[Advaita-l] Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and Advaita?

[Sivakumar,Kollam]

It is a gross mistake to asses the traditional
works by  norms of western academicians
and unfortunately this is the task in which most
of the present day academic scholars indulge in.This is because most of the
works on Adwaita and bhakthi literature is concerned with the subjective
aspect ie.self which cannot be assessed from an objective aspect which is
the approach of the academicians.Lack of understanding of this  seems to be
the root cause of most of  problem related to study of
Adwaita and Bhakthi. Most interesting fact is that despite the caution and
advise of our Acharyas time to time we again and again indulge in same
mistake!
sivakumarr.
------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 2:22 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Even in the modern times there is exmple of a bhaktivadi going the advaita
> way. Initially Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa was sceptical about Advaita and
> later on he realised that his Ishta-devata (Mother Kali) herself was
> advising him to get intiated to the Advaita way. May be similar thing
> happened to Madhusoodana Saraswati.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sunil KB
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 12:24 PM
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and
> Advaita?
>
> As per my understanding, Bhakti and Advaita are totally compatible even up
> to and at the penultimate stage. This is because bhagavath bhakti, where
> bhagavan is identified with the innermost self, is referred to in the
> upanishads and bhakti rasas are known to the author of Harivamsa, which is
> admitted to be quite ancient. Sankara Himself was aware of Bhagavatha
> school and Harivamsa specifically. However, the popular conception is that
> bhagavath bhakti is incompatible with Advaita. And due to the popularity of
> bhakti movement, Madhusudana Saraswati had to reconcile bhakti and Advaita.
> Prof. Lance Nelson, who did his thesis on Bhakti Rasayana feels that
> Madhusudana Saraswati did not successfully reconcile bhakti and Advaita.
> The following is from his abstract, which summarizes his case and would
> like to know what the scholars on this list think.
>
> From the abstract of Prof. Lance Nelson's Ph. D. thesis, "Madhusudana
> Saraswati (16th century), one of the greatest and most vigourous exponents
> of post sankara advaita, was simultaniously, and somewhat paradoxically, a
> great devotee of Krishna. He authored several works in which he sought to
> give bhakti a more prominent place within Advaita, a system traditionally
> regarded as hostile to devotional spirituality.
>             The Bhaktirasayana (BR), the most important of these, is an
> independent composition which attemps a theoretical integration of non -
> duilist metaphysics and the ecstatic devotionalism of the Bhagavata Purana.
> The work's main thesis, borrowed from the Vaishnava devotionalists, is that
> Bhakti is the highest goal of life (paramapurusartha). To establish this in
> the face of the orthodox Advaita doctrine that liberation alone is the
> highest aim, Madusudhana argues
> (1) that bhakti is God (bhagavat) appearing in the melted mind of the
> devotee, (2) that since bhagavat is supreme bliss, so is bhakti, and (3)
> that bhakti includes knowledge of the atman and is a more blissful
> experience than moksha.
>            While the arguement of the experiential superiority of bhakti in
> the  state of jivanmukti ("liberation in life") is plausible, Madhusana
> does not show, in Advaitic terms, how it can be experienced eternally after
> death. Moreover, he fails to establish that bhagavat is ontologically equal
> to Brahman, which makes it difficult to see how bhakti , as identified with
> bhagavat, can be ontologically superior, or even equal to moksha. In short,
> he does not present a convincing arguement for bhakti's being
> paramapurusartha.
>           In later works such as the Gudarthadipika and Advaitasiddhi,
> Madhusana abondens the idea that bhakti is an independent spiritual path
> and itself the parama-purusartha. The commonly accepted view that he was a
> champion of the cause of bhakti who successfully intergrated devotion and
> Advita cannot therefore be accepted without serious qualification".
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-- 
*sivakumarr*