NArada, Bhakti, Love and Advaita

[Guest guest]

Namaste Gautamji.

 

Thanks for your untitled post on bhakti based on NArada SutrAs. In

this response, I have taken the liberty to give it a caption.

 

I love only myself without any thought for returns or rewards and

that is the only thing that keeps the world going. I love others

(your worldly love) because I love myself and want to be happy.

Returns or rewards that make me happy are important in that love.

Thus, worldly love is love for oneself essentially.

 

Advaita implies the emancipation of worldly love into Universal Love

through the realization that one is everything. Then, there is no

question of returns or rewards because there are no external objects

for me to pour my love on and make me happy in return. I, therefore,

remain Love, limitlessly so. It is the most *Selfish Love* and it is

all what there actually is, although most don't realize it. So, the

so-called worldly love should be understood as an expression of that

Universal Love sadly misunderstood and *misenjoyed* due to our sense

of separation from others.

 

It is, therefore, our understanding of love that matters. The

ignorant professes love with others when what he is really after is

his own happiness, the love for himself. When he realizes through

right knowledge that he is the whole creation, love returns

spontaneously to its natural default of Universal Love.

 

Sage Narada is (I am using the present tense to suggest his

immortality) that Love because he *sees* himself, i.e. his dear

NarAyana, in everything. That is why he keeps repeating the Lord's

name even while confronting the vicious asurAs. Although he is

credited with catalyzing cataclysms wherever he goes, he remains an

advaitin bhakta untouched by all of them like the lotus leaf in the

pond remaining undrenched, for he plays on the vINA of advaita while

delighting himself in the prapanca lIlAs of his dear Lord. Bhakti,

therefore, is being Love spontaneously. It can't therefore be

anything other than advaita and advaitic jnAna.

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair

_______________________

 

 

advaitin, "dr_gmadan" <pranavomkaar@r...>

wrote:

> namaskaar,

> once i posted this message in my other groups. i felt like posting

it

> here too. i have described bhakti in my own words mostly based on

> narad bhakti sutras

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair"

<madathilnair> wrote:

> Namaste Gautamji.

>

> Thanks for your untitled post on bhakti based on NArada SutrAs. In

> this response, I have taken the liberty to give it a caption.

 

Namaste,

 

In the language of Bhagavadgita:

 

 

brahmabhuutaH prasannaatmaa na shochati na kaaN^kShati .

samaH sarveshhu bhuuteshhu madbhakti.n labhate paraam.h .. 18\-54..

 

bhaktyaa maamabhijaanaati yaavaanyashchaasmi tattvataH .

tato maaM tattvato GYaatvaa vishate tadanantaram.h .. 18\-55..

 

54. Becoming BRAHMAN, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor

desires; the same to all beings, he obtains a supreme devotion

towards Me.

After liquidating the ego and its manifestations --- enumerated in

the preceding stanza as power, pride, lust, passion and sense of

possession --- the seeker comes to experience a relatively greater

peace within, as he is released from all the confusions generally

created by the psychological mal-adjustments and intellectual false

evaluations of life. This newly discovered inner tranquillity, no

doubt artificially propped up for the time being by severe self-

discipline, should be positively reinforced by definite efforts and

constant vigilance.

With constant self-effort, relative peace in the mind is to be

maintained for longer periods of time and zealously guarded. Joys and

sorrows will be constantly reaching our bosom from the outer world;

we are helpless before them. For, even when the "sense-of-agency" has

been renounced, the other aspect of the ego, "I-enjoy-mentality"

(Bhoktritwa-bhaavanaa) will assert itself and poison the mind of the

meditator. A worm cut into two pieces becomes two separate,

independent living worms ere long. So too, if one aspect of the ego,

the "I-do-mentality" is conquered, we must equally attend to the

destruction of the other aspect of the ego, the "I-enjoy-mentality;"

or else, the surviving part will revive within a very short time and

we shall discover a healthier ego, potentially more powerful,

dangerously rising out of the seemingly dead individuality.

One who has read well, reflected upon and understood the theme of the

Absolute Reality as discussed in the Scriptures, is indicated here by

the term "Brahma-Bhootah." This word employed in this verse should

not be construed as "one who has become Brahman ." It can only

mean "one who has convinced oneself of the existence and nature of

the Reality as discussed in the Scriptures." Once this Spiritual

Truth is understood, the student necessarily becomes less agitated,

because, all disturbances enter our life through our identification

with the equipments-of-experiences only. To the extent an intellect

realises the existence of the diviner aspect in it, and so

automatically withdraws its all-out clinging to the matter-realm, to

that extent it is not disturbed by the objects of perception, feeling

and thought. Thus it discovers a growing tranquillity (Prasannaatmaa)

within itself.

A seeker who has gained the "knowledge" of Brahman through STUDY,

and make it his own through REFLECTION, gains the tranquillity of

composure as a result of his understanding, and therefore experiences

a partial liquidation of his ego-sense. Thereby he discovers in

himself the courage to stand apart, both from grief and desire. He

grieves not (Na Shochati) because he feels no incompleteness in

himself, as he used to feel in the earlier days of his arrogant ego.

Since there is no sense of imperfection, his intellect no longer

spins new and novel plans for satisfactions and temporary

gratifications, which are called desires. Naturally, one who grieves

not in life desires not (Na Kaankshati) for the possession of

anything to make his happiness complete.

A tranquil seeker --- who, in his understanding, comes to desire

nothing and has developed an independent source of happiness which is

free from the presence of the absence of any external environment ---

lives in the world, with a totally new set of values of life, in

which, according to him, there is nothing but the constant experience

of the Divine presence. Naturally, he develops an equanimity of

vision (V-18, 19 and 20).

