Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

One may also meditate upon their many-coloured rāsa and other divine plays in Awadh,
with journeys from time to time to Mithila in the company of all four brothers.

Know this to be the path that takes refuge in sweetness, the root of happiness for rasika devotees.
Grasping its appropriate characteristics, I shall forever perform this very bhāvanā.

Joined to the praṇaya described above, know the eight involuntary embodied states.
Whatever transformation occurs in body and mind is to be regarded as a sāttvika-bhāva.

Arms rest beautifully upon shoulders, while armlets lend splendour to the limbs.
The handsome sash around the graceful waist steals the mind away.

The paired eyes, dark and quick as khañjana and sapharī fish, are arrows;
it is as though a youthful woman’s eyebrows were the drawn bow that shoots them.

Observe the charming girdle upon the closely bound waistcloth and the graceful movement of his gait.
The graceful Beloved, treasury of beauty, bears bow and arrow in his hands.

Raghunanda’s loveliness is the supporting determinant, the ālambana-vibhāva.
In the devotees who take refuge in lovely rasa, it produces a constant longing to meet him.

Know the cuckoo’s call and the season of spring as exciting determinants.
A gentle smile and the movement of the eyes are described as consequent expressions.

Know all eight sāttvika states described earlier to be supremely radiant.
Infer all the transitory feelings as well, apart from fierceness and indolence.

The enduring emotion is beloved-love: praṇaya, prema, sneha,
and anurāga, through which they sacrifice body, mind, and home for one another.

The ten conditions of separation and union are the same ten already described.
Now the hostility and friendship among the rasas are stated as they occur.

Peace and service should be understood as mutually friendly;
parental affection and friendship are both neutral toward them—understand this conclusion clearly.

Friendship and amorous sweetness are mutually friendly,
while peace and parental affection stand in pronounced opposition to amorous sweetness.

When Raghubar sports amid a company of women,
amorous sweetness, wonder, and laughter—these three rasas reside there together.