Chapter Six: The Rasika Lineage of Rama Worship

“Within perpetual right conduct, his rasika nature moved in a most wondrous way. Through Janakivallabha’s grace, this is told of disciple after disciple.”

In the preceding song, “follower of the tenfold way” means a practitioner of sweet worship. The point is that Anantananda’s entire lineage followed this path. Bala Ali belonged to this lineage; his Sneha-prakāśa, Dhyāna-mañjarī, and other works are honoured as foundational sources.

Rasika devotees of Rama claim that Agradas and Kilhadas worshipped in sweetness like their guru Krishnadas Payahari.

Madhuracharya

The tradition’s supremely influential teacher and practitioner was Madhuracharya. Kilha Svami’s disciple was the younger Krishnadas; Krishnadas’s disciple Vishnudas; Vishnudas’s disciple Narayana Muni; Narayana Muni’s disciple Hridayadeva; and Hridayadeva’s disciple Ramaprapanna, known as Madhuracharya.

Among Ramanandi practitioners of sweet rasa, Madhuracharya occupies a place comparable to Jiva Goswami among Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Jiva Goswami fortified the philosophical side of Gaudiya practice through six vast Sandarbhas on devotion, love, and related themes. Madhuracharya likewise composed six large Sandarbhas, of which only two have been published: (1) Śrī Sundara-maṇi-sandarbha and (2) Śrī Vaidika-maṇi-sandarbha.

Another work, Madhuracharya’s Śrī Rāma-tattva-prakāśa, has recently appeared. With strong scriptural evidence it establishes Rama-rasika worship, describing Rama’s supremacy, the worship of Rama by sages such as Shukadeva, and the eternal divine līlās of Sita-Rama in magnificent and captivating form.

His principal works also include Śrī Bhagavad-guṇa-darpaṇa and Mādhurya-keli-kādambinī, both especially esteemed in the tradition. Madhuracharya’s writings are worshipped like foundational sources and cited as authority.

As Jiva Goswami grounded his position in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata, Madhuracharya grounded his in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Contemporary critical scholarship may not accept his interpretations at many points, but his learned and reasoned construction of the tradition deserves study by students of literature and philosophy, for these books strongly inspired later rasika devotees.

In his introduction to the Śrī Sundara-maṇi-sandarbha, Purushottam Sharan gives Madhuracharya’s lineage as follows—