MADHUSUDANA'S CONCEPT OF BHAKTI

Abstract

The conception of Bhakti plays vital role in the philosophy of Madhusūdanasaraswati. He was a great teacher of Advaita Vēdānta and as such he could hardly go beyond the typical views of the monistic school of Vedanta philosophy. He pledged his allegiance to this system by confirming over and over again that knowledge i.e. Vrttijñana of Brahman leads to salvation. And salvation is absolute identity between Jiva and Brahman. Yet Madhusudana could not keep himself away from the influence of Vaisnavism of his time. But the two apparently conflicting stream of thought did not remain unassimilated. As one of the greatest intellectuals of medieval India, he tried to forge a reconciliation between the Advaita View and the Vaisnavic View".

In his exposition of Bhakti Madhusudana faithfully adopts the definition of Bhakti in the Bhagavata, mentioned above for Madhusūdana also, bhakti is a mental mode corresponding to the uninterrupted flow of the Bhagavata and arises in a mind which has obtained liquification. Through the Bhagavata does not expressedly refer to this state of the mind at the time of bhakti, Yet Madhusūdana takes this clue from the analogy of mind with the water of the Gangas, mentioned in the Bhagavata. Madhusudana maintains that bhakti springs in the mind melted by Bhagavaddharma, which Madhusūdana equates with madgunasruti of the Bhagavata. Finally, such bhakti is directed to Sarveśa - a term corresponding to Sarvagunasaya of the Bhagavata. Madhusūdana therefore, may be said to have adopted the definition of bhakti in the Bhagavata in all its details, though he improves upon the concept of bhakti by imposing variegated ideas, metaphysical, literary and Otherwise. The gist of Madhusudana's bhakti may therefore, be summed up as follows: By the practice of listening to the merits of Bhagavat the mind melts. Such melted mind develops an uninterrupted flow towards the Supreme Lord.