[Advaita-l] How many margas for mukti

[Kripa Shankar]

‎Namaste  Sujal,

Thanks for sharing this. You said it, devotion mixed with knowledge. Now that I come to think of it, bhakti marga was perhaps popularised by Vaishnava movement as you mentioned. ‎

‎Regards 
Kripa 
‎
----
Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave
Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha‎‎‎
‎

  Original Message  
From: Sujal Upadhyay
Sent: Monday 19 September 2016 12:27 PM
To: Kripa Shankar; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Cc: Nithin Sridhar
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] How many margas for mukti


Namaste,

*Somewhere MadhusUdan sarasvatI in his gItA commentary has said that since karma and Jnana are opposite, the intermediate step is bhakti.

It is in intro of gItA commentary 

 5. Here (in the Gītā) each section of six (chapters) should be understood as referring to one part (of the Veda-s). Karma, i.e. Steadfastness in Action (rites and duties) and Jñāna i.e. steadfast in Knowledge are taught in the first and the last (sections).

6. Since the two cannot be combined because of their extreme opposition, therefore bhakti i.e. steadfastness in devotion to the Lord has been declared in the middle.

7. As that devotion is inherent in both of them, therefore it removes all the obstacles. That (devotion) is of three kinds – mixed with rites, pure, and mixed with Knowledge.

Source: https://indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/2016/07/intro-of-madhusudana-sarasvatis.html



OM


On Mon, Sep 19, 2016 at 12:23 PM, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com> wrote:
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