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Madhusudana was a poet of no mean accomplishments, and he used language skillfully, precisely, and imaginatively. We should not be surprised, therefore, to discover that the title of our text contains a play on words. The author reveals one possible meaning of Bhaktirasayana in stanza 2: "O wise ones! Let this Elixir (rasayana) of Devotion (bhakti) be drunk of abundantly by you 鈥� "1 Divided differently, however, the Sanskrit compound can also mean "The way, path, or course (ayana) of the sentiment (rasa) of bhakti." It could be interpreted,

155 on this analysis, as referring to the course of development of bhaktirasa or, alternately, as naming the cultivation of devotional sentiment as a distinct spiritual path. Sanskrit poets delighted in this kind of double and triple entendre, and there is no doubt that Madhusudana chose this title carefully and was conscious of its various possible meanings. Certainly, all of those I have mentioned are indicative of the contents of the work. The last, however, is probably the most important for our inquiry into the place of devotion in Advaita. It points to one of the most striking and, from the view-point of Advaita, most unorthodox aspects of the Bhakti-rasayana, namely, Madhusudana's presentation of bhaktiyoga as a distinct and independent spiritual path that is not in need of completion by Vedic gnosis, the exclusive province of the samyasin. According to the Bhakti-rasayana, devotion, on its own, is able to lead the seeker to the highest goal of life (paramapurusartha). Madhusudana begins his exposition of the spiritual ascent in section III by identifying the yoga of action (karmayoga) as a preliminary discipline that must be performed by all aspirants until they have acquired sufficient purity of mind. The attainment of this goal, Madhusudana tells us, is followed by the pursuit of one of 2 two possible paths, knowledge or devotion. The rest of the text makes clear that the author intends us to understand

156 these paths as independent, equally valid ways to the highest spiritual attainment. At first, this seems to be a flagrant contradiction of the orthodox Advaita doctrine, discussed at length in chapter two, that liberation comes through knowledge alone. The fact is, however, that the Bhakti-rasayana nowhere describes bhakti as a discipline which aims specifically at liberation, nor does it truly accept the latter in its classical role as paramapurusartha. One of the central teachings of the Bhakti-rasayana, enunciated repeatedly from the first stanza onward, is that love for God, bhakti, is itself the highest goal of life. So, while the teaching is indeed that bhakti is an independent path to the final goal, the goal, at least for the devotee, is not moksa but rather bhakti. Following the Bhagavata-purana, the Bhakti-rasayana teaches that devotion is both the means and, in its higher stages, the supreme end. How exactly the relation between bhakti and moksa is to be understood is a basic question that we shall have to consider in due order. Before it can be discussed, however, we must examine Madhusudana's teaching on several other important matters, beginning with his concept of the highest goal of life.