42. Madhusūdana Sarasvatī: The Elixir of Devotion
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Shankar Nair [+]
University of Virginia
Description
What role do love and emotion play within philosophy – particularly non-dualist philosophy? Given non-dualism’s characteristic metaphysical commitment to an ultimately impersonal reality or deity, what space could there be for individual devotion to a personal God? What would that devotion look like – of what character or texture? Such are some of the key questions taken up in the Hindu philosopher Madhusūdana Sarasvatī’s (fl. 16th -early 17th c. CE) Sanskrit composition, the Elixir of Devotion (Bhakti-rasāyana). Writing from the perspective of the Hindu Advaita Vedānta tradition, Madhusūdana offers a creative non-dualist account of the cognitive structure, ontology, and phenomenology of devotion (bhakti), detailing and categorizing the variegated emotions, “flavors,” and ultimate bliss that devotion to the (non-dual) Lord comprises.