Preface — Subject, Relationship, Purpose, and Qualification

Name, form, play, and abode all shine forth from Sita and Rama. They are devoid of every blame and are mines of auspicious qualities: inspirers of virtue, movers of all that is inert and conscious, sovereigns of both divine realms, endowed with parental affection and mastery, tenderness of character, accessibility, compassion, grace, mercy, sweetness, and infinitely many other qualities. They are the rasa of infinite rasas and the sun of infinite suns.

2. Relationship

The infinitely beginningless, eternal, and innate relationship of the countless beings in infinite universes is with Sita and Rama. The relationship predominant in this work is that of enjoyed and enjoyer—wife and husband. Through the true guru and saints who embody his gracious gaze, Bhagavan accepts a soul according to its proper relationship and plunges it into the ocean of bliss. The Supreme Self is being, consciousness, and bliss; his opposing grace is the world of nonbeing, insentience, and sorrow.

3. Purpose

The purpose is to draw the soul out of the ocean of adverse grace and immerse it in the ocean of favorable grace. The Supreme Self is being, consciousness, and bliss; adverse grace—nonbeing, inertia, and sorrow—is this very world.

4. Qualified recipient

The qualified person is one whom the Lord has already bound within the cord of his favorable grace, who now wishes to understand that bond, and who therefore accepts saints firmly established in the true tradition as gurus and takes refuge in Bhagavan. Those exclusively devoted to the King of rasa, inwardly joined to the feminine devotional disposition, are supremely qualified:

Nārī-bhāva-samāyuktās teṣāṃ dṛśyaṃ bhaved dhruvam.
“It will certainly become visible to those who are joined to the feminine devotional disposition.”
—Hanumat Saṃhitā 2.43