madhusuudana sarasvatii

[anand hudli]

On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Ravisankar S. Mayavaram wrote:

> Dear Advaitins,
>
>         I hear in many places (like SRV, SRH and here) about the saint
> shrii Madhusudhana Sarasvati, I would be thankful if any of you could give
> WWW pointers or post information about him here.
>
> Thank you.

   He was one of the finest polemic writers of the advaita school. His
   best known work is the advaita-siddhi, which is a defense of advaita
  against the attacks of the Maadhvas. More specifically it is a response
  to the nyaayaamR^ita of Vyaasa tiirtha.

  A number of other minor works are attributed to Madhusuudana. One
  of them is the siddhaanta-bindu, a commentary on the dasha-shlokii of
  Shankara. Another is a commentary on the Shiva-mahimna stotra, where
  Madhusuudana cleverly interprets it as a stotra to both Shiva  and
  VishhNu!

  In his Bhakti-rasaayana, Madhusuudana has said that the highest
  Brahman is Krishna. Being an advaitin did not prevent him from being
 an ardent Krishna bhakta. He even went as far as saying that he was
 more interested in Krishna than in the nirguNa brahman. HH Shrii
 abhinava vidyaa tiirtha svaamiji of Sringeri has quoted this in one
 of his lectures.
 Some scholars say that he was influenced by the Bhakti movements of
 Chaitanya and Vallabhaachaarya.

  Madhusuudana has written a commentary on the Giitaa, which differs
  in some points from the commentary of Shankara. I have the introduction
  to that commentary with me and I will post it if there is enough
  interest and if it is consistent with the objectives of this mailing
  list.

> --
> Ravi
>

Anand