Four kinds of Devotees of the Lord

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

In Vidyaranya's pancadasSI, almost at the very end, (Ch.13 - 83), the

author gives a recipe for the practice of what he calls 'brahma-

abhyAsam', i.e., the exercise for maintaining the thought of the Lord

always. This recipe is:

tac-cintanaM tat-kathanaM anyonyaM tat-prabhodhanaM ;

etadeka-paratvaM ca brahmAbhyAsam vidur-budhAH .

 

Meaning: Thinking of that, talking about that, teaching that to one

another, being engaged in these all the time --this is known as

brahma-abhyAsaM by wise men.

 

It is this brahmAbhyAsam that the advaitin list is doing. But when

vedantic giants like Swami Dayananda Saraswati explain the slokas

15 to 20 of Ch.7 of the gita, there is nothing more to add. We have

only to assimilate it by repeated reading. But in accordance with

Vidyaranya's call for brahmAbhyAsam I am deliberately 'provoking'

the members to delve into those six slokas by citing examples for the

four kinds of devotees:

Arta; arthArthI; jijnAsu; and jnAnI. I am sure each one of us would

love to look hard at the following classification. I also look forward

to the members adding more examples.

 

Arta: Draupadi. Gajendra. Bhattadri. Appar (Tirunavukkarasu

nayanar). Bhadracala Ramadas. Ahalya.

 

arthArthI: Vibhishana. Sugriva. Dhruva. Sundaramurti Nayanar.

 

jijnAsu: Uddhava. Parikshit. Vivekananda. Tulsidas.

Manikkavachagar. Gautama the Buddha. Nandanar.

 

jnAnI: Narada. The four sons born of the mind of Brahma. Prahlada.

Suka. The Gopis of Brindavan. Bhishma. Jnanesvara. Sadasiva

Brahmendra. Bhaskararaya. Meerabai. Kabirdas. Caitanya. Ramana.

Tiru-jnana-sambandar. Sadagopar (Nammazhvar). Purandaradas.

Ramakrishna. Arunagirinathar. Kanchi maha-swamigal.

 

praNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

You may access three on-line books of mine at the following site:

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The books are:

Science and Spirituality - A Vedanta Perception

Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought, Vision & Practice

Overview of Hindu worship with spl. refce. to South India

 

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[Guest guest]

jijnAsu: Uddhava. Parikshit. Vivekananda. Tulsidas.

Manikkavachagar. Gautama the Buddha. Nandanar.

 

jnAnI: Narada. The four sons born of the mind of Brahma. Prahlada.

Suka. The Gopis of Brindavan. Bhishma. Jnanesvara. Sadasiva

Brahmendra. Bhaskararaya. Meerabai. Kabirdas. Caitanya. Ramana.

Tiru-jnana-sambandar. Sadagopar (Nammazhvar). Purandaradas.

Ramakrishna. Arunagirinathar. Kanchi maha-swamigal.

 

praNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

> Pranam profvk Prabhuji,

> Hare Krishna

> Any suitable justification for putting Vivekananda & Gautama the Buddha

in JijnAsu category. Vivekananda might be a jijnAsu when he was in

poorvashrama (Narendranath Gupta) but not after his nirvikalpa samadhi

experience in kanyakumari & at Kaashipur Garden House, same is the case in

Buddha also, we may call him as jijnAsu when he was siddhartha but not

after becoming buddha. Can we not adore them as jnAnIs prabhuji pls.

clarify.

 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!

bhaskar

[Guest guest]

Dear ProfVK,

 

Can you please explain the meanings of Arta and

arthArthI ? I guess jijnAsu means desirous of knowing.

Are these the only categories ? What about mumukshu -

someone desiring moksha ?

 

Aside - I concur with Shri Bhaskar's comments about

Swami Vivekananda and Gautam Buddha.

 

- Shirish

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

namaste profvk-ji,

 

Is it four kinds of devotees or the same devotee at four stages

of spiritual evolution?

