Jnana and Bhakti

[Guest guest]

Benjamin Wrote:

"For it is primarily the bhaktis who seem to get into this

trouble, since many of them tend to be naive and emotional and too

trusting of the guru, as far as I can tell. It is no secret that

'intellectuals' on an Eastern spiritual path tend to be drawn to

Advaita or similar paths such as Zen. (Actually, one can think of

scandals in the Advaita or Zen communities as well, if one searches

the web, so my generalization should be taken with a grain of salt.)"

 

 

Hello All,

 

"The Heart has its reasons that the head does not understand" (Pascal) A great

mathematician and a

scientist in his day hardly the sort of gaga bhakti that you take for the norm.

Read Ramakrishna and you

will find that the perfect exemplar of estatic devotion who hadn't much formal

learning, whose Bengali is

described as a village patois and yet the pure wisdom that issued from him was

poetic and beautiful.

 

Ramana Maharshi also spoke of the spiritual Heart which he located on the right

side of the body. When out

on the hill he had an experience of death the life force retreated to that point

and commenced from it again

as he revived. Why on the right hand side? My fancy is that it is the side

where the Heart is of the man in

the mirror. We are that reflection in the mirror of supernal consciousness.

Such is the poetic imagry of

the Tantra system which is guiding philosophy of 'Tripura Rahasya' (The mystery

beyond the Trinity)

considered by Ramana to be one of the greatest works that expounded advaita

philosophy.

 

Throughout the Upanishads the Heart is proclaimed to be the ultimate centre of

identity. In a gloss on

Katha II.i.14 Sankara speaks of the angusthamatrah purusah (the all pervasive

entity of the size of a thumb)

who is lord of the past and the future. He exists in all beings. He, who is

perceived as such by the Yogis

in their hearts.

 

Coleridge said "Deep thinking is deep feeling". He was opposed to the

rationalist idea (Hume and Hartley)

that a train of ideas was the main factor in mental life. He held instead "that

association depends in a

much greater degree on the recurrance of resembling states of feeling than

trains of ideas." Essentially

then such a metaphysical solution of the nature of mental life i.e. the

rationalist "that does not

instantly tell you something in the heart is grieviously to be suspected". "I

almost think that ideas never

recall ideas, as far as they are ideas, any more than leaves in a forest create

each others motion. The

breeze it is runs thro' them - it is the soul of state of feeling."

 

This would line up with the concept of 'bhava' which Ramakrishna embodied from

time to time. It is a

profound topic and if there are other enthusiasts (en theos - the god within)

out there I would love to hear

their views on this sublime subject.

>From Dejection: An Ode by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Section V) written 1772

 

O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me

What this strong music in the soul may be!

What, and wherein it doth exist,

This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist,

This beautiful and beauty-making power.

Joy, virtuous Lady! Joy that ne'er was given,

Save to the pure, and in their purest hour,

Life, and Life's effluence, cloud at once and shower;

Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power

Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower

A new Earth and new Heaven,

Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud-

Joy is the sweet voice, Joy, the luminous cloud -

We in ourselves rejoice!

And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight,

All melodies the echoes of that voice,

All colours a suffusion from that light.

 

 

Best Wishes, Michael.