Essay name: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
Author:
Lance Edward Nelson
Affiliation: McMaster University / Religious Studies
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 asserting that Bhakti is the highest goal of life and by arguinng that Bhakti embodies God within the devotee's mind.
Page 167 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
167 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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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 BR, namely, Madhusūdana'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 samyāsin. According
to the BR, devotion, on its own, is able to lead the seeker
to the highest goal of life (paramapuruṣārtha).
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
