 |
||
|
||
| Advertise with us! |
|
|
Hello Sunil,
Ever wonder why Bhakti Yoga is described LAST in the Bhagavad Gita,
after Samkhya and Raja Yoga, and even after Karma Yoga ? :-) Just a
retort to your claim that Bhakti Yoga is the highest Yoga ACCORDING TO
GITA.
If you disagree that is fine by me, I too was in a position like yourself
and argued my point. But one thing that struck me was a person who said to
me, " How can you describe a colour to a blind man, who has never seen
light?" !!! One has to taste and see for themselves.
Just in case you thought I didn't know any bhakti proponents in my
personal life, I do. ;-)
I have often had a similar argument with my maternal grandfather who
is a big Bhakti proponent. He has been trying to convert me to the
Vaishnav mode of bhakti for as long as I could remember. I guess I
can say that I have followed the path to Shaivism in quite a similar
way that early Shaivites did, in strong reaction to Vaishnav bhakti
which evidently had argumentative weaknesses and on top of it required
a non-violent vegetarian mindset which didn't have much appeal for me.
Of course the first thing a Shaivite typically does is end up
questioning the notion of good and evil and their absolute treatment
in Vaishnavism. My grandfather has lost some arguments with me
regarding the absolute nature of good and evil, at first he argued
that God was good or he wanted man to be good and somehow evil came
about, etc.. But when he found it difficult to defend any of those
positions, he just reverted to the rules established by proponents of
Bhakti.
When he brings up the benefits of personal or practical experience, a
Shaivite typically brings up Raja Yoga. He would quickly describe the
rather difficult nature of Raja Yoga, the amount of time it takes, and
concludes that Bhakti can also aid and increase concentration quite like
Raja Yoga due to its single-mindedness but is considerably easier.
Shaivites and Vaishnavas there seems to be some kind of a "battle" for
supremecy but this is a waste of time for all concerned. One get's the
reward for worshiping the person you want to as the Gita say's in chapter
7, verse 23.....
Whenever I bring up conflicts between Shaivites and Vaishnavs, like a
true Vaishnava my grandfather quickly side steps logic and describes
how Vishnu is a devotee of Shiva and Shiva a devotee of Vishnu.
Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are
limited and temporary. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of
the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.
It all depends what you want. If one understands Krishna Lila's one can
understand where Lord Shiva fits' in.
Not quite, actually devotees of Krishna are more than likely to
misinterpret the intent of Shaivites.
I recently ran into a "kanthidhari" -- somewhat sarcastic Bihari term
for Vaishnavs because they wear a thread around their necks (kantha)
and are typically vegetarian. They seem to be seen as a threat to the
Bihari diet, as non-vegetarian Biharis are quite wary of
"kanthidharis."
Anyway, he started talking about how Hindus have started to give up
their religious rites, that they have started eating meat -- this is
generally the most significant Vaishnav issue -- even before important
religious occasions. I answered that in Hinduism different groups
have always had different religious rites and rules. That in
festivals like Holi, it is quite traditional to eat meat in Bihar, and
that in my village which adheres to the Shakti cult, they routinely
used to offer animal sacrifices to the deity -- the meat was consumed
afterwards as prasad.
With a gleam in my eye, I asked him how he would feel if the rules of
my village were applied to him and that he had to consume meat as
prasad. Like a true Vaishnav accountant, he offered to please the
"Devi" deity by offering prayer for two days instead of offering meat
for one day. He figured that if the "Devi" is "pleased" by an
offering of meat, she will be harder to please without meat, so
perhaps it would take two days for him to please the "Devi" with
vegetarian cuisine.
I was rather amused, as the meaning of the ritual was quite lost to
him. For a deity of Shakti, which emphasizes the necessity of the
material world, it is quite natural to provide to its followers
physical strength and vigour. As the devotees worship the deity, on
them the deity shall confer its grace has a much more natural meaning
than the one understood by the Vaishnav who naturally thought that he
would please the deity by his bhakti or his sacrifice which is the
Vaishnav mode of thinking.
The Shaivite mode of thinking is quite different. Even in the
Puranas, the Shaivites in their quest to reach the Brahman which was
naturally beyond man made rules and regulations, felt no remorse
whatsoever in breaking rules. There is a story in the Brahma Purana
where Yama (the keeper of rules and regulations, a visit to Yamaloka
being similar to the Christian judgement day), himself advised his
attendants never to bring a Shaivite or someone even resembling a
Shaivite to Yamaloka. That was after the Shaivites argued that the
attendants of Yama did not understand good and bad that the Shaivite
notions of good and bad were more of a subtle kind.
So you see even if you do not wish to have conflicts in Kali Yuga
(there is no longer a need as Shiva has attained Brahmanhood), there
will always be differences in points of view.
|
||
|
||
| Advertise with us! |
|
|