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Bhakti and Advaitic Realization - K N Subramanian |
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Understanding how a great Advaitic dialectician perceived bhakti |
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Bhakti is the soul of every religion and necessarily so of the Hindu religion. Many are the gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon and diverse are the modes of bhakti towards them. Yet, bhakti has not been rationally defined in a manner that applies equally to bhakti in relation to a god, in every religion. |
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Again, what is bhakti proper and what are the means to it? As in every sphere, the means usurp the place of ends and pass as ends. Further, what are the various levels of bhakti and what is the ultimate result that accrues from bhakti to oneself? What is its relation to Tatvajnana, Advaitic realization? These are very essential questions. |
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No Contradiction |
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Though we have vast bhakti literature and one finds information about these points scattered in them in a general way, these questions have not been specifically examined by anyone except Sri Madhusudana Sarasvati in his Bhakti Rasayanam. If the greatest advaitic dialectician finds it necessary to deal with bhakti in detail and harmonize it with advaita jnana, it is because he finds no contradiction between devotion to a personal god and knowledge of the impersonal Absolute. |
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In fact, it is not only that there is no contradiction between the two but they are related as means and end in the all inclusive vision of Madhusudana Sarasvati. Bhaktya Mam Abhijanati states Bhagavan in the Gita. In his introductory verses to Gudartha-dipika, commentary on Sri Bhagavad Gita, Madhusudana Sarasvati stresses the all-important role of bhakti. |
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