THIS TYPE OF AN INDIVIDUAL ATTAINS SUPREME DEVOTION UNTO ME ---

Earlier, an entire chapter has been devoted to the discussion on

devotion (Ch. XII) wherein we found that, according to the Scripture,

devotion is measured by our sense of identification with the Higher

Ideal. In order to identify with the Infinite Truth, the seeker must

have a definite amount of detachment from his usual channels of

dissipation, both in the outer world and the realms within.

The previous verse indicated the methods of detachment and it was

said that he who has accomplished them in his inner composition is

the only one who is capable of striving for and succeeding in a true

identification with the play of the Infinite in and through the

finite. The expansiveness of vision, the catholicity of love and the

release from sense preoccupation --- all these are necessary in order

to produce in the seeker, supreme love for the Lord . There is yet

another stage in one's pilgrimage to Truth.

WHAT THEN IS THE NEXT STAGE?

 

55. By devotion he knows Me in Essence, what and who I am; then,

having known Me in My Essence, he forthwith enters into the Supreme.

BY DEVOTION HE COMES TO KNOW ME --- Devotion, as we have explained,

is "love for the Supreme." Love is measured by the degree of

identification the lover maintains with the beloved. When an ego-

centric individuality, having made all the above adjustments,

increasingly seeks and discovers its identity with the Self , it

comes to experience the true nature of the Self more and more

clearly. Such a seeker comes to understand "WHAT AND WHO I AM."

In the entire Geeta, the first person singular is used by the Lord

to indicate the Supreme Goal. It is not Lord Krishna , as an

individual person who is indicated by the terms 'I' and 'Me' as used

in these discourses. Remember, this is the Lord 's own Song, sung to

revive His devotees, and the pronouns used here represent the

Paramatman. To know the Self means to know both Its nature and

identity. These are the topics in all scriptures. But the scriptural

study gives us only an intellectual comprehension of Truth and not

its Essence (Tattwatah), a spiritual apprehension of Truth as a lived

experience.

THEN, HAVING KNOWN ME IN ESSENCE --- When this experience comes

through a slow and steady unfoldment of the Light of Consciousness,

through the dropping of the veils of 'ignorance 'created by our

identifications with the body, we come to apprehend, IN TOTO, the

Infinite. The individuality or the ego, ends and "HE THEREAFTER

ENTERS ME."

The "ENTRY" mentioned here is not like that of a man entering a

structure, a house separate from himself. There is no ego to enter

into the plane of God-consciousness. The term "ENTRY" is used here

exactly in the same fashion as "the dreamer ENTERS the waking state."

The dreamer cannot retain his own individuality when he ENTERS the

waking world, but he himself becomes the "waker." Similarly, when the

ego ENTERS God-consciousness, the individuality cannot retain itself

as such. The misconception that he is an individual ends and he

rediscovers, becomes or awakens to, the Infinite Brahmanhood --- the

State of Krishna-Consciousness.

DEVOTION FOR THE LORD IS NEVER COMPLETE WITHOUT SERVICE TO THE

LIVING WORLD OF CREATURES:

(Commentary - Sw. Chinmayananda)

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

[Guest guest]

You can download Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamiji's interpretation

of Gita 18.55 at

 

http://www.kamakoti.org/main/audio.html

 

Its in Tamil.

 

Happy Republic day...

 

 

 

-

"Sunder Hattangadi" <sunderh

>

> bhaktyaa maamabhijaanaati yaavaanyashchaasmi tattvataH .

> tato maaM tattvato GYaatvaa vishate tadanantaram.h .. 18\-55..

>

>

> Regards,

>

> Sunder

[Guest guest]

Respected Ranjeeetji,

Thank you very much for suggestig this site.

Is there any site from where one can download Swami Dayananda Saraswati's talks

in MP3 format?

Hari Om

R.S.Mani

 

Ranjeet Sankar <thefinalsearch wrote:

You can download Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamiji's interpretation

of Gita 18.55 at

 

http://www.kamakoti.org/main/audio.html

 

Its in Tamil.

 

Happy Republic day...

 

 

 

-

"Sunder Hattangadi" <sunderh

>

> bhaktyaa maamabhijaanaati yaavaanyashchaasmi tattvataH .

> tato maaM tattvato GYaatvaa vishate tadanantaram.h .. 18\-55..

>

>

> Regards,

>

> Sunder

 

 

 

Discussion of Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of nonseparablity of Atman

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[Guest guest]

Dear Maniji,

 

You can download some samples from the following sites.

 

http://www.arshavidya.org/audio_samplers.html

http://www.avgsatsang.org/hhpsds.html

 

You can purchase the full CDs from this site.

 

http://bookstore.arshavidya.org/

 

Hari Om

 

 

-

"R.S.MANI" <r_s_mani

> Is there any site from where one can download Swami Dayananda Saraswati's

talks in MP3 format?

> Hari Om

> R.S.Mani

[Guest guest]

namaskaar respected madathil ji & sunder ji,

thanks for your kind comments. i am really sorry for not giving my post a title.

it was only after posting i could find that i left it untitled but, madathil ji

you gave it a good title.

madathil ji you said-

It is, therefore, our understanding of love that matters.

i agree with you in this respect. the sense of seperation being the causative

factor for misenjoyment of love but jnani, having atmabhava(watching self) in

everyone never hates as isavasya shruti says--

whoever sees all beings in the self and the self in all beings does not hate.

having attained this atmabhava there is no friend no enemy, everything is self.

people may take jnani as his/her friend or enemy but for jnani both are alike as

krishna says--

one who is alike to friend & foe is dear to me.

with regards,

gautam.