The practice of bhakti presupposes certain elaborate disciplines, namely the sublimation of feeling as well as the training of the intellect and the will. This is known as the seven-fold moral and spiritual discipline, contrasted with the four-fold discipline of Advaita.
Advaita sadhana also consists if the triple discipline of
thought, feeling and will defined as viveka, vairagya and the disciplines of
sama, dama and the rest. Advaitic sadhana is self-discrepant, as its idea of mukti
is the cessation of avidya.
Jnana is the sublimation of ajnana. Adi Shankaracharya
defines the aim of the Sariraka Mimamsa as the knowledge of the identity of
Brahman arising from the super imposition of the nature of Brahman on
non-Brahman.
Brahmajnana is immediate as Brahman is even self-realized.
Ramanuja’s Sri Bhashya reveals the contrast. ‘May my buddhi or jnana blossom
into bhakti or devotion to Brahman or Srinivasa whose nature if revealed in
Upanishad as the self, that, out of the lila or sport of love, creates,
sustains and reabsorbs the whole bhuvana or universe with a view of saving the
jivas that seek his love.’
Brahman as the saririn of the jiva is the prapaka (one who
gains) as well as the prapya (object to be gained), the endeavor as well as the
end, and the scheme of sadhana-saptaka is helpful in the building up of bhakti.