Adhi Shankaracharya wrote a number of vedantic works for imparting knowledge of the self and the universal spirit. He also composed a number of hymns to foster Bhakthi in the hearts of men. One of these hymns is the famous Bhaja govindam.
The way of devotion, is not different from the way of knowledge or jnana. When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes bhakthi. Knowledge, when it becomes fully mature is bhakthi. If it doesnot get transformed into bhakthi, such knowledge is useless tinsel. To believe that jnana and bhakthi, knowledge and devotion are different from each other, is ignorance.
If Sri Adi Shankara himself who drank the ocean of jnana as easily as one sips water from the palm of one's hand, sang in his later years, hymns to develop devotion, it is enough to show that jnana and bhakthi are one and the same. Sri Shankara has packed into the Bhaja govindam song, the substance of all vedanta, and set the oneness of jnana and bhakthi to melodious music.
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