[Advaita-l] namo namah: and some questions

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, Sanskrit Beginner wrote:

> > > The third question is bhakti: Can two peoples' bhakti be
> > > compared, measured, and contrasted as better/worse etc.
> >
> > Yes.
>
>  Can you please elaborate? How does one know, measure and
> differentiate?

We had a discussion a while back about the verses of the Gita where the
three types of bhakti are described.

When one worships out of fear that God will do bad things to you if you
don't that is the worst, tamasika kind of bhakti.

When one worships as a kind of bargain that if you do good things for God,
he will do things for you in return such as give wealth, heaven etc. that
is middling rajasika bhakti.

when one worships purely out of a sense of duty and love of God without
caring about the results that is Sattvika Bhakti.

And when one realizes that the Lord the self of all pervades ones own self
that is jnana which is the highest bhakti.

> How can one progress in that path? In the
> internet age, with daily traffic congestions, associating with
> satsangha is practically impossible. What's the next best? An
> internet forum? I find bhakti to be too much of a
> temperamental thing to be got from or discussed in an
> impersonal medium such as the internet.

The internet is good for factual information (and that not all the time!)
it is not a substitute for satsang.  as for how impossible satang may be,
it depends on how badly you want it.

>  How do list members here deal with it? (more an open question
> here than a survey :))
>  If the process of spiritual deveopment is threefold (karma,
> bhakti, gyana), how does one proceed on the bhakti aspect?
> Karma is either you do it on your own, or don't and gyana (or
> pursuit thereof) is reading material and clarifications on
> lists such as this .... what about bhakti?

Both karma and jnana are ultimately about bhakti.  This is why there is
no seperate bhaktikanda to the shastras like karmakanda and jnanakanda.
Bhakti is about your attitude to karma and jnana really.

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