Here, Durgadas discusses how Bhakti or devotion is also a central theme of the Advaita Vedanta tradition and also for attaining Jnana.

BHAKTI AND JNANA:

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By Durgadas, Ved Kovid
 

I often see people in the West getting confused over Bhakti and Jnana. In Advaita, Bhakti is the starting-point and Jnana is the end point. All Jnanis from Yajnavalkya to Shankara to Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharishi all started out as bhaktas.

Today, people think they can jump from the Vital human states to Jnana straightaway! The difference in Advaita is that one doesn't remain in Bhakti-bhava, but cultivates love towards the Ishta which transforms into the Atmaguru and leads one towards the pursuit of Jnana internally.

All Shankaracharyas are also bhaktas. Shankara himself composed Bhakti-works such as Saundarya Lahiri, Bhaja-Govindam and his Stotras to the Devatas.

He also had numerous darshanas or visions of the Deities also and received their blessings. He didn't go simply straight to the Self.

For Sri Ramakrishna, it was also Kali who lead him to the Supreme Realisation, but even after, he still remained a devotee of Kali, seeing himself as her child.

Movements that are more impersonal and didn't use images, such as some in the Sant Maths as well as later Sikhs, Arya Samaj etc. also had a great devotion to the Formless Brahman, and hence bhakti forms a part for them also.

Neo-Vedantins today think sitting down and repeating "Aham Brahmasmi" as a mental exercise is Jnana Yoga. Yet even Shankaracharya warns that after Atmajnana, the prarabdha remains, and one must live that out. For him, this was creating temples and restoring Vedic ritualism and traditions as his Karma-Yoga for unfolding his prarabdha. For Ramana Maharishi, it was being a Guru or teacher - but he himself stated that this was his alone - others shouldn't imitate his example as all is dictated by the prarabdha of the person - the Jnanis merely watches his life unfold.

In Advaita, we also have the avatars of Vishnu and Shiva. Shankaracharya himself is seen as Shiva's avatar, which forms an integral part of Bhakti, as do the Puranas.

Sri Ramana Maharishi, the greatest Vedantin in modern times of the Advaita tradition emphasised bhakti-Yoga as an important aspect of Atma-vichara or Self-enquiry, of which include Atma-Bhakti, Ishvara-Bhakti, Ishta-Devata Bhakti and Guru-Bhakti.

Ramana Maharishi himself as a devotee of Shiva as Mount Arunachala and was seen by his own devotees as an avatar of Skanda or Dakshinamurthi.

The Shanmata traditions or six deities of Advaita was also popularised by Shankaracharya, where one takes an Ishta devata or chosen deity - Shiva, Vishnu, Goddess, Kumara, Surya or Ganapati. Smartism of Shankara also accepts Saguna and Nirguna and were great upholders of the Puranas and Shankara instituted the Panchayatana Puja tradition to the Deities - all of which form a part of the Bhakti towards the Saguna Brahman (Bhakti marga), before one arrives at the Nirguna Brahman (Jnana marga).

The Udasis through Nanak Chand in the North themselves go back to the Advaita of Shankaracharya and also have the Panchayatana Pujas etc. also, although appearing as Jnanis.

Bhakti and Jnana hence go together in Advaita, as there isn't simply Nirguna Brahman - which is the highest goal, but Saguna and Nirguna together as two aspects of the same Brahman, the integral point of the Advaita philosophy, which again brings in Bhakti or Saguna Brahman and eventually one migrates towards the Nirguna Brahman and attains Jnana.

The Rig Veda is also a Bhakti-texts by the hymns and also has an Advaita theology underlying it as the Upanishads with the One Reality or Truth that assumes the various names of the Gods or their forms (RV, I.164.46, II.1). This is the Nirguna (Ekam Sat) and Saguna (Agni, Mitra, Matarishvan, Yama etc.) Brahman of Advaita.

The modern neo-Vedantins or pseudo-Vedantin scholars hence try and imitate our traditions without knowing much about them, nor about how these systems work. They equate Jnana with the highest path on one side and the Bhakti on the other.

The forget that the Dvaita (dualistic) Vedanta which emphasises bhakti is quite different. But there is also the Shuddha Advaita or pure Advaita tradition of Vallabha that is also very Bhakti in tone also, as well as the schools of Ramanuja and Nimbarkacharya, the latter who developed the school of Dvaitadvaita, reconciling Dualism and Non-Dualism.

