Date of Award
2016
Access Restriction
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Yoga Studies
School or College
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
For the purposes of this essay and in the effort to articulate a particular expression of bhakti, the focus will be on emotional bhakti through the lens of a form of Kṛṣṇa Bhakti that draws upon conventions found in aesthetic theory in order to communicate the loving devotion towards God. While there are many expressions of bhakti traditions depending on the deity of worship, the ontology subscribed or the way and goal taken asunder, I will explore the role of rasa in the discourses of Kṛṣṇa bhakti expressed in influential form in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva and theoretically elaborated in the dualist Gauḍīya Sampradāya tradition in a selection from Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu as well as in the Bhakti Rasa for the Advaitin Renunciate in Madhusūdana Sarasvatī’s theory of devotional sentiment from the Bhaktirasāyana. This is because the focus of this study will be to understand the cultivation of devotional sentiment drawn from the wellspring of affective experience that is gathered through a particular interweaving of artistic sentiment and devotional sentiment.
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Johanna, "Bhakti Yoga: Understanding Bhakti Through Rasa Sentiment" (2016). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 780.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/780
