1. Contrasting Bhakti with “Orthodoxy” is misguided. The earliest strand of, & still the gold standard for, bhakti is that of the Blessed 63 of Śaivam & the great 12 of Vaiṣṇavam; whose lives were loyal to Vaidikācāra & Varṇāśrama-dharma.
2. Plus, the Bhakti movement is but a natural culmination of a long series of historical developments from the time of the Veda itself.
3. The only type of “orthodoxies” that can be said to have excluded bhakti as we have known in the last 1500-2000 years are the nirīśvara (īśvara-less) forms of yoga, vaiśeṣika, sām̐khyā & mīmām̐sā. What happened to them?
4. It’s nice to think about these schools intellectually today but apart from being useful tools, they had no appeal for most normal individuals. Which is why, they were soon replaced by their seśvara counterparts.
5. Even among seśvara systems, which ones really developed mass appeal? Primarily the Śaiva & Vaiṣṇava systems with a rich temple & communal ritualism that cut across groups & had an inescapable emotional appeal. It also gave something for everyone to have stakes in.
6. In fact, Veda & Vaidikas thrive only because of bhakti. Jñānasambandha Svāmī, a Vaidika Brāhmaṇa & 1 of the greatest Śivabhaktas to have ever lived, had men & women of all jātis rallying behind him while he gave a clarion call for the Vaidika rituals & faith against nāstikas.
7. Why did they support him? Because they were intellectually convinced about orthodoxy? No but because they had bhakti for Paramaśiva & more importantly Jñānasambandha.
8. Bhakti had Appar, a Śaiva saint of Sacchūdra origin, sing about the glory of a city teeming with vaidika sacrifices. Bhakti ensured, a 1000 years after Appar’s time, that many non-brāhmaṇa jātis greatly sponsored countless vedapāṭhaśālas.
What gave someone like Āṛumukha-Nāvalar (a genius traditionalist, Mahāvidvān & Śaivottama of Sacchūdra background) to so zealously defend what people call “orthodoxy”?
His sincere belief that Bhagavān Paramaśiva, as absolute sovereign, has given his laws in the Veda & Āgama.
On Tiru Arulmigu Arumuka Navalar