Can a person be self realized and not have pure bhakti?
From: Madan Murari Das
Question from can a person be self-realized and not have pure bhakti? yes, in the contextual sense if we say that the self refers to the Atma a person can become realized at the Brahman level by the process of Yoga but not yet have developed pure bhakti, in fact Lord Krishna talks about this in 18.54 when he says so he is telling that those who achieve the Brahman platform and they become equipoised towards all things and all beings they don't hanker for anything material nor lament for the loss of anything material they are equipoised towards all living beings and then after that then after that they attain my pure devotional service Parabhakti so in one sense this verse is talking about the gradual ascent of people up the spiritual ladder especially those who are following the path of Jnana, so if you look at the verses behind this from 18.49-50 onwards 50-51, 52-53 all these verses, they are talking about the sadhana that the Jnanis perform and Krishna tells that they will also eventually become self-realized and then they will attain devotion and then they will become God-realized next verse says it is by bhakti that one will come to know me of course if one practices bhakti right from the beginning, the process of self-realization becomes easier and becomes faster and that is what we do in Krishna Consciousness so theoretically it is possible that people can become self-realized without practice of bhakti without practice of pure bhakti they need to have some amount of bhakti to attain ultimate perfection on their path also but they may not have pure bhakti, that is possible, thank you.