bhakti

[MSR]

namaste

I would like to learn from the knowledgeable list members how
they understand the term "bhakti" in their spiritual practice.

My understanding of this changed significantly after I read the
passages from dialogues with guru (*). I should thank shrI Giri
for sending copies of some important segments of the book.  That
is where I learnt, obeying the commandments of the Ishwara, like
doing nitya karma-s (e.g., sandhya vandanam) is the true sign of
bhakti.

On top of this obedience which the bottom line, one out love may
take an appropriate bhAvam in the relationship towards God. Like
God as one's mother or father or master. I feel that without this
relationship, life becomes utterly meaningless.

Faith in Ishwara who is omnipresent and omniscient helps one to
attain inner purity. As a thief will be afraid to steal in the
presence of a police man, when the mind knows that it is being
watched all the time by the Lord, will become pure by avoiding
wrong activities.  It will become very difficult to lie then,
that itself will make one better. (As vaLLuvar aptly puts it in
the kuraL puRantUymai nIrAn amaiyum agantUymai vAymaiyAR
kaNapaDum - like water purifies the external [portion of the
body], inner purity can be achieved by speaking truth).

I would like to learn more from you all on this important
subject.

--
Ravi

(*) Dialogues with the guru : talks with His Holiness Sri
Chandrasekhara Bharati Swaminah, late Sankaracharya of Sringeri
Mutt / compiled by R. Krishnaswami Aiyar (now Jnanananda Bharati
Swaminah) ; with an introd.  by Paul Masson Oursel.

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>From  Mon Oct 12 17:26:41 1998
Message-Id: <MON.12.OCT.1998.172641.0700.>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 17:26:41 -0700
Reply-To: chandran at tidalwave.net
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ram Chandran <chandran at TIDALWAVE.NET>
Organization: Personal
Subject: S. Radhakrishnan
Comments: To: Advaita List <advaita-l at tamu.edu>
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Guy Werlings <guy.werlings at WANADOO.FR> writes:

> Although in his lectures and books Dr S. Radhakrishnan mainly tried, I
> think, to interpret Indian thought for Westerners, do the members of the
> list consider him as an advaitin or as a vishishTAdvaitin ? Perhaps
> none, I don't know. Any possible clarification is welcome ........


Greetings Guy Werlings:

I belive that the list members' ratings are more likely go beyond the
boundaries of advaitin and vishishTAdvaitin.  The following quotation of
Shri. Radhakrishnanan about his own understanding of Hinduism may partly
demonstrate what he stands for: "Hinduism is not just a faith. It is the
union of reason and intuition that cannot be defined but is only to be
experienced. Evil and error are not ultimate. There is no Hell, for that
means there is a place where God is not, and there are sins which exceed
his love."

I consider Shri Radhakrishnan as an academic philosopher who
demonstrated great depth in understanding Hinduism and specifically
Upanishads and Gita. He lived a practical and useful life and served the
humanity through his scholarship. He was a well respected academic
philospher and statesman.  Personally, I like his translation of Gita
and Upanishads and I value him as one of my teachers in clearing many of
my doubts.  Some of his interpretations of Gita sounds that he is
advaitin and others appear as though he is vishishTAdvaitin!

--
Ram Chandran
Burke, VA

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>From  Mon Oct 12 18:40:58 1998
Message-Id: <MON.12.OCT.1998.184058.0400.>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 18:40:58 -0400
Reply-To: ramakris at erols.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
Subject: Re: S. Radhakrishnan
Comments: To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
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Guy Werlings wrote:

> Although in his lectures and books Dr S. Radhakrishnan mainly tried, I
> think, to interpret Indian thought for Westerners, do the members of the
> list consider him as an advaitin or as a vishishTAdvaitin ? Perhaps
> none, I don't know. Any possible clarification is welcome

Dr S. Radhakrishnan's "The Prinicipal Upanishhads" is a good book to
have. It has all the upanishhads in roman script and also a good
translation. But, his explanations of advaita are best left alone. I
have myself caught a number of egregious errors in some of his writings.
Some of them were really, really bad and these were not in some nitpicky
details, BTW. Scholars like T.R.V.Murti have pointed out his
misrepresentations. Also, he was a scholar, but no practitioner of
advaita. This is blindingly obvious to anyone who has read his biography
(written by his son Sarvepalli Gopal). So, practicing advaitins (like
many of us on this list) must be wary of taking his statements too
seriously.

Rama

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"bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam"
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