[Advaita-l] Which is better: Devotion or Self-realisation

[Amuthan Arunkumar R]

--- Aditya Varun Chadha <adichad at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Devotion is just another karma like breathing. Just
> as breathing keeps
> us alive to work towards Self realization, so does
> devotion help us in
> the same cause. Upon realization mAyA does not cease
> to exist in the
> global sense. Only the jIvanmukta's earlier ego
> (illusion of a self
> seperate from brahman) is extinguished. What happens
> is that upon
> realization, devotion (just like breathing) becomes
> a mechanical
> karma, and the jIvanmukta may continue it or stop
> it, yet there is no
> good reason to stop devotion (or breathing), so its
> continuance is a
> form of inertia (what is in motion stays in motion).
> 

where did you find this explanation? i think it is not
correct. bhakti is NOT some form of karma (though we
aj~nAni-s often mistake it to be so). it is more
related to our own svarUpa (...svasvarUpAnusandhAnaM
bhaktirityabhidhIyate). consider shruti-s like 'raso
vai saH. rasagm hyevAyaM labdhvAnandI bhavati' (tai.
up.). the bhakti that jIvanmukta-s do is the same as
being established in brahman. shrImadbhAgavatam
clearly brings out this in the shloka 'AtmArAmAshcha
munayo nirgranthA apyurukrame. kurvantahaitukIM
bhaktimitthaM bhUtaguNo hariH..'

amuthan.

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