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 26 - The Nature of Knowledge
What sort of knowledge is meant? desire to know this, it is stated briefly:
300 The threefold change that appears in you, O Udhava, occurs not in the beginning, nor in final liberation, but only in the interval of Maya. Birth and so on belong to that. Since this is so, what have they to do with you? That which exists at the beginning and the 283 end of the unreal, also exists in the interval. 11.19.7 Everything other than the Blessed Lord, because it is transient, is false 284 like a dream. It is devoid of true significance, painful, and to be shunned. The Blessed Lord alone is real; He is the supreme bliss--self-luminous, eternal, and omnipresent--the one to be sought after. is the kind of knowledge spoken of. It is taught in the Bhagavad Gita also: This Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna: the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the one desirous of gain, and the possessor of knowledge. Among these the possessor of knowledge, who is constantly controlled, whose devotion is one-pointed, is the most excellent. For I am exceedingly dear to the possessor of knowledge, and he is dear to Me. Noble indeed are all these, but the possessor of knowledge I hold to be My very Self, for with steadfast mind he resorts to Me alone as the highest goal. At the end of many births, the possessor of knowledge surrenders to Me, thinking "Vasudeva is all." Such a great soul is exceedingly hard to find. Bhagavad Gita 7.16-19 Everything other than Vasudeva, since it is a product of Maya, is not real. Vasudeva alone is real, is the dearest, because He is the Self. This is the meaning.