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 304 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
304 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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contradicted 248 [by true knowledge] like the universe of the
dream state. Because that which is superimposed is annulled
by the knowledge of its substratum, all things vanish at the
manifestation of the Lord and merge in Him.
This being the case, all love, even that directed
toward worldly objects, is in reality fixed on the Blessed
Lord, because nothing different from Him is presented to
awareness. Such a state 249 was desired by Prahlada:250
Let not unceasing love, 251 such as the undiscriminating
have for worldly objects, depart from the heart of me
who am constantly meditating on Thee.
VP 1.20.19
XXIV. The Levels of Non-Attachment 252
the pure
By reasonings such as these it may be determined
that the Blessed Lord is the non-dual Self, a mass of
253 perfect being, consciousness, and bliss,
existence 254 which is the substratum of all. For one who
has so realized, the great non-attachment called Mastery
arises toward the objects of waking experience, because he
knows that they are as insignificant as the objects of a
dream. This non-attachment is described in an aphorism of
the revered Patañjali: "One who is devoid of desire for
objects seen and objects heard of through scripture attains
the non-attachment called Mastery" [YS 1.15].255
The fact that non-attachment has four stages,
related as means and end, 256 is widely acknowledged in all
