CWTVKS Volume 3

BHAGAVAD-BHAKTI-RASAYANAM

The theory and practice or the science and art) of Bhakti, devotion to the Divine Lord, is the subject matter of this treatise entitled “ Bhagavad-Bhakti-Rasayanam ”⁴⁵

Ram Misra, a Kashyapa Brahmin hailed from Kanauj and settled in Bengal, first resided in, Navadwip and later shifted to East Bengal His family and descendants lived for a long time in the village of Kotalipara in the Faridpur District. Purandaracharya was the sixth in lineage and Kamalanayana was the third son of his brother Yadavananda of whom the tenth descendant is Sjt. Chintaharana Chakravarti of Bethune College, Calcutta, who is naturally proud of his lineage and preserves the genealogical tree.

Now, Kamalanayana, after completing the usual course of studies, moved to Navadwip for advanced courses and there he studied under Sri Rama Tarkavagisha under whom also studied Gadadhara Bhattacharya of Neo-Nyaya fame, a senior contemporary. His remarkable brilliance in the studies and later in debating skill left its impress not only on the schools, but wherever he made his appearance. But, the supreme object of life had such an irresistible attraction for him that he left Bengal for good with the avowed object of renouncing the world i.e. worldly life and entering the monastic order under proper guidance. He visited Banaras and under Madhava Saraswati studied Vedanta, and got initiated into Sannyas, formal renunciation, by Vishweshwara Saraswati who gave him, on initiation into Sannyas, the name of Madhusudan Saraswati. All these facts are gathered from the author’s works. From a perusal of the detailed discussion of scholars about the date we can safely state his period to be 1495 1585 A.D. or 1490 – 1602 A.D. In any case he had a long life and record of service, apart from being the author of about 20 works of which at least ten are Vedantic and could be safely assigned to his authorship. King Pratapaditya, Emperor Akbar and celebrities in literary and devotional spheres known to history were his contemporaries among whom we shall mention one for the interest that attaches itself to this saint-author and the light it throws on his courage in the face of crisis and in a way on the dynamic personality of this great Vedantin. That name is none other than Akbar the Great Mogul.

In an article on "The organisation of Sannyasins of the Vedanta’ (1925 J.R.A.S.) Farquhar records an incident in the life of Madhusudan Saraswati which shows the mettle of the man in a critical situation. We shall briefly mention that episode here, as that spotlights the courage, broad sympathies and practical wisdom of this Sannyasin which aspect is not as much well-known and appreciated as Madhusudan the Vedantin, star of the first magnitude in the firmament of Advaita dialectics. The Fakirs of Islam were molesting the Sannyasins of the Vedanta, inflicting physical injury on the poor unarmed mendicants; while the former were all armed and conscious that they belonged to the same faith as the reigning emperor, the latter, precluded from being armed by their station in life i.e. Sannyasa, renunciation, had nothing but their bare bodies and tonsured heads inviting the villainous assaults of the crude and vulgar elements in the community of Fakirs. When the Sannyasins could no longer bear with the long and sustained attack of the brute forces and approached Madhusadan for advice, the latter made up his mind to put an end to the pitiable plight of the wretched Sadhus and immediately made a move towards the end. He went to the capital and sought an interview with the emperor. When Akbar gave him audience and Madhusudan explained to him the situation and the object of his visit, the emperor thought for a while and sought the inevitable Birbal’s advice.

As usual, the ready-witted wise man said: “The order of Sannyas among Hindus is entered into by Brahmins alone who could not carry any lethal weapon in accordance with their shastraic custom. Why not allow other castes also to enter the order of Sannyas and arm them with weapons lawfully? The Brahmin Sannyasins need not carry weapons, let them observe their custom and shastra, but the rest of the Hindu Sannyasins armed will be sufficient guarantee against temptation to do mischief from the wicked vagabonds among the Fakirs. Dharma Shastra can be properly interpreted, if Madhusudan Saraswati is so minded, he can find suitable means to amend, interpret, and regulate the shastraic customs and save the Sannyasins as a whole. In that case the emperor would be pleased to grant all legitimate requests in that direction etc. Akbar readily gave his assent to the proposal as far as he was concerned. Madhusudan appreciated the wise counsel of Birbal and accepted it with the approval of the emperor. The plan worked very well to the great relief of the aggrieved Sannyasins. He made the Hindu community accept his novel proposal that of the ten sub-orders of Sannyasins three must be reserved for Brahmins viz. Asrama, Tirtha and Saraswati, and the remaining seven, Bharati, Giri, Aranya etc. for others. Ever since, this has been observed in North India, though this system does not hold good in the South.