Then there is the Shaivite Ishvaradvaitavada and Saiva Siddhanta schools that have their own Advaita philosophies also and have a central devotion to Shiva, who is both formed and formless. Bhakti forms an Integral part of their Advaita also.

We must understand the traditions in India and also the importance and place of Bhakti even in Advaita traditions, as the Jnanashakti itself is a power of the goddess and like the Vivekashakti and Iccha-shakti, comes only through her grace alone, or that of the Ishta, which all have their Shaktis-personified as their consorts.

Even in Vaishnavism, we have Lakshmi-Narayana and Radha-Krishna. We have the Linga-Yoni and in the Vedas the Agni-Soma. Shiva and Shakti go together as Nirguna and Saguna, as Paramatman and Parashakti or Atman and Maya, Jnana and Bhakti.

We cannot have one without the other. Just as we need to ascend through the stages of prithivi, jala, agni and vayu to get to akasha, so also we require Bhakti in order to gain Jnana, or it is like transforming something gross (prithivi mahabhuta) directly into something ethereal, without the process of transformation or reverse-transmutation.

So also, before Jnana can be gained, we require Bhakti in order to purify the mind, as also applications such as yajna, pooja, mantra etc. that form a part of it in order to do so, as also in Hatha-Yoga, the use of these and dhyanas, pranayamas etc. help purify the mind and body - which are preliminary, but still necessary stages for the transformation of the body and mind, and readying it for higher yogas such as Jnana-Yoga, that come later itself and all fit in within the greater Raja-Yoga path of the Vedas, in which Bhakti-Yoga is a lesser-limb and Jnana-Yoga is a higher-limb.

Only a few were born that were able to go directly to Jnana, but even they started off with bhakti also and went through the stages. These Yogis had done these stages in previous lives and were reborn with strong Yogi samskaras and in traditional families or communities so that they could hold their Jnana. It is not simply as easy as others imitating them with lesser cultural and Yogic samskaras!

If one also is a true Jnani, one will also see no difference between Bhakti and Jnana, as both melt together. Only in the realm of the Ahamkara or Ego, which projects by it's power the arrogance, does one behold differences.

Para-Bhakti as in the case of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Chaitanya, where one physically merges their consciousness with the Deity is also the same stage of the Jnani in Advaita also, and is different from the Dvaita-Bhakti or dualistic-bhakti and blind-bhakti of other movements, which are more Vaishnava-centered, and of which - as noted, Vaishnavism itself has Advaita Vaishnavism or Smarta Vaishnavas of Shankaracharya as also the Shuddha Advaita or pure-Advaita of Vallabhacharya- the latter which emphasises the worship of Krishna and has a Gokula-like realisation, not simply merges in the Nirguna Brahman without form as in Shankara's Advaita.

So, some also had devotion to form and some also to the formless in some Advaita traditions also. Lingayata Shaivism also emphasises voidness and yet was devoted to Shiva and the wearing and worship of the Shivalinga as a symbol of Shiva. For them - Bhakti is also the first of their six-stages of Aikya or oneness with Shiva, or ultimate Jnana!

The Nayanar Shaivites of the South were also Shaivite Bhakti-Saints, forming a part of the Advaita Saiva Siddhanta tradition of Tirmular and again Bhakti is important here also to gain the grace of Shiva before one can attain Atmajnana or Moksha.

The idea that we can dispense with Bhakti then is largely a non-traditional belief and doctrine so far as all Advaita traditions are concerned, and certainly that of Shankaracharya. While some of the the Advaitin Sannyasis gave up bhakti, we note that did follow these in their initial stages - but sannyasa is also a stage where one gives up all attachments, yet many still remained bhaktas of Shiva, Shakti or Vishnu in some manner regardless.

 Just as the Ocean has a mixture of Salt and Water, so also Bhakti and Jnana remain integral aspects of the same path as the starting and end-points and must compliment each other. We can go beyond Bhakti to Jnana, but we cannot go directly to Jnana or we end up in an intellectual Jnana like Buddhism or in the buddhi - which rejects the notion of the Ishvara or Saguna-Brahman, which is the fundamental key of all Vedanta philosophies and theistic Samkhya which requires Bhakti to attain.