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 512 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
512 (of 553)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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NOTES: CHAPTER SEVEN 500 287 The pairs such as pleasure and pain, heat and
cold, and so on, which trouble people in this world of
relativity.
288 This and the following two verses are cited and
commented upon by Madhus奴dana in sec. X.
289 The eleven stages of devotion enumerated in
verses 34-36 follow roughly N膩rada's account of his own
growth in bhakti, described in Book I of the BP (1.5.23-40).
Born as the son of the servant-maid of a group sages, he
waited on them, earned their grace, was attracted to their
practices, heard their accounts of the Lord's glories, and
so on. Note that there is very little in common between
Madhus奴dana's eleven stages of devotion and the nine
enumerated by R奴pa at BRS 1.4.15 (see chap. 4.3.4). Gupta's
suggestion (p. xxii) that Madhusudana based these stages on
the model of the seven stages of knowledge listed in the YV,
and cited by Madhusudana at GAD 3.18, seems to me to have
little foundation.
The Bhaktis奴tras attributed to N膩rada contain a list
of eleven types of bhakti, as follows: (1) love of the
greatness of God's qualities (gunamah膩tmy膩sakti); (2) love
of the beauty of God's form (r奴p膩sakti); (3) love of worship
(p奴j膩sakti); (4) love of the constant remembrance of God
Smaranasakti); (5-8) love of the Lord as his servant,
friend, parent, and beloved (d盲sya-, sakhya-, v膩tsalya-, and
k膩nt膩sakti); (9) love of complete self-surrender
(膩tmanivedan膩sakti); (10) love in identity with God (tan-
mayat膩sakti); and (11) supreme love in separation (parama-
virah膩sakti) (NBS 82, Swami Ty膩g墨艣膩nanda, Aphorisms on the
Gospel of Divine Love or the N膩rada Bhakti Sutras [Madras:
Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978], pp. 22-23). To what extent the
NBS intends this list as a hierarchical arrangement is not
clear. It does not use any word for stages or degrees, but
says only that bhakti is "elevenfold" (ek膩da艣adh膩). At any
rate, the scheme has little in common with Madhus奴dana's
eleven bhaktibh奴mik膩s.
290rati.
291 Madhusudana's commentary on these three verses
(34-36) covers forty-four pages in the text. Remarks from
his own hand occupy a total of only about two pages of this
bulk; the rest is made up of some 190 verses from the BP
which the author quotes to explain, through illustrative
reference to the legends of great devotees, the various
stages of devotion. This section of the commentary is,
therefore, lengthy--perhaps unnecessarily so--and for that
reason somewhat tedious. Rather than translating it in
full, I here summarize its essential points, providing
