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But he is also a devotee, a bhakta: he adores all the Buddhas of the past, present and future as well as sundry superhuman Bodhisattvas, and he confesses his sins, not after the fashion of the Pâtimokkha, but by accusing himself before these heavenly Protectors and vowing to sin no more. Śântideva lived in the seventh century but tells us that he follows the scriptures and has nothing new to say.
A somewhat later member of the same group is Nâbhâ Das, the author of the Bhakta Mâlâ or Legends of the Saints, which is still one of the most popular religious works of northern India. Almost contemporary with Sur Das was the great Tulsi Das and Grierson enumerated thirteen subsequent writers who composed Râmâyaṇas in some dialect of Hindi.
The Bhakta or devotee passes through five successive stages, Santa or resigned contemplation of the deity is the first, and from it he passes into Dasya or the practice of worship and service, whence to Sakhya or friendship, which warms into Batsalya, filial affection, and lastly rises to Madhurya or earnest, all-engrossing love. Capt. J. W. Graham's paper 'On Sufiism, Bombay Literary Soc. Trans.
Of this view the Sutra disposes by saying 'that which abides in the moving and the non-moving, &c. The meaning is the terms which abide in, i.e. are connected with, the different moving and non-moving things, and hence denote those things, possess with regard to Brahman a denotative power which is not 'bhakta, i.e. secondary or figurative, but primary and direct.
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