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80
bhakti.
So there are obviously certain parallels between upasana and
Although their objects are perhaps different, the
difference is not as great as it may seem at first. In
艢ankara's understanding, at least, the objects of up膩sana,
such as the holy syllable Om, and the object of bhakti,
-
I艣vara, are alike special manifestations or symbols (it is
fair to say) of the highest Brahman. The attitude of the
practitioner of up膩sana toward the object of his meditation
is not the emotional bhakti of the later tradition, or even
the more reserved, intellectual devotion of the BG. But
again, we have seen that up膩sana involves a reverential
approach to the ultimate that is at least comparable to the
combination of love and mental concentration found in
bhakti. Finally, 艢amkara makes it clear that up膩sana, like
bhakti, is not the direct path to moksa, but rather a means
to mental purification (sattvasuddhi). 74
艢ankara specifies his understanding of the
There
difference between up膩sana and knowledge at BS 1.1.4.
he points out that, while up膩sana is dependent upon the
meditating subject for its existence and is prey to the
vagaries of human volition, true knowledge is determined by
the independently existing object and is therefore not
dependent on the mind of its agent.
75 This idea is
summarized succinctly by Vidy膩ra峁噛a Sv膩min, the great
fourteenth century Advaitin, in his Pa帽cada艣I.
"Knowledge,"