[Advaita-l] Meditation according to advaita

[Praveen]

praNAm all,

Hari Om, Amuthan-ji,

Thanks for your beautiful exposition of the matter.

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 6:58 PM, Amuthan <aparyap at gmail.com> wrote:
> Traditionally, saguNa brahma dhyAna is accepted as a valid means of
> cittaSuddhi and the culmination of such dhyAna results in a form of
> sampraj~nAta samAdhi, in the terminology of pAta~njala yoga. This is
> also supported by the yogasUtrAs where ISvarapraNidhAna is taught as
> means to samAdhi (== samAdhAna in the sAdhanacatushTaya scheme).

Isn't a lot of Yoga accepted by Advaita Vedanta too, eg, tapaH, svAdhyAya,
IshvarapraNidhAnam, among many more? AFAIK, barring the dualistic end,
most of the advaita sAMpradAyika maTha-s incorporate yoga practice as a
part of the system itself for first hand anubhava.


> Coming to 'nirguNopAsanA', it looks like the term is an oxymoron :)

Of course, you do explain a lot after this statement, but kindly allow me to
quote HH Chandrashekara Bharati Mahaswamiji on this, that I chanced upon
yesterday. The last two statements are in the context, but I quote all the paras
here for the sake of clarity:

//Quote

The nature of the object of worship necessarily depends on the nature of the
worshipper (ie. spiritual competency).

To one who cannot conceive of an enlivening soul, the upAsya (ie. the object
of devotion) is the physical idol. To one who declines to accept inert matter
as an act of worship, the upAsya is surya devatA. When even this concept
does not satisfy the devotee, the upAsya is hiraNyagarbha (ie. the being who
enlivens and ensouls the entire universe). When even such a concept seems
unsatisfactory, the devotee is told he is worshiping the supreme Lord himself.
When the devotee feels even this concept is limited, we tell him that it is the
infinite brahmaN itself that is really worshiped.

It is really the unqualified, formless, absolute brahmaN that is worshiped in
the sandhyA. The object of worship is ever one but its exact nature varies
with the competence of the worshiping aspirant.

//Unquote

gurorarpaNamastu,
--praveen
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
--Br.Up. 4.5.15 */