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 280 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
280 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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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
Bharata156 has said: "The arising of sentiment is from the
conjunction of the objective causes, the outward signs, and
the associated transitory states" [NÅš 6.31]. Thus the
author defines permanent emotion here in order to establish
that devotion too is a sentiment. 157
XVIII. The Permanent Emotion Becomes a Sentiment
Because it is Blissful158
In order to show that the permanent emotion becomes
a sentiment, he proceeds to demonstrate that it is supreme
bliss: 159
10. THE LORD HIMSELF IS SUPREME BLISS. HIS FORM,
HAVING ENTERED 160 THE MIND, BECOMES A SENTIMENT OF THE
HIGHEST DEGREE.
163 It is said that a reflection 161 is nothing but the
original 162 itself, apprehended within limiting adjuncts.
Reflected in the mind, the Lord, who is supreme bliss,
becomes a permanent emotion and reaches the state of being a
Hence it is beyond question that the sentiment
sentiment.
of devotion is of the nature of supreme bliss. This does
