[Advaita-l] Nelson's position on the Advaitasiddhi and Bhaktirasayana

[D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ]

What about this sloka of Sankara from Sivanandalahari?

अंकोलं निजबीजसंततिरयस्कांतोपलं सूचिका
साध्वी नैजविभुं लता क्षितिरुहं सिंधुस्रिसरिद्वल्लभम्
प्राप्नोतीह यथा तथा पशुपतेः पादारविंदद्वयम्
चेतोवृत्तिरुपेत्य तिष्टति सदा सा भक्तिरित्युच्यते।।

-- 
regards,
Sarma.


On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 4:40 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> For your kind perusal I give below  the abstract of Nelson's PhD
> dissertation, "Bhakti in Advaita Vedanta: A translation and study of
> Madhusudana Sarasvati's Bhaktirasayana"
> (January  1, 1987),  where Nelson says that the Bhaktirasayana (BR) has
> borrowed the thesis from the Vaishnava devotionalists. This abstract
> appears at the beginning of his dissertation.
>
>
> Secondly, Nelson mentions the Gudarthadipika and Advaitassiddhi as later
> works, where Madhusudana abandons the idea that
> bhakti is an independent spiritual path and itself the parampurusartha.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bhakti in Advaita Vedanta: A translation and study of Madhusudana
> Sarasvati's Bhaktirasayana
> Lance Edward Nelson,McMaster University
>
> Abstract
> Madhusudana Sarasvat i (16th century), one of the greatest and most
> vigorous exponents of post-Samkara Advaita, was simultaneously, and
> somewhat paradoxically, a great devotee of Krsna. 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 attempts a theoretical integration of
> non-dualist metaphysics and the ecstatic devotionalism of the Bhagavata
> Purana.The work's main thesis, borrowed from the Vaisnava
> devotionalists, is that bhakti is highest goal of life
> (paramapurusartha).To establish this in the face of the orthodox
> Advaita doctrine that liberation alone is the highest aim, Madhusudana
> 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 moksa.  While the argument for the experiential
> superiority of bhakti in the state of j ivanmukti ("liberation in
> life") is plausible, Madhusudana 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 moksa. In short, he does not
> present a convincing argument for bhakti 's being the paramapurusartha.In
> later works such as the Gudarthadipika and Advaitassiddhi,
> Madhusudana abandons the idea that bhakti is an independent spiritual
> path and itself the paramapurusartha.The commonly accepted view that
> he was a champion of the cause of bhakti who successfully integrated
> devotion and Advaita cannot therefore be accepted without serious
>
> qualification.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Friends, you must have now seen that Rajaram does not really know the
> views of Nelson.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Sunil KB
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