A mūrti is not an idol. It’s a living “vessel” of manifestation, incarnation, and personification. It follows the same logic that if you want to drink water, you require a glass.
Smaraṇa directly translates as “remembrance.” For many schools of bhakti, especially those informed by literature like Bhagavad-Gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, (or the “Bhāgavat School”) remembering the Godhead at the time of death is the ultimate fruit of a successful human life.
To understand the word tarka or its importance, we must first retrace our steps to find the fundamental problem that we are trying to address through spiritual practice.
You’ve probably heard that bhakti is devotion or love. Though that’s correct, neither word completely conveys what bhakti is.
Conventional wisdom tells us that the paradoxical language of yoga’s ancient spiritual literature signifies Absolute Oneness; that despite any appearance to the contrary, we’re all One.
For the Bhāgavata School of Vedānta, Bhagavān is the divine perception of Absolute Reality as the Supreme Person intrinsically endowed (van) with opulence (bhaga) or sentient and insentient energy (śakti).
John Greer has spent nearly twenty years inquiring deeply into sacred texts and teachings of the world’s traditions, spurred by his own spiritual search.
Scientism is not limited to reductionistic thinking about religion. It can corrupt our thinking about even the most elementary forms of living being.