Detailed Contents

—what is the perfected body? Names, complexions, clothing, ages, directions, and services of the eight companions and eight mañjarīs; the practitioner’s body and perfected body, or devotional body and perfected body; the material body and its divisions—gross, subtle, causal, and great causal bodies; intrinsic nature; devotional body and natural body; essential spiritual body; intrinsic nature, devotional feeling, and love; rasa and radiance; devotional body, love-body, and perfected body; eternal līlā; the conscious realm.

Printed pages 78–88.

Chapter Five: Avatāra-tattva and the Worship of Rama

The incarnation principle in all religious disciplines; three modes of the Lord’s form; divisions of incarnation—Puruṣa, quality, līlā, Manvantara, and Yuga incarnations; the Lord’s own form, essentially identical forms, and possession by divine power; general and particular purposes of incarnation; further divisions; first, second, and third Puruṣa; quality, līlā, Manvantara, Yuga, and complete incarnations; the fundamental doctrine of incarnation; human rasa; scientific evolutionism and incarnation theory; the development of Bhāgavata religion; the historicity of Rama devotion; the development of Rama worship.

The haṃsa and paramahaṃsa; primordial source of the principle of worship; the cosmic person of the Ṛgveda; the Nārāyaṇīya narrative of the Mahābhārata; Bhāgavata and Satvata religion; Shiva as the first teacher of Rama worship; whether Rama worship is Vedic or Tantric; the sweet disposition in the Sahasragīti; Rama’s sweet form; the predominance of sacred restraint in Rama devotion; surrender as the sole means; the Vaishnavas’ five daily periods; servitude and surrender; the conjunction of servitude and sweetness; influence of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

1. A Bird’s-Eye View of the Shiva Saṃhitā

Majesty and sweetness; eligibility for sweetness; manifestation of devotional feeling; the Lord’s beauty, sweetness, and grace; the embodied form of rasa; revelation of the essential form; “He is rasa”; manifestation of amorous practice; the Lord’s thirst for love; the meaning of the word “Rama”; ultimate truth; Ayodhya as the eternal site of rāsa.

2. In the View of the Lomaśa Saṃhitā

Entry into the realm of śṛṅgāra; four principal companions; Candrakalā as teacher of rāsa-rasa.

3. A Bird’s-Eye View of the Hanumat Saṃhitā

Absorption in the nectar of love; formation of the rāsa; the five truths; radiant devotional rasa and its support, object, stimulus, expressions, involuntary emotions, and enduring emotion; divine play; the Bṛhat Kauśala-khaṇḍa as a foundational work of amorous Rama devotion; glimpses of the sweet disposition in Goswami Tulsidas; the chamber of love in the Gītāvalī; creeper, beloved, bee, and companion—śṛṅgāra within sacred restraint and restraint within śṛṅgāra.

Printed pages 89–115.