[Advaita-l] rAmadAsa Swami

[Ananta Bhagwat]

A interesting aside: Swami rAmadAsa, to my mind, was the only sage who promoted bhakti and Sakti in equal measure. His Sakti was not metaphysical mAyA-Sakti but physical and moral strength which he expected to be used both for the self-defense and the for the defense of the weak and defenseless. He initiated building Hanuman temples and established AkhAdA-s (wrestling and exercising joints) in Maharashtra. This is not to suggest that by doing this he was following any Vedanta prakriyA but to say that Vedanta is not antagonistic to popular traditions which try to establish ethical and egalitarian order in vyavahAra.
 
ananta



----- Original Message ----
From: Shrinivas Gadkari <sgadkari2001 at yahoo.com>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12:29:45 PM
Subject: [Advaita-l] rAmadAsa Swami

Namaste,
It is well known that rAmadAsa Swami was the spiritual guide
to the Maratha empire founded by Shivaji, in its first several
decades.
It is known among the disciples of rAmadAsa Swami that he
was sage yAjnavalkya of bRhadAraNyaka Upanishad fame in
his previous birth.
Assuming this to be true: A great jnAni like yAjnavalkya  in
his next birth chose to devote his life to saguNA upasanA of
shrI rAma (and also hanumAna). Not to deny the strong current
of jnAna in his teachings. But equal emphasis on karma and
most importantly saguNa upAsanA (bhakti) is thought provoking.
Regards,
Shrinivas


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