[Advaita-l] Gudharthadipika of Madhusudana Sarasvati

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

I think Sri Subrahmanian's quotes establish that ths tripartite division is
there in the Vedas. But from a research point of view, you cannot only
quote Srimad Bhagavatham. In addition to this, you may want to find what
Sridhara and Sayana say. Though we accept smrti and bhashyam, from a
scholarly perspective SBh is 1000 years old. The clincher will be to find a
reference in the sruti texts to show that Madhusudana's view is Vedic. I
think it will not be easy. You will find reference to pravrtti and nivrtti
margas. You will find reference to purva and uttara mimamsa. All this will
point to a two fold division - one preparatory and the other direct
mokshopaya. You have to find out the positioning of Bhakti / Upasana in
sruti. Is it distinct from karma and jnana? Can a bhakta absorbed in
bhagavad bhakti but not a sannyasi give up nitya karma?

On Saturday, August 18, 2012, saha niranjan wrote:

> Yes, Ramanuja does divide the Gita into three parts. But none of them,
> like MS, say that the tripartite Gita corresponds to the tripartite Vedas
> which have karma, upasana/bhakti and jnana kands.Is it MS's own approach to
> divide the Vedas this way explicitly and then show Gita's division
> accordingly?
>
> --- On *Sat, 18/8/12, rajaramvenk at gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'rajaramvenk at gmail.com');> <rajaramvenk at gmail.com <javascript:_e({},
> 'cvml', 'rajaramvenk at gmail.com');>>* wrote:
>
>
> From: rajaramvenk at gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'rajaramvenk at gmail.com');> <rajaramvenk at gmail.com <javascript:_e({},
> 'cvml', 'rajaramvenk at gmail.com');>>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Gudharthadipika of Madhusudana Sarasvati
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org');>>
> Date: Saturday, 18 August, 2012, 2:39 PM
>
> Madhusudana says that he gets the idea of dividing Gita in to three parts
> from the Vedas. So, it is fair to say that it is based on tripartite Vedas.
>
> It is also in line with the advaita tradition. Debatable but Sankara also
> treats bhakti as a separate path bordering on karma at sadhana stage and
> jnana at the sadhya stage. Both Sankara and Madhusudana treat bhakti as the
> prime mover for performing karma and acquiring jnana. You may want to look
> at Sridhara's position also in this regard. He had a big influence on all
> though Madhusudana maintained his originality.
>
> The gaudiya vaishnavas were inspired by Madhusudana's idea as it gave
> bhakti a central position. Both Visvanath and Baladev follow this scheme.
> Baladev even verbatim uses Madhusudana differing only on specifics.
>
> Do Ramanuja and Madhwa use tripartite division of Gita? I thought they mix
> all three in to one integrated process.
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: saha niranjan <sahaniranjan at yahoo.co.in<http://mc/compose?to=sahaniranjan@yahoo.co.in>
> >
> Sender: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org<http://mc/compose?to=advaita-l-bounces@lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:35:24
> To: <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org<http://mc/compose?to=advaita-l@lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> >
> Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
>     <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org<http://mc/compose?to=advaita-l@lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> >
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Gudharthadipika of Madhusudana Sarasvati
>
>
>
> Dear Scholars,
>
> Namaskaram! Could any one get me clarified the following.
>
> In the introductory verse  4 of the Gudharthadipika, Madhusudana has
> termed the Vedas tripartite having karma, upasana, and jnana kandas
> respectively and mentioned the Gita too as having three kandas in 18
> chapters
> accordingly. It is said that Sayanacarya in his Vedabhasya has also
> divided the
> Vedas into three parts , though the division into karma and jnana kands may
> seem to be explicit and bhakti or upasana kanda may be the corollary of the
> jnana kanda there. And it has been a tradition to consider the Vedas as
> having
> three parts even before the advent of Sankara.
>
> Yamuna, Ramanuja, Keshavakashmiribhatta (1510 CE. Like Sankara, he
> describes
> the Gita as the essence of the entire Vedic lore), Nilakantha (16th
> century CE)
> etc. too have divided the Gita into three parts, though none of them have
> mentioned that the tripartite Gita coressponds to the tripartite Vedas.
>
>
>
> So, can it be said that Madhusudana has borrowed the idea of tripartite
> Vedas
> from the tradition or from Sayana in order to make the Gita tripartite?
> or, it
> is Madhusudana's noble approach to the Gita?
>
>
>
> With kind regards,
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Niranjan Saha
>
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