self-lacerations

Updated: May 16, 2025

Intense devotion to some personal god, generally Vishnu the preserver, under the name Hari, or either of Vishnu's chief incarnations, Ram or Krishna, is the usual manifestation of bhakti. In actual practice it displays itself in ecstatic dancing or singing, or in exclaiming the name of the god or goddess, or in self-lacerations in his or her honour.

John Morrison - New Ideas in India During the Nineteenth Century: A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments

He submitted to all the irksome labors which the monks imposed; he studied the fathers and the schoolmen; he practised the most painful austerities, and fastings, and self-lacerations: still he was troubled with religious fears. His brethren encouraged his good works, but his perplexities and doubts remained.

John Lord - A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon: For the Use of Schools and Colleges