The liberal views of Madhusudan are quite manifest in some of his activities, much more so in his literary works. This fact is noteworthy in view of his uncompromising position as an Advaitin, the author of Advaita-Siddhi in which he has applied his unsurpassed debating skill on the lines of the Neo-Nyaya of Navadwip. India of those centuries considered it a great merit on the part of a scholar to vanquish his adversary in a debate. Madhusudan, in his famous dialetical work mentioned above, especially in the first two sections, employs highly technical terms, raises a number of alternative questions and negatives all the possible answers by confounding the other party or parties. The object is rather to confound than to convince. That was permissible in those days, though it is certainly not admissible in modern times. But it must be noted that while, on the one hand, he was an orthodox Advaitin for dialectical purposes and quite loyal to Shankaracharya, always conformed to rules as ordained in the Dharma Shastras, he was on the other hand a devotee of uncompromising type who upheld the Bhakti-view and strongly advocated the path of devotion, Bhakti Marga, for all seekers and taught by his own example that it was superior to the line of Jnana, Knowledge, in many respects and pointed out the difference between the two in the work under review which we shall mention presently. In this connection it may be mentioned that he sought to reconcile the Shruti, the Scripture for Brahma Vidya, with the Pancharatra, the Scripture for Bhakti, the Bhagavata cult. With this object he wrote a small treatise “ Ishwara-pratipatti-prakasha” throwing light on the correct grasp of the concept of Godhead in the two scriptures. He equates Virat, Hiranyagarbha, Ishwara and the Transcendental of the Shruti with Samkarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Vasudeva of the Tantra and concludes that these four are the same as the four parts of the Udgitha, and the turiya, the fourth, a secret knowledge of which, he says, is obtained through initiation and by the grace of the Guru.

His was a nature where the qualities of the heart vied with those of the head. In fact he upheld the view of the Bhakti school that to hear and utter God’s Name is more powerful and effective than the ceremonials ordained in the Smriti (expiatory rites, prayascitta). His innate devotion was nurtured on the soil of his birth; a land known for the free expression of Bhakti at least since Jayadeva’s time and famed for the exuberant radiance of Sri Krishna’s love since the appearance or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Doubt les. his friendship with Tulsidas of Ramayana fame while at Banaras was natural and temperamentally agreeable, a powerful stimulant for the activities in the field of devotional literature. He clearly saw that the orthodox way of propagating Vedantic knowledge and its practice was rigid and narrow and too restrictive while Bhakti, the devotional way was broad-based, inclusive and liberal and threw his weight on its side in the life he led as well as in his writings on the science and art of Bhakti. There are ten works of which the subject-matter is Vedanta, jnanamarga, some of them are independent works and the rest commentaries. Other works are devoted to Bhakti. Here again some are commentaries on Hymns like the Mahimna Stotra, some are independent works like Bhakti-rasayana. That he has written this work after writing many Vedantic works on the side of Knowledge is evident from his references to them in this work. For in his commentary on Karika 24 of Ullasa I, he says ’ all this process is expounded in detail in my Siddhanta Bindu’. In another place, “ The details are to be understood from my Vedanta-kalpalatika” (Com. on 1.20). He does not subscribe to the generally held opinion among the Vedantins that devotion and worship of Brahman with features, saguna-upasti, is a concession to human weakness and is meant for the common folk who are weaklings and not competent for Jnana, for manda-adhikarins. He drives home his argument and shows how Bhakti Yoga is superior to Jnana Marga for reasons stated in his gloss on the very first verse. We can very well understand Madhusudan when without mincing matters he categorically mentions the points of difference between Jnana and Bhakti. The difference pertains to four aspects of the question, he states: (1) Swarupa, nature, (2) Sadhana, means, (3) Phala, fruit, (4) Adhikara; competency of the seeker. As regards the first, he says, Bhakti is the state of the mindstuff sufficiently melted and modified so as to take the form of the Lord who is worshipped while still retaining the recognition of difference between the worshipper and the worshipped, Bhagavan and Bhakta. But Brahma Vidya is the state in which there is no recognition of any difference, no melting of the mindstuff, cittadruti, and there remains nothing but the consciousness of the Self, one-without-a-second.

2) As regards the means also there is a gulf of difference. The means of acquiring and developing Bhakti lies in hearing and constantly meditating upon the sublime qualities of the Lord, Bhagavan. Whereas the Sadhana of Brahmavidya lies in meditating upon “ That thou art ” and other sentences of the Vedanta.

