[Advaita-l] (Advaita) Bhakti vs. Jnana

[Shyam]

Pranams Sri Ramesh
I do not necessarily disagree with you, but want to raise a couple of points just to ponder over....

Instead of asking whence is bhakti directed towards - atma or anatma, why dont we turn the question around and ask whence is its souce? is bhakti's locus in the atma or the anatma - aka Ego. In other words is it the Ahamkara where the tender sapling of ananya Vasudeva bhakti first germinates? Is fondness for a ishtadevata in the form of ananya bhakti a differential construct from say a fondness for ras malai? Is the fulfilment souught by a exalted bhakta like Prahlada an attempt to seek .."fulfilment from anatma"? No doubt Dikshitar's "brahmani manasa sanchara re" sets sights on the lofty peaks of Atman, but does Tyagaraja's yearn "Ela Ni Dayaradhu" directed towards the Anatman? 

Hari OM
Shri Gurubhyoh namah
Shyam

--- On Tue, 8/9/11, Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] (Advaita) Bhakti vs. Jnana
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 12:01 PM
> Now, coming to bhakti, instead of listing out its various
> meanings,
> conventional as well as unconventional, and then addressing
> each such usage,
> the proponents of bhakti should just answer one question.
> 
> Is bhakti towards AtmA or towards anAtmA?
> 
> If it is towards AtmA, then it is no different from j~nAna
> (i.e. Atmaj~nAna)
> and hence there is no question of bhakti being a distinct
> path.
> 
> If it is towards anAtmA, then such bhakti (like karma) is
> born out of avidyA
> and cannot be a direct means to mukti. At best, it can be a
> temporary
> solution.
> Any
> other bhakti that
> falls short of this is only an attempt to seek fulfilment
> from anAtmA, which
> is bound to fail at some point, and can at best be a
> temporary solution.
> seeking solace in
> anAtmA can, at
> best, be a temporary solution.
>