Re:JnAna 'versus' bhakti in daily living :

[Guest guest]

This exact question of how an advaitin lives in practice, convinced as he

is that there is only the non-dual Self and nothing else, is the

million-dollar question. I have a detailed discussion of this on the

following web page

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/73.html

The page bears the title:

Beach 7: The Art and Science of Spiritual Love

- Wave 3: Vision of Equanimity is Practical Non-duality

Here is a quick summary:

It is the attitude that is more important. The advaita attitude leads to

an infinite Love which sees no high and low, no distinction of worldly

duality. It is a mature Love of the Self maturing into the insight of

seeing the entire world as the Lord. The first lesson begins with not

seeing the negatives of the other person just as we don't see the

negatives of ourselves. The next step is to see the same God in all

divinities. The third and final step is the sama-dRshTi (Equanimous

vision) .The formula is: Detach yourself attitudinally, and then Love and

Serve. Is this not a tall order? Yes, it is, but that is the way all

advaitins have lived and shown the way.

Now you may go to the web page cited, if you like.

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

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Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

The URL of my website has been simplified as

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access both my books from there.

[Guest guest]

I am reposting this article from Prof. VK who has answered it beautifully.

 

Ram Chandran

List Comoderator

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"V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk

 

How can the Bhakta and the Jnani shake hands, embrace, and reach the same

conclusion? I am pulling out an extract from the book: Ten Commandments of

Hinduism, as a possible response to the above and summarising it below.

Krishna, in the gIta, eighteenth chapter, begins the end, the essence of all

his teaching, at verse no.49, which says: Only that man attains Perfection

in Actionlessness whose work is wrought with unfettered mind, dead desires,

subdued lower self and results renounced. Then He goes on: (Verse No.50):

Learn from Me, briefly, how attaining that perfection (of Actionlessness)

one attains brahman, the Supreme, the highest height of all. Krishna uses a

very pregnant phrase here, jnAnasya parA nishTA. This means the ultimate

state of jnAna. The perfect state of Actionlessness is the parA kAshTA of

karma yoga. The next three verses dwell on how and by what discipline one

reaches the brahma-bhAva. And in verse No.54, he completes the thought

process by saying: Such a one who is in brahman, with soul brightened,

sorrows no more, desires no more; his personality, loving equally all that

lives, attains the Supreme Devotion towards Me. This then is the meeting

point of the different schools of philosophy. After bringing up the

discussion to a height, wherein He was talking about jnAnansya parA kAshTA,

the acme of jnAna, starting from verse 50, He now says such a one attains

the apex of bhakti towards Him. Does it mean that Devotion follows

Enlightenment? In the next verse (No.55) He is going to say that

Enlightenment follows Devotion. It all only means that the supreme state of

jnAna and the supreme state of bhakti are the same. What is described is the

jnAni's devotion. He loves equally all that lives. In the next verse the

jnAna of the bhakta is described 'He knows Me as I am' (Verse No.55) -

bhaktyA mAm abhijAnati ... . The becoming of Self into brahman, is a

natural process of reverting to the Original Source.

 

Our true nature is Divinity and becoming divine is most natural to us. In

this natural state one loves all human beings and the love to the Personal

Manifestation of the Impersonal is a spontaneous effervescence. This is the

parA bhakti - Devotion par excellence. The parA bhakti knows no 'I' or '

Mine' . The little self is merged in the Supreme Self Thus verse No.54 says

that the acme of Enlightenment is the acme of Devotion - so jnAna yoga ends

in parA bhakti; and verse no. 55 says that the acme of Devotion is that of

knowledge of Reality - so this is bhakti yoga ending in supreme jnAna. In

verse 56 this is linked to karma yoga with the same acme of perfection. The

acme of the three yogas are identical.

 

For details on this discussion one may refer to pp. 285-292 of the above

mentioned book.

 

Pranams to all advaitins.

V. Krishnamurthy === Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

You are invited to visit my latest book entitled GEMS FROM THE OCEAN OF

HINDU THOUGHT VISION AND PRACTICE at

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/gohitvip/contents.html

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