[Advaita-l] devotion in advaita?

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2012, Suresh wrote:

> What's the role of devotion in advaita? Is it necessary at all, or is 
> meditation on 'I am' the only sadhana that matters? I can understand 
> dualistic traditions emphasizing bhakti, but what are we to do as 
> advaitins? It further confuses me that Sankara, Madhusudhana, and many 
> others were devotees.
>

> Regards,

As you point out, the great acharyas of Advaita Vedanta were also bhaktas.
So that should be a big clue as to what matters.

Contrary to what some people suppose, Advaitins do not simply commandeer 
dvaita traditions of bhakti and add an extra layer on top, we have our own 
system.

> I just can't wrap my head around this bhakti concept, how it'd help us
> in realization, so some insights would be appreciated.
>

"I am." such simple words but so full of implications.  Who is "I"?  What
does it mean to be?  We have inklings of these ideas.  For instance do
parents have ahamkara when the safety of their children is at stake?  The
idea of bhakti is to extrapolate and universalize these ideas.  Thus it is
the foundation of any type of Advaitic sadhana.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>