Chapter Four: The Perfected Body and Entry into Līlā

This concerns the supremely secret realm of practice. It should be remembered that eight stages are recognized on this royal road: rati, sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva, and mahābhāva. Rati is the first. It is present only when one has become utterly detached from every pleasure of this world and the next, and even from liberation, and has placed one’s love solely in the lotus feet of Bhagavan.

One conviction must take deep and immovable root in the practitioner’s heart: “In this world and the next, everywhere, always, and in every way, Sri Krishna alone is mine. Apart from Sri Krishna, no one and nothing has ever been mine.” Every other object and principle then disappears. Faults such as lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, malice, jealousy, and spite become inconceivable; they have already ended within the practitioner’s body. In the perfected body, nothing remains but continuous experience of Sri Krishna.

The practitioner’s body and the perfected body; or the feeling-body and perfected body

We have said above that the material body cannot enter līlā. For that, a feeling-body and a perfected body are required. The perfected body is discussed in Nath, Buddhist, Rasashvara, Christian, and Sufi disciplines, though their processes and goals differ.

The body, then, is of two kinds: the practitioner’s body and the perfected body. Practice is performed with the practitioner’s body; rasa is perceived and līlā savoured with the perfected body.¹ Yet even the practitioner’s body is not the material body born from a mother’s womb. Some authorities distinguish the feeling-body from the perfected body; others regard them as one. Ordinarily, one should first attain the practitioner’s body and then the perfected body—or first the feeling-body and then the perfected body. Different saints have reasoned about this from their individual experience in different ways, but when the obscuring fixation upon difference is removed, it becomes evident that there is no real contradiction.

The material body and its divisions: gross, subtle, causal, and great-causal

First comes the material body, which has three divisions: gross, subtle, and causal. According to some systems, transforming this causal body into the great-causal body is the goal of practice. Others maintain that the causal body is pure and should itself be transformed into the feeling-body. Sankhya does not accept a causal body. The causal body is bliss-like, yet it remains constituted of ignorance. Only when the causal condition ends does the great-causal body appear.

Through worship, yogic practice, or the discipline of the divine Name, one should strive to attain one’s svabhāva—one’s inherent spiritual nature. Taking refuge in the guru’s grace and adopting a suitable discipline, one should become free of avidyā-māyā. Mantra practice, repetition, and the other prescribed rites lead to the attainment of this inherent nature.