Bhakti and advaita

Giri gmadras at ENGR.UCDAVIS.EDU
Sun Jan 26 12:37:01 CST 1997


If bhakti (attachment to Saguna brahman) is only slightly better than
attachment to booze, naturally, Shankara must be a grand fool to have
composed so many hymns in praise of Shiva, Vishnu and further saying that
several pages in the brahma suutra bhashya on the attainment of Brahmaloka
and thus, krama-mukti.
        Further, what about Madhusudana sarasvati ? Does everyone on this
list consider him to be an advaita vedantin ? If so, would Madhusudana
Sarasvati just say that attachment to Saguna Brahman is only slightly
better than attachment to senses ? Maybe knowledgable readers (who have
posted previously on Madhusudana sarasvati) like Anand, Vidya and others
can clarify.
        Though it may be irrelevant to the few members of this list who
don't consider Ramana Maharshi as an advaita vedantin (despite a head of
the shankara math acknowledging him as such), I wish to point out that
Ramana Maharshi also mentions that *complete unconditional surrender to
Ishvara* is a valid path and such Bhakti is not diffferent from jnana.
So, if Cameron and Egodust are erring, they are in good company.

Namaste.



More information about the Advaita-l mailing list