Skip to main content

Bhakti


According to Swami Vivekananda, "Bhakti without Vedanta is superstition and Vedanta without Bhakti is madness!". So what is this Bhakti without which the pursuit of Vedanta becomes madness?

True Bhakti is just surrendering with all your heart.

It’s probably easier to comprehend this in the context of thoughts and actions aimed within Maya. For such goals, we all know it is difficult to succeed unless your mind as well as heart is set on the goal. Of course, pursuing the goals of the lower nature that are trapped within Maya makes your mind more agitated and excited rather than calm and serene. But nevertheless once your heart is in it you have a higher probability of success.

The exact same principle applies to the higher goals as well. However, for higher goals where the goal itself is difficult to envision using our senses, where contemplation is the tool and selfless actions is the path, the question then becomes surrender to what? Which is probably where worship of the Ishwara (Gods that your mind can imagine or the imaginary-Gods) help as they, being manifestations within Maya, are more comprehendible yet being a common or shared entity (not an individual property like my-wife, my-child, my-self, my-...) reduce the "I-ness" in the pursuit of the ultimate jnana.

Surrendering with all your heart to that which you cannot comprehend, where your intellect alone cannot reach, where science ends and philosophy starts is true Bhakti. And unless you truly surrender, intellectual contemplation (jnana yoga) or selfless actions (karma yoga) will not be effective.

Whatever is easy for you to surrender to - an Iswara or a person who in your mind is of a higher nature or the incredible play of nature or the higher goal in its very abstract form - is a personal choice as long as the goal is the true understanding or self-realization. This Bhakti will help you reach your higher goal using contemplation (thought experiments, extrapolation and self-inquiry) and selfless actions.

Popular posts from this blog

Why chase permanent bliss?

Advaita says that going beyond Maya will bring you to the state of permanent bliss where you realize that all that you see in Maya is “un-real”. You can reach this state of “super-consciousness” or Nirvana by several means of merging the “I” with the “non-I” (see Super-consciousness ) and then you truly understand the world of Maya and its triviality. But here’s an obvious question: Why should I put in the effort to go beyond Maya? Why should I chase that state of personal bliss? Is it not a selfish act to try and escape the world of Maya to move into a state where you deem the real-world issues as trivial or “un-real”?

True understanding

Trying to understand the philosophical aspect of Advaita stimulates your intellect. But true understanding has to come from your Inner Self which is subtler than your intellect. Before any idea can be truly understood, it has to pass the various aspects of your being. Your senses have to be able to first perceive and identify the idea. Then your mind has to have enough focus to start developing an interest in that idea. The idea then has to go past the gates of your rational intellect. Only once it is accepted by your intellect can you truly surrender to it and only this pure surrender can bring the idea into your inner self.

Vedantic philosophies...

A very simple way to look at some of the philosophies... Dvaita    I am the wave, you are the ocean. The body, mind and intellect is separate from the objects it perceives. This separation of the perceived from the perceiver is Dvaita.  Vishishtadvaita   I, the wave, am but a part of you the ocean. The body, mind and intellect are actually a part of the object it perceives. The Brahman encompasses the perceiver in the body, mind and intellect. Advaita    You, the ocean and I, the wave are nothing but water, perceived. The body, mind and intellect and the objects it perceives are in fact all the same and unreal and a result of the projection of the one reality of Brahman, a projection caused due to the perception itself.