Devotional Detachment: The Islamic Virtue of Zuhd & Rūpa Gosvāmī's Upadeśāmṛta

Abstract

The Islamic virtue known as zuhd was an essential component of piety in classical Arabic texts. Often translated as asceticism or renunciation, it indicates a preference for spiritual aspirations over material pleasures. Widely revered texts such as al-Risāla al-Qushayrīya discuss the varying ways in which Muslims conceptualize the meaning of zuhd. Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Upadeśāmṛta, a concise Sanskrit text from the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition, also advocates a similar approach known as yukta-vairāgya. Rūpa wants to create an ethical foundation for a devotee’s mystical ascent to contemplation of Kṛṣṇa. A modern commentator, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami, explains Rūpa’s ethical insights in response to economic and political conditions of the twentieth century. By putting these two conceptual frameworks of devotional detachment in conversation with each other, important light can be shed on a comparative ethics of asceticism for an overtaxed planet in the twenty-first century.