Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s3.29

c18.s3.29

Both Kabīr and Nānak, while conceiving of God as formless (Nirguna, Nirākār), apprehended Him as the supreme object of love. To Rāmānuja the individual soul, made by God out of his essence, returned to its maker and lived in full communion with him, although ever remaining distinct (*Visistadwaita*). Kabīr considered that the destiny of the individual is the merging of the part (soul) with the whole (God). Similarly Nānak held man's soul to be a ray of light emanating from the Light Divine. To Rāmānuja Bhakti-yoga was the greatest yoga.⁴³ To Kabīr and Nānak and other *sants* of the fifteenth century also Bhakti was the surest way to redemption. Thus Rāmānuja, Kabīr and Nānak all believed in Bhakti as the only means of salvation.