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                     12.2 :  TWELVE GEMS

OF SUPERLATIVE DEVOTION

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India has been spiritually very fortunate in that, in addition to the long lineage of mystic masters that it had over the centuries and in continuation of the 75 unique apostles of God-intoxication that it was blessed with, there have been, even during the second millenium C.E., countless divine integrators who enriched the thought processes, religious practices and inner vision of its people. From the (chronologically) beginningless and endless chain of such gems of superlative devotion, we select just twelve outstanding examples, whose contribution to the spiritual archives of India is actually for the good of all mankind. The life of each one of these twelve gems is itself a message of the divine. Charged by their spirituality their words carry more weight than any exposition by ordinary mortals who look up to them as the role models of bhakti. These are, in their chronological order:

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• NAMDEV (1270 - 1350) (?)

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• KABIR (1398 - 1518)

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• CHAITANYA (1486 - 1534)

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• PURANDARADASA (1480 - 1564)

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• EKNATH (1533 - 1599)

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• TULSIDAS (1497 ? - 1623 ?)

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• BHATTATTIRI (1560 ? 1650 ?)

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• BHASKARARAYA (1690 - 1785)

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• THIAGARAJA (1759 ? - 1847)

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• SHYAMA SHASTRI  (1762 - 1827)

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• MUTHUSAMY DIKSHIDAR (1775 - 1835)

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• SRILA PRABHUPADA (1896 - 1977)

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For Thiagaraja, ShyamaShastri and Muthusamy Dikshidar, GO TO 3.4 Trinity of Carnatic Music.  For the others see 12.2.1 onwards

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