[Advaita-l] How many margas for mukti

[Sujal Upadhyay]

Namaste Sri Kriya ji,

Somewhere MadhusUdan sarasvatI in his gItA commentary has said that since
karma and Jnana are opposite, the intermediate step is bhakti. The bhakti
of smArta / Advaita is different than pure bhakti movements like vaiShNava
bhakti. In smArta, after one is sufficiently matured, one drops form and
contemplates on nirguNa Brhaman. In vaiShNava bhakti, one does not even
want moksha, but keep worshiping his IshTa devatA. One wants to constantly
serve and be in intimate relationship with IshTa devatA.

Neither karma, nor advaita bhakti can be done without bhakti. So bhakti
accompnies them both. In karma kANDa, there is devotion to upAsya deva and
in advaita bhakti is done with abheda bhAva with SAnta bhAva.

Hari OM

OM

Sujal Upadhyay

"To disconnect from the self and to become Aware of anything else is
nothing but unhappiness" - Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi

He who has faith has all
He who lacks faith, lacks all
It is the faith int he name of lord that works wonders
FAITH IS LIFE, DOUBT IS DEATH - Sri Ramakrishna

On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 12:08 PM, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> ‎Namaste Nithin,
>
> Thanks for sharing the article. All the verses you quoted were great. I
> understand abheda bhakti as samadhi. To attain samadhi, one needs jnana. So
> bhakti leads up to jnana. I think you have already mentioned this in your
> article.
>
> So in that case, bhakti is not a third path, as in, bhakti without jnana.
> Jnana is essential f‎or mukti.
>
> Regards
> Kripa‎
>
> ----
> Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave
> Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha‎‎
> ‎
>   Original Message
> From: Nithin Sridhar
> Sent: Monday 19 September 2016 7:07 AM
> To: Kripa Shankar; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] How many margas for mukti
>
> Dear Kripa ji,
>
> This article, which I had written few years ago may partially address your
> questions- http://nithinsridhar.blogspot.in/2012/11/the-two-stages-of-
> devotion.html
>
> Regards,
> Nithin
>
> On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 11:27 PM, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> ‎Namaste,
>
> Delighted to be part of the group. I have many doubts regarding Advaita
> not because I couldn't comprehend the philosophy taught by Adi
> Shankaracharya but because there are apparent contradictions in the current
> practice. Because of whatever dosha, there is ignorance in abundance in the
> form of samshaya. Hence my query.
>
> I had the fortune of studying the siddhanta in detail from a relatively
> old book called samyagdarshana (in Kannada lang). In it, there was an
> introduction by an eminent author Narasimha Sharma. He was a courtesan of
> the Mysore Maharaja and was associated with Sringeri Mutt. He writes that
> there are only two margas to mukti, one is jnana and the other is Karma.
> There is not a third one. Even Krishna says - Lokesmin Dvividha Nishta pura
> prokta mayanagha, jnana yogena sankhyanam karma yogena yoginam.
>
> But we have a third one which is quite popular these days and supposedly
> the easiest route! It is called the bhakti marga. Neither Shankara nor any
> other scriptures mention this. ‎What entails bhakti marga? Is it listening
> to carnatic (or hindustani) music on YouTube or anything more? What is the
> means and end goal of this marga? Or is it another departure from the
> tradition? Is it again, viewed as a Renaissance against the Vedic
> hierarchy? If it is, do you see it as an assault against the Vedas? Because
> bhakti marga emphasises more on regional language and Sanskrit is mostly
> neglected.
>
> Regards
> Kripa
>
> ----
> Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave
> Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha
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> --
> Nithin S
>
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