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)鈥攐ne 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 448 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
448 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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NOTES: CHAPTER FIVE 436 24bimbam eva hi up膩dhini峁ａ弓hatvena prati虈yam膩nam
pratibimbam, BR 1, sec. XVIII; JSP, p. 45.
28.
25pratibimbasya param膩rthikatv膩t, SB 1; Divanji, p.
26 Mahadevan, p. 221; both Vacaspati and Padmap膩da
advocate this view. See Suryanarayana Sastri, SLS, p. 31.
27 According to Dasgupta (IV, 352-353), two teachers
of Vallabha's school, Purusottama (seventeenth century) and
Gope艣vara (late eighteenth century), criticise this very
theory. Both see that the notion that bhakti is a
reflection of God in the melted mind would make bhakti
identical with God, and both object to it on that ground.
Madhus奴dana himself feigns to back off from the full
implications of this view by making an apparent concession:
"This does not, however, result in the identity of the
objective cause (膩lambanavibh膩va) and the permanent emotion
because the distinction between original and reflection is
well known in the world, like the distinction between the
jiva and the Lord" (napy 膩lambanavibh膩vasth膩yibh膩vayor
aikyam, bimbapratibimbabh膩vena bhedasya vyavah膩rasiddhatv膩d
I艣ajivayor iva, BR I, sec. XVIII; JSP, p. p. 45). I cannot
believe, however, that this is Madhusudana's final position.
The very point of the pratibimbavada in Advaita, as the
author of the BR well knows, is to provide a conceptual
antidote to the common sense distinction between jIva and
Isvara. It is also common knowledge that what is accepted
as true "in the world" (vyavah膩ra) is, for an Advaitin, no
criterion of ultimate truth (param膩rtha). Therefore,
despite this seeming capitulation to the more common sense
view contained in the objection--which seems to be that of
an aesthetician rather than a Ved膩ntin--I must conclude that
Madhus奴dana holds fast to the Advaitic position that the
reflection is only apparently different from the original.
He wants, in fact, to exploit it in service of his effort to
raise the ontological status of bhakti in the direction of
ultimacy.
28 Gupta, pp. 204-205.
29 Note that in his discussion of bhaktirasa in BR 3,
Madhusudana makes a clear distinction between the rasa and
the v峁泃ti which manifests it. See chap. 6.5.
30 mukunda iti bhaktiyogasya vi峁yanirde艣a岣�
sarv膩ntaryami sarvesvara eva bhaktirasalambanavibhava iti
vak峁ate, BR 1, sec. X; JSP, p. 16.
31drute citte pravi峁ａ弓膩 y膩 govind膩k膩rat膩 sthir膩 / y膩
bhaktir ity abhihita
BR 2.1; JSP, p. 140.
