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

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 10:57 AM, V Subrahmanian
<v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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.


My view is based on Shankara's definition of Brahman being a repository of
all qualities in BSB 2.1.14. Quoting Shankara "* **'He who is called ether
is the revealer of all forms and names; that within which these forms and
names are contained is Brahman' (Kh. Up. VIII, 14, 1); 'Let me evolve names
and forms' (Kh. Up. VI, 3, 2); 'He, the wise one, who having divided all
forms and given all names, sits speaking (with those names)' (Taitt. Âr.
III, 12, 7); 'He who makes the one seed manifold' (Sve. Up. VI, l2).--Thus
the Lord depends (as Lord) upon the limiting adjuncts of name and form, the
products of Nescience;**" *
**
I am not saying that Brahman is a container of objects but that all objects
are present in Brahman as Brahman itself. So, it becomes correct to negate
all particularized objects in Brahman but not in the sense of Brahman being
Shunya or Void. It is like the mind where in all thoughts reside in an
undifferentiated form as the mind itself. But when we think of a lotus, the
particular thought of lotus becomes manifest. When we think of a golden
chariot, the particular thought of golden chariot becomes manifest in the
mind. The lotus and the golden chariot are in essence the mind only because
they have no substance apart from the substratum, which is the mind. They
are ever present in the mind in an undiffierentiated form as the mind
itself. Please let me know why this is incorrect.