Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
(Study and translation of first chapter)
by Lance Edward Nelson | 2021 | 139,165 words
This is a study and English translation of the Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati (16th century)—one of the greatest and most vigorous exponents of Advaita after Shankara-Acharya who was also a great devotee of Krishna. The Bhaktirasayana attempts to merge non-dualist metaphysics with the ecstatic devotion of the Bhagavata Purana, by assertin...
Part 17 - The Definition Of Permanent Emotion And Sentiment
The word "permanent "152 is used here with its primary, non-technical meaning of "not passing away" to indicate the stability of the form of the object that has entered into the melted mind: 153 9. THEREFORE 154 THE FORM OF THE OBJECT IS CALLED A PERMANENT EMOTION. MANIFESTED, IT BECOMES A SENTIMENT BECAUSE IT IS SUPREME BLISS.
268 Once the distinction between the spectator and the events of the play has disappeared, the permanent emotion existing in the spectator is manifested by the conjunction of the objective causes, the outward signs, the outward signs, and the associated transitory states.155 Being an immediate awareness of pure bliss, it develops into a sentiment. This is the rule of the experts in aesthetic theory. As the great preceptor Bharata 156 has said: "The arising of sentiment is from the conjunction of the objective causes, the outward signs, and the associated transitory states" [Natya-Shastra 6.31]. Thus the author defines permanent emotion here in order to establish that devotion too is a sentiment. 157