The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (380 page)

ajyar
ja. He presides over the
Pure Land
of the East (cf.
Sukh
vat
, the Western Paradise).

 
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Bh
j
(Buddhist monastic establishment)
:

see
VIH
RA
.

 
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Bhajana
(chant)
:

see
MANDIR(A)
:
WORSHIP
.

 
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(Skt., either from vbhaj, ‘to share, be loyal’, or vbhañj, ‘to separate’). Devotion in love and adoration, especially to one's chosen manifestation of the divine (
i
adeva
); but it may be guru-bhakti (surrender to a guru) or vaidhibhakti (willing acceptance of a guru's instructions). In its theistic form, it perhaps appears in the
g Veda
(5. 85. 7 f.; 7. 87. 7), in hymns imploring
Varu
a
to forgive the offences of his devotees. But it became a major way of Indian religious life (owing much to the religion of
Tamil Nadu
), in which the grace (
pras
da
) of God modifies the strict causality of
karma
. Bhakti-marga (the way of bhakti) has produced some of the world's most moving theistic poetry, as well as the formalization of the stages through which union with God can be attained, in Bhakti-yoga. The
Bhagavad-g
t
is the foremost exposition and expression of bhakti addressed to
K
a
. See also
VAI
AVA
;
AIVA
;
RI-VAI
AVISM