 

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

---

[Guest guest]

Namaste

It must have been my impertinence to 'classify' towering

personalities like Gautama the Buddha, Vivekananda and others. I

carefully analysed my own thought process. I think what I meant

must be: How did these people begin to approach God? And that

way, the jijnAsu attitude was the beginning for Vivekananda and

the Buddha, though certainly they became jnAnis in the fullest

sense of the word. I think Murthygaru's question: Do you mean four

kinds of devotees or four stages of evolution for the same devotee?

really reveals the confusion at the back of the attempt at such

classification. In fact while posting, I did think rather hard whether

Ramana should be classified as a jijnAsu or jnAni. He began as a

boy to find out the truth which stared in his face. But I just did not

dare exclude him from the jnAni category!. But now that

Murthygaru's question makes us think, I feel several others may

need a reclassification. For instance, Manikkavachagar and

Arunagirinathar did not start as a jnAni. Let me think about all

these once more. Thanks.

praNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

You may access three on-line books of mine at the following site:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk

The books are:

Science and Spirituality - A Vedanta Perception

Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought, Vision & Practice

Overview of Hindu worship with spl. refce. to South India

 

_______

 

Get your free @ address at

[Guest guest]

Namaste Shri ProfVK,

 

I would say that each one of us has sought refuge in

the Self sometimes as an Arta, sometimes as an

arthArthI, sometimes as a jijnAsu, and sometimes even

as an jnAnI. Whether most of us have realized this or

not is a different story.

 

Regards

Shrinivas

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Hari OM! Narayana Smrithis!

 

Blessed Shirishji,

 

Kindly read the commentary by Swami Dayananda Saraswathi, posted by

Sri Ramachandran in this advaitin email groups.

 

The subject line is

 

Gita Satsang: Pujyaswami DayanandaSaraswati's Commentary Part I

 

So you will get the answer for your questions.

 

With love & OM!

 

Krishna Prasad

 

--- Shirish Karmarkar <shirish_karmarkar wrote:

> Dear ProfVK,

>

> Can you please explain the meanings of Arta and

> arthArthI ? I guess jijnAsu means desirous of knowing.

> Are these the only categories ? What about mumukshu -

> someone desiring moksha ?

>

> Aside - I concur with Shri Bhaskar's comments about

> Swami Vivekananda and Gautam Buddha.

>

> - Shirish

>

>

>

> Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with

> Messenger

> http://phonecard./

>

 

 

 

 

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http://phonecard./

[Guest guest]

OM

GURUR BRAHMA GURUR VISNU GURUR DEVO MAHESHVARAH

GURUH SAKSHAT PARAM BRAHM TASMAI SRI GURVE NAMAH

OM NAMAH SIVAYA

OM NAMAH SIVANANDAYA

 

Blessed Self,

It is important to note that the Saints have had previous births and

a Jnani may have been a Bhakta or a Karma Yogi in her/his previous

birth and may have another birth of her/his own accord and follow

another path more suitable to that age/times.

 

Sri Swami Sivananda has said: "Every saint has a past and every

sinner has a future"

 

Seemingly "illiterate" Saints have a tremendous grasp of Vedanta -

this is only due to previous Sadhana.

 

Sri Swami Sivanandaji's egsample is a case in point, how is it

possible for ANYBODY, any Saint to author over 300 books covering all

aspects of the life Spiritual - Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, Tantra,

Vedanta, and other schools long forgotten, in a short time and also

author books on "nature Cure", "How to become Wealthy" etc etc

 

Sri Ramana Mahrishi, Sri Aurbindo are but a few egsamples of this

seeming contradiction, they DID Sadhana before, by before is meant

PREVIOUS BIRTH.

 

Let us simply revere the Saints and try to Do Good - Be Good

 

there is an ancient saying:

The gotra of Saints and Rivers is a mystery that shouldnt be analyzed-

i may have translated it incorrectly,

 

For free e-books in adobe and html please visit:

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Pranam

OM