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 93 of: Bhakti-rasayana by Madhusudana Sarasvati
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External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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81
he writes, "is determined by its object, while upasana is
determined by its agent.
#76
The implication is that only
knowledge can take us beyond subjectivity, beyond the realm
of m膩y膩, to true Being.
77 Let us note what follows for up膩sana, and for bhakti
as well. Both these disciplines are insufficient in
themselves, and the aim of those practicing them should be
to attain sufficient purity of mind to experience the
immediate intuitive knowledge of Brahman that alone is the
direct means to mok峁. The final realization will perhaps
occur in this life, i.e., such persons may make the
transition from up膩sana or bhakti to j帽膩na. More likely,
however, they will have to either wait for another birth 78
or attain the requisite saving knowledge through the process
known as kramamukti ("gradual liberation"). The latter
consists in the attainment after death of brahmaloka, the
highest celestial realm from which there is no rebirth.
Inhabitants of this heavenly world attain knowledge of the
unconditioned Brahman, and hence mok峁, when the whole
universe, including brahmaloka, is dissolved at the end of
the present cosmic cycle (kalpa).79
