[Advaita-l] Ramana's method

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

Bhakti is easily confused by many as it has different forms. In fact the Bhagavatad tells us about Navadha bhakti. 


In short the Bhakti of the Dvaitin is like the yearning of the servant to be near his or her  protector, the benevolent divine Master. The Bhakti of the Visishtadvaitin is like the desire of the offspring to be near  the divine parent. However the bhakti of the Advaitin is the desire to shed the darkness so as to be able to realize the truth of one's own Self. The Dvaitins and the  Vishishtadvains thinks of the Bhakti of the Advaitins as no Bhakti at all.

That is why it is not proper to equate the Bhakti of the Advain with the Bhakti of the others.

Regards,
Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: vinayaka ns <brahmavadin at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 10:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Ramana's method
 
On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Sanjay Srivastava <sksrivastava68 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> > nidhidhyAsana is the most important sAkshAt sAdhanA in the tradition. The
> > following remark of Kanchi Maha SwamigaL makes it clear:
> >
> > "Remember our Acharya is one who gave the noblest status to the hearing
> > (shravaNa) of the teaching from the guru. If the same Acharya says "Let
> it
> > be understood that mananaM is a hundred times greater than shravaNaM".
> > *shataguNaM vidyAn-mananaM*, then at how really a high level should
> > shravaNaM be counted? And he doesn't stop there. If mananaM is a hundred
> > times greater than shravaNaM, he says nidhidhyAsanaM is a
> hundred-thousand
> > times greater than mananaM:
>
> Viewed from this perspective it can be said that Sri Bhagwan only
> restored the relative importance of shravaNa, manana and nididhyAsana
> in self enquiry and brought it in line with tradition.
>

============================================

Namaste,

This approach is not something alien to the tradition; rather it is the
most important part of sAdhanA. Here are the words of Swami Chandrashekara
Bharati of Sringeri:

Among the material aids for achieving moksha, bhakti is the greatest.
Continuous contemplation of one's essential nature (svarUpa) is said to be
bhakti. (VC 33)

By svasvarUpAnusandhAna contemplation on one's essential nature,
nididhyAsana (profound repeated meditation) is meant. That alone can serve
as the immediate means to direct realisation. The continuous contemplation
of the shruti text and the upadesha of the guru: sa AtmA tattvamasi ( that
is the Atman; That thou art): " Thy essential nature is Brahman; thou art
That only", is the indespensable means (asAdhAraNa kAraNa) of such
realisation. This contemplation (anusandhAna) is of the form of the
exclusion of contrary ideas and is marked by a continuous flow of accordant
ideas. shama etc., are the cause of jnAna mediated by vichAra and
nididhyAsana . But nididhyAsana is the immediate cause for it. Because it
produces direct realisation, it is said to be the greatest among sAdhanAs
that make for jnAna which is revelatory of one's true nature which is
synonymous with moksha....

Best Wishes,

Vinayaka
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