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...
Notes for chapter 8
1 phalabhaktir na sadhanam / kintu svatah pumartharupaiva moksam api trnikaroti, quoted by Mishra, p. 252, note 2 (my trans.). 2 See N. K. Brahma, Philosophy of Hindu Sadhana (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1932), pp. 181-201. 3. nanu brahmavidyatiriktatve bhakteh svargadivan niratisayapurusarthatvam na syat iti cen na, svargader niyatadesakalasarirendriyadibhogyatvena sarvatropabhoktum asakyatvat ksayitvaparatantryalaksanaduhkhadvayanuviddhatvena niratisayatvabhave 'pi bhaktisukhadarayas sarvadesakalasarirendriyadisadharanyena brahmavidyaphalavad upabhoktum sakyatvat ksayitvaparatantryalaksanaduhkhadvaɣanuvedhabhavena niratisayopapatteh, Bhakti-rasayana 1, sec. XI; Shrimad-bhakti-rasayanam, 4 Gupta, p. 210. 5 Vaikuntha, Goloka, etc. 6 See Brahmasutra-samkara-bhasya 3.3.32; Vedanta Sutras (Shamkaracharya commentary) II, pp. 235-238. 7 See chap. 4.3.6, note 106. 8 See chap. 4.3.6. 9 Suryanarayana Sastri, SLS, pp. 9-17, 35. 10 Suryanarayana Sastri, SLS, pp. 400-408. 11 While Madhusudana asserts boldly that the Lord. alone is real (Bhakti-rasayana 1, sec. XXVI), this can only refer to the Lord as Brahman, since Samkara, as we have seen, has already established that, for Advaita, "The Lord's being a Lord, his omniscience, his omnipotence, and etc. all depend on the limitation due to the adjuncts whose Self is Nescience" (Brahmasutra-samkara-bhasya 2.1.4; Vedanta Sutras (Shamkaracharya commentary) I, p. 329). See chap. 2.5.1. 12 See chap. 2.4 with note 37. 511