[Advaita-l] Bhakti and Jnana

[Muralidhar]

Dear Gopal ji, what a beautiful example of mango slices... the sweetest of one I ever heard! I bow to you for bringing these lines :)

Gopal <gopal.gopinath at gmail.com> wrote:

>>May I request the learned readers to give their opinion on the origin of
>the word "Bhakti" and its marning in relation to Vedanta.
>
>I am not learned in the sense you mean but I could read and type. So I am
>typing a few sentences uttered by Sri Ramakrishna in the Gospel compiled by
>M.
>
>(pub. 2000: Gospel of RK, pg. 283)
>
>In the same state he said, addressing the devotees:"That which is Brahman
>is verily Shakti. I address That, again, as the Mother. I call it Brahman
>when It is inactive, and Shakti when It creates, preserves, and destroys.
>It is like water, sometimes still and sometimes covered with waves. The
>Incarnation of God is a part of the leelaa of Shakti. The purpose of the
>Divine Incarnation is to teach man ecstatic love for God. The Incarnation
>is like the udder of the cow, the only place milk is to be got. God
>incarnates Himself as man. There is a great accumulation of divinity in a
>Incarnation, like the accumulation of fish in a deep hollow in a lake".
>
>For the past week or two, I have been following the passionate arguments
>against bhakti in the world of advaitic jnAna.  For many great souls like
>Sri Ramakrishna, bhakti and jnAna have been like two slices of a mango. At
>any given time, they had found Ananda with just one of the slices.
>Obviously they did not waste time arguing about the merits of either of the
>slices.  Hopefully in the week of Sri Ramakrishna's Jayanthi, I sincerely
>pray we find peace before it is too late.
>It is also pertinent to note that Sri Ramakrishna did not decide who would
>and who would not get Sayujya mukti or other types of mukti.
>
>-gopal
>
>
>On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 5:49 PM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
>sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> May I request the learned readers to give their opinion on the origin of
>> the word "Bhakti" and its marning in relation to Vedanta.
>>
>>
>> Bhakti, as I understand, comes from the root "Bhaj", which means to
>> divide. Bhakta is the divided state. Bhakta recognizes the division from
>> whom he has got divided and relish the division. Bhakta to me always wants
>> to be near that from whom it got divided but not to lose the "Bhakta"
>> identity. Hanuman being a Jnani, he alone among those present near Lord
>> Ram, deserved  the grace of Lord Ram  in the form of Sayujya mukti. However
>> Hanuman preferred to stay divided, ie. as a Bhakta and refused to accept
>> the Sayujya Mukti from the Lord. The Jnanis alone are offered the Sayujya
>> Mukti.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
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