Adi Sankaracharya- the Voice of Vedanta by Sridevi Rao

Author:Sridevi Rao [Rao, Sridevi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788171678686
Publisher: Rupa & Co.
Published: 2003-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

The scriptures, and especially the Bhagvad Gita, talk of the three ways or margas to liberation as being that of bhakti (devotional worship), karma (work or duty) and jnana. Yet, the Advaitic ideal of non-action, which makes the all-important distinction between knowing and acting and therefore upholds jnana marga, seems to negate bhakti or karman as a means to liberation.

But Sankara does find a place for these disciplines within his framework. The disinterested or detached performance of one's duties (karman), meditation (dhyana), and devotional worship (bhakti) are all actions that help purity the mind and ignite a desire to know the Self.

Sankara saw true bhakti as selfless devotion and complete surrender of the empirical self to Brahman, its goal being the ultimate Realisation of the god that is worshipped as none other than the Self. Bhakti towards dualistic gods and goddesses would not, strictly speaking, find a place in the Advaitic tradition, but Sankara accepted it as a rudimentary beginning along the path of liberation. Dualistic bhakti would lead to mukti, or well-being in the relative world, while bhakti that is a total self-surrender to Brahman that is the Self leads to moksha or Absolute well-being. Dualistic bhakti, he said, would inevitably lead one to the non-dual bhakti of total self-surrender. Sankara therefore saw a process that begins with desire-less action and the purification of the mind with single-pointed devotion, and culminates in the 'action-less action' of meditation, which prepares the mind so that Self-knowledge may arise.

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