namaste Atanu.

Thank you for listing out the many references to Adi Shankara's famous quote "brahma satyam jagan mithya".

IMHO, an advaitin does not need to make a distinction between bhakti as devotion and bhakti as service, since both Adi Shankara and RamaNa maharshi were as much devotees as jnAnis.

Legend has it that in the famous TiruviDaimarudUr temple in Tamilnadu, Shiva worshipped himself, in order to demonstrate the shaivite Agama protocol.

Adi Shankara visited this temple and engaged the brAhmaNa pandits there who were steeped in the Vedic karma kANDa rituals, in a debate on the superiority of Advaita. The brAhmaNas after listening to his discourses told him that their rituals and prayers were daily observed by Shiva who presided over the temple as MahAlingeshvara and that if Shiva endorses the correctness of Advaita they would follow the path. Thereupon Shankara prayed to Shiva, "O Lord of MadhyArjuna, you indeed are the essence of all Upanishads. It is your glory that is proclaimed in the Vedas. You are the Lord of all Gods, you are All-knowing. Please reveal before all the truth that Advaita which is the main point of the Vedas is true and thus remove the doubts of all".

Even as the Acharya's prayers were over, a miraculous incident astonished everyone. The inside of the temple was bathed in a divine light and with it there was a voice from the heavens, deep and grave as the running clouds, proclaiming thrice, "satyam advaitam, satyam advaitam, satyam advaitam". (ref: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advaitin/message/14085)

Such is the power of bhakti that a true jnAni has in the repertoire of his sAdhana.

On a trivial and lighter note, we have the term 'Self Service' in some restaurants. An advaitin's sAdhana until he becomes a jIvanmukta is only that--'Self service'; thereafter he seeks to serve people by trying to liberate them, and that again is 'Self Service'!