Sant (Hinduism)

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Sant denotes a spiritually outstanding personality in Hinduism or in other Indian religions.

etymology

In English, Sant is usually rendered with "saint" (German: saint ), as these seem etymologically close to one another. It is true, however, that "saint" comes from the Latin sanctus , while Sant is a variant of Sanskrit सत, sat , which means both "truth" and "reality". A Sant is thus etymologically a person who, according to a religious view, knows the absolute truth.

use

In the 15th and 16th centuries, especially North Indian poets and songwriters were called Sant, who worshiped God in the sense of Bhakti . They spoke out against any institutionalized religiosity and over the years have mostly been revered as gurus. It should be emphasized that they addressed both Hindus and Muslims and that they did not make a strict separation between these population groups, although such a distinction was common. More recently, the term has also been used to designate the founder of the Hindu movement Sant Mat , and in Punjab also generally for holy men who lead a hermitic life.

Representative

Sants include:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hew McLeod: Sikhism. Penguin Books, London a. a. 1997, p. 89
  2. ^ Mark Juergensmeyer: Radhasoami Reality. The logic of a modern faith. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ) 1991, p. 22
  3. Michael Bergunder : Comparison of Religions in the North Indian Nirguna Bhakti of the 15th to 17th Century? The Sant tradition and its concept of "Hindus" and "Muslims". In Peter Schalk (Ed.): Religion in Asia? Studies on the applicability of the concept of religion. Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala 2013, pp. 44–46.