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 459 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
459 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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NOTES: CHAPTER SIX 447 (Vallabh膩c膩rya on the Love Games of K峁涐梗峁嘺 [Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1983], pp. 3-5) argues that the BP itself has a
distinctly "aesthetic orientation." This, he feels, is made
most obvious in the final verse of the opening invocation:
"Drink, O connoisseurs (rasika) on earth who are endowed
with emotion (bh膩vika), drink constantly [of this]
Bh膩gavata-nectar (rasa), [this] vessel that is the fruit
fallen from the wish-fulfilling tree of the Veda, full of
the nectar (rasa) flowing from the mouth of 艢uka"
(nigamakalpataror galitam phalam 艣ukamukh膩d am峁泃a-
dravasamyutam
pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam muhur aho
rasik膩 bhuvi bhavuka岣�, BP 1.1.3, my translation). Redington
refers to BP 7.1.10, 10.29.15, and 10.43.17, all of which
could be construed as depicting characters acting out
various sentiments in accordance with the canons of
classical Sanskrit aesthetics. On this basis, he develops
(p. 5) the interesting, and perhaps defensible, thesis that
the BP is in an important sense a secondary work--in that it
makes conscious use of the categories, aesthetic and
otherwise, of scholastic traditions that were already well
developed.
38. sa navadh膩 bhaktah. bhaktirasasyaiva h膩sya-
艣峁沶驳腻谤补办补谤耻苍补谤补耻诲谤补产丑补测腻苍补办补产墨产丑补迟蝉补艣腻苍迟补诲产丑耻迟补惫谋谤补-
r奴pe峁嚹乶ubhavat (quoted by Raghavan, Number of Rasa-s, p.
143). Cp. Madhusudana's notion of devotion "mixed with the
nine sentiments" (BR 1.1).
39 According to Hem膩dri, the sthayin of bhaktirasa is
"the fixation of the mind [on God] by any means' (ken盲py
up膩yena manonivesa, Raghavan, Number of Rasa-s, p. 143).
Cp. BP 7.1.31.
40 Raghavan, Number of Rasa-s, pp. 143-144.
41 See Hardy, VB, pp. 561-562.
42 This is an area that crys for further research.
Pereira writes that "Vallabha did not create his theology of
joy in a vacuum, but bases his structure on the theory of
aesthetics, which originates in the work of Bharata" (Jos茅
Pereira, Hindu Theology: A Reader [Garden City, New Jersey:
Doubleday, 1976], p. 317). While this may well be true, I
have been able to confirm an interest in a detailed
application of the categories of rasa theory to bhakti only
in Vallabha's followers. Pereira gives no documentation for
Vallabha's interest in the subject, but he does note (p.
317) that the great poet and aesthetician Jagannatha
Pa峁囜笉itar膩ja, who flourished at about the same time as
Madhusudana (ca. 1620-65), was a member of Vallabha's
蝉补尘辫谤补诲腻测补.
