Chapter Five: Avatāra Doctrine and Rama Worship
The name “Rama” itself signifies sovereignty over rasa. The play of the amorous rasa finds its consummation in Sri Rama.
The ultimate reality
Ayodhya is the eternal ground of Sita and Rama’s rāsa. It is both the field of enjoyment and the field of liberation. Dvaraka, Mathura, and other sacred realms are portions of Ayodhya. Sita and Rama eternally perform the rāsa-līlā in the Ashoka grove, which is itself the embodied form of rasa.
Ayodhya is also known as Nandini, Satya, Saketa, Kosala, Rajadhani, Brahmapura, Aparajita, and by other names. One should first meditate upon the divine abode, then upon Rama—the complete embodiment of amorous rasa and its sole enjoyer—and then contemplate the formation of the rāsa.
2. In the view of the Lomaśa Saṃhitā
Entry into the realm of amorous rasa
To enter this realm, one must receive the grace-filled glance of the intimate companions of the princess of Videha. No practice or ritual by itself can obtain entry.
The principal intimate companions are Chandrakala, Vimala, Subhaga, Madanakala, Charushila, Hema, Kshema, Padmagandha, Lakshmana, Shyamala, Hamsi, Sugama, Vamshadhvaja, Chitralekha, Tejorupa, and Indiravali. These sixteen are the principal group leaders.
The four principal companions
Among the sixteen, Chandrakala, Charushila, Madanakala, and Subhaga are foremost, and Chandrakala is supreme among them. Just as Bharata possesses autonomous authority over outward affairs, Chandrakala holds supreme authority in the intimate līlās. As Lalita arranges the union of Radha and Krishna, Chandrakala arranges the union of Sita and Rama; her place here is precisely Lalita’s place there.
Chandrakala’s story is central to the Lomaśa Saṃhitā, followed by a magnificent account of the rāsa-līlā in Ayodhya’s Pramoda grove. Chandrakala is the teacher of the nectar of the rāsa, and through her grace the practitioner enters this līlā in the perfected body. Verses 186–189 of chapter twenty offer—
The page also gives traditional verses declaring that the name Rama signifies the sovereign of rasa and that every amorous play culminates in him.