[Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma

[Vishy]

Dear Bhasker prabhuji
 
Hare krishna
 
Let me put down my little understanding I this regard.....
 
Whatever we do the basic purpose behind any of these actions is to attain Moksha or Nirvana. To acheive this the ultimate thing is completely dropping the mind (Manas) and there by the false ' I ' that is ego.
This can be attained in four different routes  Jnana, Dhyana, Bhakti and Karma and it all depend on the mturity of a person that has been attained are carried over from previous births. Certainly you cant say one is superior and other is inferior, but you can say which is faster compared to others and as I said people cant justchoose this route just because its faster as it depends on the already carried maturity
 
First is Jnana marga....  Just by lisetening to right kind of spoken words are by reading right kind of scriptures, one understands the truth in a flash of a movement and conciously and voluntarily drops the Ego (I) and attains. Best example is King Janaka exploding just by listening Astawakra. This is sure the fastest way but as I said the maturity matters.... if u r ready to explode fully just a spark is good enough
 
Next is Dhyana....  Despite reading and hearing, certain persons just can only understand the truth and can't explode as in the first case...little bit seasoning is required to make them explode...so they sit and meditate and what they understood.Here they look indide.This continuous dhyana would lead to dropping of ego at some point of time. .This is the second fastest route.  Raman maharishi kind of greats are exapmle for this route
 
Third is Bhakti.....   Just as in ths second people who have theoritically understood the truth takes the route of contemplation. They instead of going inner, mentally project the ultimate consciouness in form of God Almighty and attempt to surrender continuously 
This could be by the way of nama japa, keerthans, bhajans, poojas ... It may take a bit longer time as unconditional surrender is not all that easy as said. Only persons like Meera/ bhakata khumabara/ kannappa
 
Finally the Karma route....  This the route for the present day man who has so much of obligations to fulfill and to fulfill had immersed himself completely in this material warld.
He would just be doing his work, but if he can do the same without putting himself in the front, without attachmanets and desires and not by expecting the results while doing the work....probably the work it self would sail him thru...  (you know waht they say in kannada - Kayakave Kailasa).  If one  feel strong I (as a Brahmin) and his obligations are to do your Nitya / Naimitya karmas....   than one should just keep discahrging them for the dute sake. It would ceratinly take very long time for the I (ego) to dissappea in this route.
 
 
These routes need not be excusive alternates to one another, but depending on ur maturity and the present conditions we can make a right kind of mixture to address our illness. But this mixture, at times could lead one to side effect of vicious circles of non clarity.
 
 
Hare krishna and Pranams
 
Vishy
 
 
 
 
 


--- On Tue, 14/10/08, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

From: Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Meditation Vs nitya karma
To: advaitin at yahoogroups.com, "Advaita-L" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Tuesday, 14 October, 2008, 6:03 PM


praNAms
Hare Krishna

I need clarification from learned prabhuji-s of this forum...Can spiritual
practices like meditation, bhajans, nAma saMkeertan, japa be the substitute
for our veda vihita nitya & naimittika karma-s like sadhyA vandana, agni
kArya, dEvatArchana, vrata, hOma, havana etc.??  I have seen some people,
giving  utmost importance to do japa, bhajans, nama saMkeertana and while
doing the  veda vihita sandhya vandana, devatArchana, abhishekaM etc. they
do the same only for  formalities sake & sometimes due to short of time
&
to do scheduled  bhajans, saMkeertana,  they are ready to skip
pUja/abhishekam  part of their programme!!  Is this type of spiritual
practice  acceptable??  I was talking to one of the devotees of brahma
chaitanya maharaj ( popularly known as Gondavali Maharaj), he was saying
after all we are observing/following these spiritual practices for the sake
of self agrandizement/chitta shuddhi..what is the problem if it is done in
one way or the other??  He continued to argue & said, moreover, in
sadhana-s like japa, dhyAna, nAma saMkeertana etc.  mind is more focussed,
still & gets the peace very quickly  when compared to routine, monotonous
sandhya & devatArchana...However, he does not have any objection to follow
periodical pitru tarpaNa, shrAddha etc. in the form of pitru R^Na.  This
discussion is stopped abruptly in the midway due to some reason..In short,
his intention was to say that he has very limited period of time  for his
spiritual practice, & he would prefer to spend that time in doing
meditation, japa etc. instead of sandhya, agnikArya, devatArchana..coz. his
contention is  that later sadhana-s do require lot of kriya (action),
parikara/pAtrAsAdhana/pUjA dravya  & preparation time  !!??

IMHO, being a vaidika brAhmaNa one should first give preference to observe
his nitya & naimittika karma & other adhyAtmik sadhana-s like nAma
saMkeertana, bhajans, japa etc. can be done as an additional part if time
permits...I dont prefer to do japa/ meditation directly without observing
saMdhyAvandana formalities.

Kindly share your view points on this issue.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar
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