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We now turn to examine in some detail the place that devotional spirituality occupies in Advaita Vedanta, as formulated by Samkara (ca. 650-750 C.E.), 1 the system's founder and principal authority. The prestige of Advaita, we have already noted, is such that many practicing Hindus, even though they may be devotionally inclined, claim to be philosophical non-dualists or at least to recognize Samkara's non-dualism as the highest truth and greatest wisdom of the sages of their tradition. This combination of Advaita and devotion may or may not be carefully thought out. No doubt in the majority of cases it is not. Even many highly erudite Advaitins, however, will assert that, despite the bitter criticism of Advaita offered by the proponents of the various theistic forms of Vedanta, there is really no conflict between non-dualism and devotion. see how this is possible, they will say, only a more careful and open-minded consideration of Samkara's thought is needed. To Thus A. P. Mishra, who has written a very helpful book on the subject of bhakti in Advaita, writes: "Only a 52

53 casual and brief perusal of the System brought me to the conclusion that the monistic [i] deal of the Sankara Vedanta is not only not against Bhakti but, on the contrary, it preaches it in positive and assertive term[s]."2 In a similar vein, Swami Smarananda of the Ramakrishna Order, which has been consistently interested in a harmonization of Advaita and bhakti, 3 argues: There is a popular conception or rather misconception that Advaita Vedanta--the non-dualistic school of Vedanta--is opposed to bhakti or devotion, as a path to spiritual attainment. Nothing could be further from the truth, for Advaita is not essentially opposed to any path. . Many of the staunchest advaitins (followers of Advaita) including Srt Samkara, the greatest of them all, were great devotees too. They could follow the devotional path, because they could see no contradiction between it and the Advaitic conclusion `Brahman alone is real, the world is unreal, and the jiva is no other than Brahman.' Many are the ways leading to this supreme realization. Among them the path of devotion has been recognized by all religions, including the Advaita, Vedanta, as a very efficacious method of achieving this "4 goal. Even as sophisticated a philospher-scholar as Radhakrishnan subscribes to this view. He is convinced that, "While S. [Samkara] is an absolute non-dualist in his metaphysics, he had great faith in bhakti or devotion to a personal God."5 To what extent can such evaluations of Samkara's understanding of devotion be substantiated? This is a difficult question, and a definitive treatment cannot be attempted here. Nevertheless, because Madhusudana's views on bhakti were in many ways an implied critique of those of

1 54 his illustrious predecessor, it is necessary to have some kind of unbiased understanding of what Sankara's thought on the subject was. Otherwise, it will be impossible to understand what Madhusudana was seeking to accomplish in the Bhaktirasayana. After a lapse of more than 800 years, he was the first theorist following Samkara to make any substantial contribution to Advaita's understanding of bhakti. 6 If this is realized, both the extent of Samkara's authority and the significance of Madhusudana's work will begin to be appreciated. Here, then, I wish to make at least a preliminary evaluation of Sankara's views on devotional religion.