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Madhusdana Sarasvat

Born 1540 CE

Bengal, India

Died 1640 CE

Bengal, India

Philosophy Advaita Vednta

philosopher

Madhusdana SarasvatFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Madhusudana Saraswati)

Madhusdana Sarasvat (c.15401640) was an

Indian philosopher in the Advaita Vednta tradition.

He was the disciple of viSveSvara sarasvatI and

mAdhava sarasvatI, and is the most celebrated name

in the annals of the great dvaita-advaita debate. His

Advaitasiddhi is a classic work, and most Advaita

teachers maintain that all the logical issues raised by

the dvaita school of AnandatIrtha have been

sufficiently answered by Madhusdana.

Contents

1 Birth and Education

2 Journey from Dvaita to Advaita

3 Works

3.1 List of Works

3.2 Quotes on Madhusudana Saraswati

3.3 Follower of Bhakti Yoga

4 Relation with Akbar

5 Sources and further reading

Birth and Education

Madhusdana was born in Bengal, and originally called Kamalanayana. He was educated in the

Navya-Nyya tradition, but became an Advaita sannysin, and moved to Varanasi in order to study

Advaita.

Journey from Dvaita to Advaita

According to a story, MadhusUdana SarasvatI is said to have really gone to Navadvipa to meet

Chaitanya, the great devotee of Krishna. But the MahAprabhu was no longer staying in NavadvIpa. So

MadhusUdana turned his attention to studying Nyaya in the flourishing Navya Nyaya school. He studied

works of Udayana such as the laxaNAvalI, the tattva-chintAmaNi of Gangesha and its commentaries.

Soon MadhusUdana was recognized as a foremost scholar in Nyaya. He was also said to have been

influenced by the wave of bhakti sweeping across Bengal due to Chaitanya. One story mentions that

MadhusUdana had, at that time, accepted the bheda-vAda, the doctrine of difference. The realism of

Nyaya seemed to provide a logical basis to bheda. He soon became keen on "disproving" advaita using

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all his skills in logic. But at the time, since he had not done an in-depth study of Advaita with the

intention of learning the details of Advaita Vedanta in order to disprove them, he proceeded to the sacred

city of Varanasi. There, he studied Vedanta under RAma-tIrtha. But as MadhusUdana studied Advaita

more and more, he became convinced of the veracity of Advaita. He later confessed to his Guru,

Rama-tIrtha, that he had originally come to study Advaita in order to refute it and whether there was

there any prAyashchitta for him. RAma tIrtha is said to have asked MadhusUdana to accept sannyAsa as

the prAyashchitta.

Regardless of whether these stories are true or not, it is true that a reading of the advaita-siddhi shows

that MadhusUdana was enormously skilled in dealing with logic and dialectics. Note also that the

naiyAyika, who is a realist to the core, is as much an opponent of the advaitin in debates as other realists

such as the dvaitins. MadhusUdana was more interested in defending advaita and tackling the exegetical

(interpretation of Vedanta) aspects.

Works

Madhusdana wrote a number of works, all involving the defence and exposition of Advaita Vednta, of

which the largest and most respected is theAdvaitasiddhi, which opposes the Dvaita Vednta positionsand arguments in Vysatrtha's workNyymta. Madhusdana also wrote at least nine other works, of

which five were commentaries (on theBhagavadgta, part of theBhgavatapura, and others). He

wrote the ISvarapratipatti-prakASa, vedAntakalpalatikA, sArasangraha on sarvajnAtman's samkshepa-

SArIraka, and the justly famous siddhAntabindu on SankarAcArya's daSaSlokI.

A total of twenty-one books have been ascribed to Madhusdana. Of them, nineteen books are

undoubtedly his, but the authorship of the remaining two is doubtful. Twelve of his books are on

philosophy, the rest are poems, plays and miscellaneous themes. The philosophical books include

commentaries.

