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commentaries on the three prast膩nas ("foundation-texts") of
Ved盲nta: the Upanisads, the BS, and the BG. The authorship
of these works is undisputed.11 As a commentary is by
nature limited to the subject matter of the primary text,
and as the Upanisads and the BS say almost nothing about
bhakti, we find explicit discussion of this discipline only
in the G墨t膩bh膩峁�ya (SGB). The following discussion will
therefore rely heavily on that work, though it will become
apparent that Samkara's commentaries on the other two
prasth膩nas also provide material that is pertinent to the
present inquiry.
By way of introduction to the whole problem, I will
begin with a consideration of some aspects of Samkara's
thought which, taken together, show that he does actually
make a place for bhakti in his system. We will find that he
has much to say about ordinary religious life and especially
about the personal God, the individual soul, and their
relationship.
2.3 Levels of Being and Religious Structures
Fundamental to Samkara's thought is the distinction
between the para ("higher") and the apara ("lower") Brahman.
He articulates it as follows:
Brahman is apprended under two forms; in the first place
as qualified by limiting conditions owing to the
multiformity of the evolutions of name and form; in the
second place as being the opposite of this, i.e. free
from all limiting conditions whatever
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