[Advaita-l] Examples of bhakti rasa realization by Advaitins

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 3:08 PM, Rajaram Venkataramani <
rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

>  In my view, Brahman is a respository of all
> qualties in an undifferentiated form, which is what makes It attributeless.
> If a person is tall and short, he cannot be called either or both or
> neither. So, bhakti rasa that we see in this world is a particularized
> expression of Brahman and is present in a generalized state of
> non-expression in Brahman. I would like to know what the scholars on this
> forum think.
>


It is sad that Ramana, much earlier to his 'death experience', even as a
small boy, was enamoured by the Four Tamil Saints: Appar, etc.  He was
greatly inspired by the PeriyapuraNam and would stand in front of Shiva in
the Temple and pray for the devotion that the Four had.

In Advaita Brahman is not admitted to be of the type described above.  It is
only in the realm of Maya does even a Jnani experience and express the
various bhAvas/rasas.  Since the body/mind remains over for the Jnani only
in the realm of the force of the original mAyA-produced prArabdha, all such
bhAva-s obtain only in that realm.  In pure Brahman state, for example,
experienced by a Jnani adept in samaadhi, there is no room for any of the
bhAva-s.  It is only in the non-samadhi states does he experience and
express such bhAvas, that too, those that he has practiced earlier or even
later.  Advaita does not admit of anything present in Brahman.  The Lord
Himself denies the presence of anything in Him in the BG 9th chapter - 'na
cha matsthAni bhUtAni'.  All the rasas/bhavas are manifestations of the
combination of sattva, rajas and tamas which are elements of maya.  On the
death of the Jnani the functioning of maya in his life ceases and no more is
any possibility of these bhavas manifesting.  Even the case of AdhikArika
puruShas is one coming within the realm of prArabdha alone.  That is why in
the BSB Shankara says that on the exhaustion of all that karma the Jnani is
freed of even the AdhikArika upAdhi.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v