poems and treatises combined principles of haṭha and laya yoga with a bhakti-centered praxis, creating a system in which inner contemplation and worship of the “undefiled” (nirañjan), divine satguru (“True Guru”) takes precedence over physical practice. In this system, recitation (jap) or remembrance (sumiran) of the name of the Divine - in its subtle dimension, a “mantra” comprised of the sound of inhalation and exhalation known as the “unrecited recitation” (ajapā jāp) - is the vehicle which impels the aspirant on a mystical journey through the yogic body, facilitating control of the vital essences of breath (prāṇ) and bindu, leading to a state “beyond the mind” (unman) and its dualities where the “unstruck sound” (anhad nād) - nondifferent from the primordial sound current of oṃ - resounds within and internal union with the Divine is achieved. I argue that these Nāths and Sants, sharing a critique of “hollow” and “superficial” ascetic yoga, together advanced an interiorized yogic path of gnosis (jñān) beyond distinctions of religion and caste. Read together, their literature represents a significant - if still lesser known - early modern adaptation of yoga.