[Advaita-l] Eternal Loka

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Vidyasankarji,

If my memory serves me right the Bhakti Ratnavali of Vishnupuri Sanyashi starts with a verse saying that he bows to the bhakta, who is not even interested in Moksha. However the Sveshvara-Sankhya of Kapila clearly says that it is not at all wise to refuse to be liberated. Bhedabheda will, of course end up in Bheda.


In 1973 it was observed that two captive girl bank-employees started loving the captivity and fell in love with their captors (bank-robbers) and defended the latter and even got engaged to them later. This behaviour came to  be known as the Stockholm syndrome. When even the Stockholm syndrome is possible, why is it then not possible for the bhaktas to prefer to serve the Lord, instead of desiring liberation?

Regards,
Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
To: Advaita List <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Eternal Loka
 

> 
> SBh says that a pure devotee does not want moksha. If you are a devotee and blissful, why would you want a state where the loving relationship between the lord and a devotee as in say Rama and Hanuman does not exist anymore? 
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
> 

Dear Rajaram,

If you are serious about sAdhana at a personal level, I think it is high time you took
a hard look at where your heart lies. Decide what your path is accordingly. "A pure
devotee does not want moksha" - where are you getting this from in the bhAgavata
purANa? It seems to me that your comment is based on an English translation (by
American followers) of Sri Prabhupada's interpretation of that purANa. 

Sri Subrahmanian has been more than patient in addressing your questions logically.
On the other hand, it is increasingly clear that what you want is not a logical answer
but an emotional one. Why would you want one state or the other? Unfortunately for
emotion, the state of moksha is not something that you can pick and choose as per
your wants. It just is.

brahmAtmajnAna is neutral to the emotions of human beings, even when these
emotions are directed towards profound tattva-s. It does not change to satisfy the
longings of this or the other person. Conversely, so long as there is a longing for
one thing or the other, there is no real interest in brahmAtmajnAna.

If it is extremely important to a person who wants to be a bhakta that he or she
should always maintain bheda-bhAva so as to have a relationship with bhagavAn,
then that person is completely ill-suited to a philosophy that is based on abheda,
that puts abheda at its center and points to abheda as its goal. bhedAbheda is not
a legitimate way out of this dilemma, no matter how acintya it is said to be. At
some point in time, logic places an inexorable demand on the human mind. It
forces anyone inclined to bhedAbheda to choose whether it is bheda or abheda
that is really being upheld. The choice is yours. 

Regards,
Vidyasankar
                                             
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