[Advaita-l] Madhusudhana Saraswathi and Advaita.

[Satish Arigela]

> << Gaudapada's source of the concept of upasana is Upanishads, which has
> the
> term bhakti. Also, how can you do Upasana without Bhakti?>>


Why not!? Why do you need bhakti[I am specifically referring to the dancing and jumping kind propounded by bhakti mArga types] to perform upAsana?

I am aware of later day statements like "bhaktimAn upAsIta.. etc etc" But that is what they are i.e. later day statements.

I have personally have seen upAsaka-s who have reached great heights... and they are not the bhakti-type people. They have a rather neutral attitude towards bhakti mArga or in some extreme cases they just laugh at all this bhakti stuff...especially the display and bhakti emotions.


There is another opinion. It is true that there cannot be upAsana without bhakti...but what is bhakti? **"manave aNavaH bhaktiH..." i.e. the indivisible fragments of a manu i.e. mantra are called bhakti-s. Like for example the words hili hili etc that can be found in some very ancient vaiShNava mantra-s. So here the word fragment "hili" is called bhakti. Since mantra japa is a very important part of upAsana and since mantra-s are comprised of bhakti-s, upAsana with out bhakti is not possible. 


bhakti here does not mean jumping and dancing saying a name or anything to do with the emotional display of love towards some anthropomorphic form. This kind of stuff sounds more like something the Christians would do.. along with the belief that one would go to an imaginary loka after death.


** I quote this memory.. so the grammar could be wrong.. but you get the drift I am sure.





________________________________
 From: Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 3:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Madhusudhana Saraswathi and Advaita.
 
On 26 February 2012 15:09, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>wrote:

> << Gaudapada's source of the concept of upasana is Upanishads, which has
> the
> term bhakti. Also, how can you do Upasana without Bhakti?>>
>


It must be understood that upAsana is a broad term that includes may
different kinds of sAdhana. Conventional bhakti, in the sense of an
intensely personal relationship with an anthropomorphic deity, may or not
be an element of upAsana. In particular, there are many kinds of
mantra-based upAsana where the emphasis is on the correct process and
application of the mantra, rather than what may be more conventionally
recognized as bhakti-bhAva.

The presence or otherwise of bhakti in the upaniShat-s is not a
straightforward matter. Most neutral observers, as well as many traditional
AchArya-s, would agree that the upaniShat-s (as well as the shruti in
general) place a much lesser emphasis on bhakti than some of the purANa-s
(such as the bhAgavatam) do.
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