Hatha yoga Bhakti movement. It eliminated the need for "either ascetic renunciation or priestly intermediaries, ritual paraphernalia and sectarian initiations". This led to its broad historic popularity in India. Later in the 20th-century, states Mallinson, this disconnect of Hatha yoga from religious aspects and the democratic access of Hatha yoga enabled it to spread worldwide. Between the 17th and 19th-century, however, the various urban Hindu and Muslim elites and ruling classes viewed Yogis with derision. They were persecuted during the rule of Aurangzeb, who ended a long period of religious tolerance that had defined the rule of his predecessors beginning with Akbar,
Brihad Bhagavatamrita khaëòa – Ascertaining the Glories of Çré Goloka. In the first part of "Brihad-bhagavatamrita" Sanatana Goswami has described a conversation between Parikshit and his mother, Uttara. It took place after Parikshit heard the "Bhagavata Purana" from Śuka. Uttara asked her son to explain the essence of "Bhagavata Purana", and Parikshit revealed to her the stages of confidential Bhakti. He told her a story about how Narada was looking for greatest devotee of Krishna. The Great Rishi began his search with devotees of Krishna whose Bhakti was mixed with karma and jnana (Brahma and Shiva), then went up to Shanta-rasa (Prahlada),