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The Bhagavata-purana teaches the supremacy of bhakti over all other paths, regarding it as an independent and selfsufficient discipline, indeed as the "highest religion."12 In this connection, the text introduces three especially distinctive ideas: (1) that bhakti itself is the highest bliss and, as such, the sole goal of the true devotee, (2) that the true devotee does not seek moksa, which is a lesser joy, though the Lord may grant it to him or her if he sees fit, and (3) that, while bhaktas show no interest in moksa, even ascetics who have attained the state of liberation-inlife are attracted to, and practice, devotion. 8.3.20: The ultimacy of bhakti is expressed, for example, at One-pointed devotees who have surrendered to the Blessed Lord desire no other boon from Him. Immersed in an ocean of bliss, they sing of His extraordinary and auspicious deeds. 13掳

100 While thus extolling devotion, the purana tends to devalue the traditional goals of knowledge and liberation. Again and again we hear that these are not sought by the genuine bhakta, who wants only the bliss of loving service to the 14 Lord. At 10.14.4, for example, it is said: For those, O Lord, who abandon bhakti, the fountain of highest blessing, and strive for the acquisition of knowledge only, that [quest for knowledge] becomes nothing more than strenuous exertion, like the pounding of coarse [but empty] husks. Krsna tells Uddhava at 11.20.34: 15 My saintly, wise, and one-pointed devotees desire nothing, not even liberation (kaivalya) and freedom from rebirth. 16 And at 12.10.6 we read: This Brahmin-sage, O Goddess, having obtained supreme devotion to the eternal Person, desires no other boon at all, not even liberation (moksa).17 "18 At least three verses in the purana repeat the phrase "neither yogic powers nor freedom from rebirth, including these well-known goals of Yoga and Vedanta in lists of blessings that, in comparison with the joy of the bhakti, hold no attraction for the devotee. Numerous other passages expressing the same attitude toward moksa could be cited. With a consistency perhaps surprising to readers taught to regard liberation as the highest goal of Hindu spirituality, the Bhagavata-purana (and later, the entire devotional tradition that is dependent upon it) presents the attainment of that state as incidental to the bhakta's primary quest.

101 The Lord may grant it, or he may not; the devotee is indifferent. 19 No sensitive person, however, can be indifferent to the glory of bhakti. It is so great that it is sought and savored even by saints who have realized the atman, the ultimate goal of the path of knowledge. At 1.7.10, a verse frequently quoted by devotional writers, it is said: Sages who delight in the Self, who are free of the knots [of ignorance], practice selfless devotion to the Widestrider [Visnu-Krsna], such are the qualities of Haril 20 Elsewhere, a similar vision is expressed: Sages who have gone beyond [the] injunctions and prohibitions [of scripture] and are established in the attributeless Absolute, O King, universally delight in discoursing on the glories of Hari. 21 We may understand this exaltation of bhakti above moksa as, at least in part, the devotionalist's response to the Sankara tradition's restriction of moksa to the elite few. The orthodox Smarta renunciates may have their liberation, the text seems to be saying, but we have something better, without which even their Brahman-knowledge is manifestly incomplete. For Sankara, of course, these teachings emphasizing the value of bhakti as an end in itself would have been unacceptable. Knowledge and liberation are always the highest goals for the orthodox Advaita, and when they are attained, all trace of duality disappears.