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Having examined at some length certain key elements in the historical and philosophical background of the Bhakti-rasayana, we can now proceed to an introduction of the text itself. The present chapter will consist of an attempt bring together in systematic form the text's most important teachings on the metaphysical aspects of bhakti. In chapter six, we will turn to an account of Madhusudana's discussion of the relation between devotion and the theory of aesthetic sentiment (rasa). It has already been suggested that the Bhakti-rasayana represents in some sense (as yet unspecified) an effort to integrate the two divergent forms of spirituality that we have been considering thus far, namely, the impersonalist vision of Advaita and the ecstatic bhakti religion of the Bhagavata-purana and the Krsnaite schools. If we take into account the vastly different emphases of these two traditions, we can readily appreciate that such an undertaking was necessarily an ambitious one, however it may have been conceived. But at 152

153 this point it would be unwise to try and say much more. The complexity and importance of the questions that the Bhakti-rasayana weighs, together with the stature and sophistication of its author, warn us against venturing, prior to careful examination, any facile generalizations about its meaning or purpose. Such considerations will be more appropriately dealt with after we have become more familiar with the text, in the critical remarks reserved for chapter nine. The teachings of the Bhakti-rasayana are in fact somewhat elusive; this is not a work that be approached easily or directly. The difficulty is that, while richly suggestive, the text is often frustratingly inexplicit, and sometimes disappointingly vague. On key points such as the nature of bhakti, the distinction between bhagavat and Brahman, the relation of bhakti and moksa, and the final ontological status of bhakti, it shifts position subtly or, more frequently, refuses to enter into specific detail or draw out the full implications of what has been said. be in part a feature of Madhusuudana's scholastic style of discourse, which assumes that the reader is well-versed the religious and philosophical literature known to the writer and his circle. It may well be due also to the unorthodox and hence controversial nature of his conclusions, which he perhaps felt were better conveyed by intimation than by explicit statement. At any rate, a large part of this This may

154 introduction will be taken up with the somewhat risky business of trying to read "between the lines" and spell out what Madhusudana is suggesting. The reader is warned to recognize the limitations of It will require on occasion that we go this approach. beyond what Madhusudana actually says, filling in gaps and extrapolating where his exposition is sketchy. This of course is an audacious and risky enterprise, especially for someone who, no matter how sympathetic, stands outside the tradition. As long as it is done openly and cautiously, however, it is justified as a necessary part of an attempt to arrive at an understanding of the text that is even partially satisfactory.