3) The fruit of Bhakti, the culminating result of the practice is superb Love that has for its object the Divine Being, while that of Brahma Vidya is Kaivalya, the state Absolute.

4) And last as regards Adhikara, qualification, any living being, prani matra, can enter the path of Bhakti. Whereas the line of Brahma Vidya is open only to those who have renounced everything, Sannyasins, and are equipped with the well-known fourfold sadhana beginning with discrimination between the Eternal and transitory and ending with keen desire for liberation.

Madhusudan begins the work with a verse in which he proposes to expound Bhakti Yoga in the light of shastraic texts by which term he means not primarily the Vedantic texts which inculcate the Brahma Vidya, but mainly the Bhagavata and texts like the Gita. It can be put in brief this way. The scripture for the line of Knowledge — Brahma Vidya is the Shruti, the Upanishads: the canon for the Bhakti Yoga is Bhagavata. Therefore his commentary on the first of the three Ullasas of this work contains exhaustive quotations from that priceless scripture of the Vaishnava cult and every statement he makes in the Karika is well reasoned and supported by resort to pausages from the Bhagavata and in a few places by apt lines from the Bhagavad Gita. The commentary of this saint-author on the remaining two Ullasas of the work not being available, it is written by the erudite editor Sri Nambutirippad, following faithfully in the footsteps of the great scholar-saint with appropriate and copious quotations from the Bhagavata, Gita, and occasionally from other Puranic texts for comparative reference in support. The first section contains 37 Karikas; along with the author’s commentary and the editor’s annotation it covers half the volume of the work. There are 72 topics discussed here including the process of the development of Bhakti as Rasa, Bhakti as Sadhana, as means, and Bhakti as Sadhya, to be realised. If the first Section deals with Bhakti in a general way, the second expounds Bhakti in particular details, while the last establishes the theory of Bhakti as Rasa — as distinct from the traditional nine Rasas which he admits and respects. In his treatment of the subject of Bhakti-Rasa he does not move an inch astray from rules, the recognised forms of the constituent elements of Rasa as propounded by Alankarikas from the earliest times. Independent and bold thinker, yet a tenacious traditionalist; a towering intellect, yet an irrepressible ardour of the heart given without reserve to the Godhead Sri Krishna whose body is the Para Brahman, he knew how to meet the rival parties of his times in the field of religious philosophies and gave the lie direct to the general and loose accusation that the Advaitins — the Mayavadins — are atheists, Buddhists in disguise, by his personal example as much as by his writings.

We may sum up in the words of the scholar who writing the Foreword to the book puts the substance of Madhusudan’s life as he lived and the position he occupied as one who never forgot in all his writings on Bhakti that he was an Advaitin:

“If so, is it that Kaivalya, the realisation of the Absolute, does not arise from Knowledge alone? No, who says so? It is true that Knowledge being opposed to Ignorance, the former dispels the latter. But the Knowledge must be applied to the acquisition of Bhakti. Incidentally that knowledge is helpful for the purpose of Kaivalya. Who is there propounding a theory that God confers mukti, liberation, on the devotee without a knowledge of the Atman? The fact is this that the relation of cause and effect exists between Bhakti and Mukti, the former is the effect, while the latter is the cause. Therefore knowledge must be directed towards the acquiring of Bhakti. Bhakti achieves results which can not be done by knowledge or anything else. It is a fact that knowledge is the direct and immediate cause of Kaivalya which is a different matter altogether. Therefore it is that liberated souls assume embodiments and worship the Godhead, says Shankaracharya, who in a famous oft-quoted verse sings:

Even when the difference is blotted out, O Lord, I am thine, not Thou mine. For the wave is of the Sea, not the Sea of the wave.”

A word about Madhusudan’s beloved God is necessary before we close. To him Sri Krishna is not an incarnation of the Godhead, but is the Godhead who incarnates himself in the ten embodiments of the Puranas as is sung by Jayadeva in the opening verses of Gita Govinda, Daša kṛti-kṛte.

The vast erudition, care and industry of the editor are manifest on every page. The value of this publication is enhanced by the editor being a redoubtable champion of Vedanta doubled with being a devotee of intense ardour.

It deserves to be prescribed as text-book in all colleges and universities and Pathashalas of the old type where Shastras are being taught and prescribed for examination as such a step would inculcate Bhakti in the minds of the students of Vedanta which generally, not always, not without exception, dries up the heartsprings of the soul leaving the Vedantin dry.