List of Works

Advaita-siddhi [1] (http://www.archive.org/details/Advaita.Siddhi.by.Madhusudana.Sarasvati) [2]

(http://www.advaitasiddhi.org)

Advaita-manjari

Advaita-ratna-raksana

Atma-bodha-tika

Ananda-madakini

Prasthanabheda [3] (http://www.archive.org/details/Prasthanabheda.by.Madhusudana.Sarasvati)

Bhagavad-gita-gudhartha-dipika[4] (http://www.archive.org/details

/SrimadBhagavadGita.With.the.Commentaries)Vedanta-kalpa-latika [5] (http://www.archive.org/details

/Vedanta.Kalpalatika.by.Madhusudhana.Sarasvati) [6] (http://www.lalitaalaalitah.com/search/label

/!$'*)

Sastra-siddhanta-lesa-tika

Samksepa-sariraka-sara-samgraha

Siddhanta-tatva-bindu[7] (http://www.archive.org/details


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/Siddhantabindu.of.Madhusudana.Sarasvati.with.Commentaries)

Pramahamsa-priya [8] (http://www.lalitaalaalitah.com/search/label/.*0)

Veda-stuti-tika

Asta-vikriti-vivarana

Rajanam-prtibodha

Isvara-pratipatti-prakasa[9] (http://www.lalitaalaalitah.com/search/label/30*50)

Bhagavata-bhakti-rasayana

Bhagavata-purana-prathamasloka-vakhya

Krishna-kutuhala-nataka

Bhakti-samanya-nirupana

Sandilya-sutra-tika

Hari-lila-vakhya

Quotes on Madhusudana Saraswati

Madhusdana was so accomplished in Navya Nyaya (New logic) techniques that the following verse is

quoted about him when he visited Navadvipa, the center for learning in Nyaya Shastra,

#%*,-/5%6->

Meaning: When MadhusUdana, the master of speech, came to navadvIpa, MathurAnAtha tarkavAgIsha

(who was the foremost navya naiyAyika during those times) trembled (with fear) and GadAdhara

(another logician of great repute) became afraid.

A few words about the authors. MadhusUdana sarasvatI is a towering giant among advaitins. An oft

quoted verse regarding him is,

,-?@ABD?ABD?@,-?

Meaning: (Only) the Goddess of Learning, Sarasvati knows the limits of (knowledge of) MadhusdanaSarasvati. And Madhusdana Sarasvati knows the limits of (knowledge of) Goddess Sarasvati.

Follower of Bhakti Yoga

Madhusdana sarasvatI was a great devotee of Lord krishna. Just like Appayya Dikshita, who integrated

Sivadvaita into advaita vedanta, madhusdana bridged the sAtvata school of Pancaratra Vaishnavism


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and Advaita Vedanta philosophy. It is also interesting to note that madhusUdana boldly differs from Adi

Sankara in some of his interpretations of the Brahma Sutras and the gItA, although he salutes Adi

Sankara and Suresvara in the most reverential terms. Tradition also recounts that viTThaleSa, the son of

allabhacharya of the Suddhadvaita school, studied under madhusdana sarasvatI, who thus forms a

crucial link between Advaita Vedanta and many vaishNava sects in the north.

Relation with AkbarMadhusdana Sarasvatgained as a patron the Emperor Akbar, and was a friend of the poet Tulsds. He

led many symposia attended by both Hindu sdhus and Muslim mullhs. It is said that on Akbar's

suggestion, madhusUdana initiated large numbers of sannyasins from kshatriya and vaishya

communities to the dasanami orders, in order to form a group of martially trained ascetics to protect the

people. This most probably reflects historical fact. Armed nAga sannyAsin warriors, tracing their origins

to madhusdana sarasvatI, and affiliated with the daSanAmI akhADas, were a component of almost

every Rajput army in Northern India, till fairly recent times.

Sources and further readingKarl H. Potter, "Madhusdana Sarasvat" (in Robert L. Arrington [ed.].A Companion to the

Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. ISBN 0-631-22967-1)

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, et al. [edd],History of Philosophy Eastern and Western: Volume One

(George Allen & Unwin, 1952)

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