Vivekananda Mailing List- 8/3/03

[Guest guest]

Love for any other being, however great cannot be Bhakti; for, as

Ramanuja says in his Shri Bhâshya , quoting an ancient Âchârya, i.e. a

great teacher:

 

" From Brahmâ to a clump of grass, all things that live in the world are

slaves of birth and death caused by Karma; therefore they cannot be

helpful as objects of meditation, because they are all in ignorance and

subject to change. " In commenting on the word Anurakti used by

Shandilya, the commentator Svapneshvara says that it means Anu, after,

and Rakti, attachment; i.e. the attachment which comes after the

knowledge of the nature and glory of God; else a blind attachment to

any one, e.g. to wife or children, would be Bhakti. We plainly see,

therefore, that Bhakti is a series or succession of mental efforts at

religious realisation beginning with ordinary worship and ending in a

supreme intensity of love for Ishvara.