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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 436 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati

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436 (of 553)


External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)


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NOTES: CHAPTER FOUR 424 Given all this evidence, Hardy concludes: "It seems
beyond doubt that the decisive influence on Caitanya's
mysticism was exerted from a [devotionally oriented]
movement within advaitic Veá¸Änta, from a movement within the
monastic system created by Samkara" ("Madhavendra," p. 32).
20 De, VFM, p. 112, note 2.
21De, VFM, pp. 86,
22 De, VFM, p. 173.
112.
Edward Dimmock, a student of De,
writes: "It is of considerable significance that the
GosvÄmins rarely mention Caitanya except in formal ways, and
then usually in devotional rather than theological contexts.
They ignore completely the matter so vital to the other main
branch of the movement--Caitanya conceived as both Radha and
Kṛṣṇa bound in a single body" ("Doctrine and Practice," p.
45):
23 De, VFM, p. 53-55.
24 Elkman, p. 325.
25 See above, chap. 2, note 6.
26 De, VFM, p. 150; De, Sanskrit Poetics as a Study
of Aesthetic (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1963), pp. 59-61.
27 See note 6, above.
28 vaiṣṇava theologians such as RÄmÄnuja and Madhva
identify the Upanisadic Brahman with their supreme deity,
³Õ¾±á¹£á¹‡³Ü-±·Äå°ùÄå²â²¹á¹‡a.
29 vadanti tat tattvavidas tattvam yaj jñÄnam advayam
/ brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate, BP 1.2.11; GS
I, 5.
30śridhara understands the three terms, not as
referring to different aspects of reality, but as different
names for the same ultimate: "`Then [it might be objected],
even the knowers of Reality contradict each other. Not so.
The same Reality is designated by different names, and thus
he declares 'It is called Brahman, paramätman, and bhagavat'
by, respectively, the followers of the Upaniá¹£ads, the
worshipers of Hiranyagarbha, and the Satvatas (nanu
tattvavido 'pi vigitavacanÄ eva / maivam / tasyaiva
tattvasya nÄmÄntarair abhidhÄnÄd ity Äha / aupaniá¹£Ädair
brahmeti, hairaṇyagarbhaiá¸� paramatmeti, satvatair bhagavÄn
ity' abhidhıyate, JLS, p. 16).

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