Detailed Contents

Chapter One: Rāgamayī Bhakti and Its Vaishnava Tradition

Existence-Consciousness-Bliss as the nature of Reality; the two attributes of the object of worship—paratva and saulabhya; regulated devotion and rāgamayī-bhakti; why rāgamayī-bhakti is kept secret; rāgānugā-bhakti not as a practice but as the goal; kinds and subdivisions of rāgānugā—premā, parā, and prauḍhā; śṛṅgāra as sovereign of the rasas; delight in the Self and union within the Self; the companion disposition and the nature of the jīva; the historical development of rāgamayī-bhakti and the Alvars; the sweet self-surrender of love; the lineage of rasika devotees; an exposition of rāgamayī-bhakti.

The characteristics of devotion in the Gaudiya teaching; rāgātmikā and rāgānugā devotion; the root cause of rāgānugā; rāgānugā in Pushtimarg and in the Nimbarka teaching; the primacy of remembrance; the order of practice; the practitioner’s body and perfected body; the mañjarī body; mental service; love not yet arisen and love arisen; eight-watch service; an example of the perfected body; the body of devotional feeling.

Points to know concerning the preceding Pushti devotion; here non-practice itself is practice; devotion is also one of the Lord’s līlās; līlā alone is the purpose; brahma-sambandha and the mark of initiation; Sri Haridas Ji’s Puṣṭimārga-lakṣaṇāni; the definition of pure devotion; the teaching of the Nārada Pāñcarātra and of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata; excellent devotion as the essential form of rāgānugā.

The qualities of excellent devotion: destruction of affliction, bestowal of auspiciousness, making liberation seem insignificant, extreme rarity, concentrated bliss, and attraction of the Lord; the forms of rāgānugā—desire-shaped and relationship-shaped; the nature of relationship-shaped devotion; divisions of kāmānugā; bhāva or rati; marks of the devotee in whom love has arisen—patience, fruitful use of time, detachment, freedom from pride, hope, intense longing, constant taste for singing the Name, attachment to reciting the Lord’s qualities, and love for his dwelling place.

Prema and its kinds; praṇaya, anurāga, and mahābhāva; kinds of rati; anubhāva; kinds of involuntary emotion—tender, blazing, and dry; their four further degrees; semblances of involuntary emotion; transitory emotion; enduring emotion; prīti; madhurā; devotion and power.

Printed pages 1–21.