Chapter Four: The Perfected Body and Entry into Līlā

—devotion, there is no need for an external scripture or external code of rules. After the inherent nature has been attained, no separate personal desire appears. The power of self-duplication is then acquired.

Bhāva and prema

The development of bhāva is prema. As the discipline of bhāva continues, prema naturally manifests. Until prema dawns, direct vision of Bhagavan is impossible. With the dawn of bhāva, the principle of the supporting subject becomes manifest; but until prema arises, the principle of the beloved object cannot appear. The state of prema, therefore, is the state of perfection.

Rasa and light

For a lotus to bloom, it needs on one side a water-filled lake together with the earth, and on the other a radiant sphere of light together with the sky. The lotus opens only when the rasa below and the sun’s rays above meet simultaneously; otherwise it cannot blossom. In the same way, the development of bhāva requires both the unfolding of the object of contemplation and the stable emotion that is the root-source from which rasa arises.

Feeling-body, love-body, perfected body

As the contemplated goal begins to unfold, nectar starts to flow from the khecarī vessel, the vessel of immortality. It first appears in the lake of bhāva as the bud of feeling; the sun’s rays then open it into the lotus of love. First comes the feeling-body, then the love-body, and then the perfected body. The feeling-body is the body of separation, the love-body is the body of union, and in the perfected body there is neither separation nor union—there is eternal, unbroken savouring of līlā.

Bhagavan is perpetually playing with himself. He is eternal, and therefore his līlā is eternal. So long as ignorance remains active, this eternal līlā cannot even be conceived. One must first become established in nondual awareness. It is then seen that the One, arrayed in countless forms, is forever playing with himself. In the words of the Upanishad, this is his delight in the Self, play with the Self, union with the Self, and repose in the Self.¹ In infinitely many ways, that One becomes a second—