Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition

“That power is I, Sri Sita. Sri Rama is Mahadeva, the enjoyer beyond being and nonbeing. Understand that Ramachandra assumes a body through the movement of my artful glance, while my body exists through his desire. From the union of Ramachandra’s body and mine comes the Para-Brahman whose nature is rasa. Through it the universe becomes happy.

“From this one rasa arise the many rasas: heroic, compassionate, comic, terrible, and the rest. All powers emerge from me, constituted of pure sattva and free from change. Such are Vagisha, Madhavi, Nitya, Vijna, Avijna, Haripriya, Kutarupa, Manojivana, and the other powers that bestow devotion and liberation. All are objects of enjoyment for Ramachandra, eternally blissful and delighting in the play of rasa. They are like me, and Raghunandana alone is the enjoyer of them all.”

Establishing his position in forceful terms, Madhuracharya says in substance: Bhagavan Ramachandra is Para-Brahman in a wondrous, supramundane human form assumed for the rasa of līlā. To project upon him the appearance of an ordinary person, treat him as a servant of injunction and prohibition, and thereby deny his sovereignty is a mistake. Only knowers of reality can understand this. Public convention should be accepted as authority in worldly conduct, not in the supramundane meaning of Bhagavan’s secret.¹

The work thus presents the sweet rasa in a highly compelling way and gave great inspiration and strength to later practice in that rasa.

Śrī Rāmatattva-prakāśa

The Śrī Rāmatattva-prakāśa is a second work by Madhuracharya accepted as an authoritative text. Printed by Vidyapati Press, Laheriasarai, in Vikrama year 2003, it includes the Udyotā commentary of Sri Akhileshwardas. It was published by Sri Rampriyasharan, a recipient of the grace of Sri Ramkishore Sharan of Hanumat Nivas.

The work contains thirteen ullāsas. The first explains the relation of source and partial manifestation among the avatāras. The second establishes Sri Rama’s superiority to the other avatāras—