Atman full of life - Part 4 of 20

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One thing should be said about the para-brahman consuming the JIva-bhAva snd Atman alone remaining.

It is not that the consumption is done in one go. It consumes but then it also regurgitates.

Again it swallows; again it regurgitates.

The state of being in samAdhi, and then coming down from samAdhi – these are both the swallowed and regurgitated states.

Everytime the JIva-bhAva is consumed and later spit out it comes more emasculated and dissolved.

But it still is.

And those are the times when the anusandhAnaM with bhakti has to continue with the hope of further dissolution.
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Atman full of life - Part 3 of 20

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In the case of the intellect also this is what we did.

It was said that the intellect should be established and rested in shuddha-brahman; but intellect cannot approach anywhere near shuddha-brahman and so we understood it to mean that the intellect should dwell on matters or teachings or the Shastras pertaining to Brahman.

In the same way here also, to say that one should do ‘anusandhAnaM’ on the Nature of the Atman, is only to mean that the ‘anusandhAnaM’ (being in continuous union with the Atman) is of the thoughts about the Atman.

This anusandhanaM begins well before sannyAsa. But it is further strengthened and deepened after sannyAsa and in due course the sAdhaka gives himself up totally, and the Atman alone shines thereafter.

Continuous fusion or merging is certainly the Bhakti out of Love.
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Atman full of life - Part 2 of 20

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Does unification with the Atman mean that Atman is one thing, and the JivAtman that fuses with it is another?

No. No union or joining with the Atman is possible.

Even this kind of little or minute duality is not permitted there.

The merging, the fusing, the union -- all these are out of place here.

What happens is, having ‘swallowed’ /’consumed’ the JIva that pines to unite, pines with love and anguish – in other words, having swallowed the antaH-karaNa (inner organ), It stands alone.

So it is not a question of ‘anusandhAnaM’ of the Atman which is the Real Nature.

It has to be immersed in the constant memory of the Atman and the filling up of the chittam with that – this is what we should understand by ‘anusandhAnaM’.
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Atman full of life - Part 1 of 20

What we saw so far was the first half of the shloka.

In the second half our Acharya gives the definition of Bhakti:
*sva-svarUpAnu-sandhAnaM bhakti-rity-abhidhIyate*

Bhakti is said to be the unbroken union with one’s own natural Self – the Atman.

*bhaktiH iti abhidhIyate* means ‘it has been named bhakti’.

Do ‘anusandhAnaM’ of one’s own natural state, says he.

What is ‘anusandhAnaM’?

*sandhAnaM* means a unification or joining with something. A meeting’!

If that union stays continuously, it is ‘anusandhAnaM’.

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Bhakti in Jnana Marga - Part 15 of 15

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It is not a total surrender.

It is the jnAna-path-finder, who does not use such words, but who has offered his JivAtmA as a camphor in the Fire of the Absolute.
This is the true and complete Atma-nivedanaM, SharaNAgati, Bhakti , Prapatti etc.

Bhakti is thus the most internal accessory for the achievement of advaita. And the Acharya has chosen the words pregnant with this meaning, when he says: *mokSha-kAraNa-sAmagryAm bhaktireva garIyasI*.

Bhakti in Jnana Marga - Part 14 of 15

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However, deep within himself, there is the ego which is the taproot for the existence of the JIva; he has not willed to extinguish that.

For doing bhakti, for enjoying that experience of the blessed qualities of the Divine, for the bliss of tasting that relationship, he thinks he has to have that individuality of his JIva-ego.

Earlier we distinguished between ahamkAra and aham-bhAva. Of these only the latter has been sacrificed by him, but not the former.

Therefore, though it is in the bhakti literature that surrender has been emphasized, the bhakti pathfinder, instead of making a total self-effacing surrender, he surrenders only part of his self and has kept the remaining ego of the JivAtmA for the purpose of  experiencing the paramAtmA.
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Bhakti in Jnana Marga - Part 13 of 15

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Thus the bhakti-bhAva shines explicitly even when one is only having a dualistic relationship with the saguNa brahman and this is the reason for this being called a bhakti path and the one doing this being called a bhakta.

Accordingly the two are distinguished from a JnAni and the jnAna path.

However when it comes to a self-effacing offering to the Absolute it is the jnAna-pathfinder that soars higher than the bhakta of the bhakti path.!

The bhakti path-finder certainly has extinguished for himself the ego as far as the worldly matters are concerned.

Even within himself his own mental inclinations have mellowed his ego.

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