[Advaita-l] Bhakti and Jnana

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012, Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 12:23 PM, V Subrahmanian
> <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>>   And by 'limitation as to body and sense organs' MS  means those
>> situations in a Bhakta's life where the body is not enjoying good health
>> and the sense organs are not functioning well as for example a person who
>> has lost his eye sight can perfectly be a bhakta.  Someone who is hard of
>> hearing can surely contemplate on God.  And most importantly MS, as far as
>> I see from the presented portions of his book, is NOT saying that bhakti is
>> something that will continue in the videha kaivalya state.
>>
>
> Rajaram: A body whether healthy or not will perish. If bhakti is dependent
> on the body and mind for its existence, it will perish. Here Madhusudana is
> saying that bhakti does not perish.
>

No I think Shri Subrahmanian has it right.

The point MS is making is that karma is limited by the circumstances of 
the karta.  If one is not a dwija one cannot learn Vedic mantras.  If one 
is a dwija but never learned one cannot recite them.  Even if one is a 
dwija who has learned the Vedas, if one is blind, deaf or impotent etc. 
one cannot perform the yajnas.  Even if one is a dwija who is learned and 
physically fit, one may not have the financial resources to perform a 
yajna.  And without performance there is no result.  For Bhakti, the only 
limitation is shraddha just as for mukti the only limitation is jnana.



-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>