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Chapter One: Rāgamayī Bhakti and Its Vaishnava Tradition

—arises of itself within the inner being. It is called rāgānugā-bhakti or prema-bhakti. It is the highest of all and exceedingly rare.

According to the distinctions of śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, and śṛṅgāra, rāgānugā-bhakti is of five kinds. As feeling develops and grows more profound, śānta passes into dāsya, dāsya into sakhya, sakhya into vātsalya, and vātsalya into mādhurya. It should be remembered, however, that just as, in the progressive development of the five elements—earth, water, fire, and the rest—each preceding element remains contained within the next, so too, as the devotional feelings develop, an essential portion of the earlier feeling or feelings remains. Thus dāsya contains both service and śānta; vātsalya is predominant in the parental feeling, yet dāsya is also present within it. In the same way, śṛṅgāra contains dāsya and sakhya, though mādhurya is predominant.

Explaining rasa psychologically, specialists in the subject say that śānta and dāsya are mutually friendly; sakhya and vātsalya are neutral toward them, while ujjvala-rasa is opposed to them. Sakhya and ujjvala are mutually friendly. Ujjvala is opposed to śānta and vātsalya, and neutral toward sakhya. Vātsalya is opposed to both ujjvala and dāsya-rasa.

Rāgānugā-bhakti has three further subdivisions: premā, parā, and prauḍhā.

Premā. By properly practising the ninefold devotion of hearing, chanting, and the rest, in the prescribed manner and in the blessed company of saintly devotees and a true guru, an affectionate disposition toward the Lord arises. This is called prema-bhakti. Such is its power that all the devotee's faults, distortions, sins, and sufferings are burned away. When the current of feeling for the Lord surges through the heart like a river swollen in the rainy season and rushing swiftly toward the sea, it is called premā.

Parā. When a person has become firmly bound to God in a particular relationship, the feeling reaches complete maturity and steadiness. The aspirant becomes wholly absorbed in that feeling and forgets every other feeling and activity. This devotion, constituted of direct experience, is called parā. In it, rati becomes stable.

Prauḍhā. Prauḍhā-bhakti consists in direct realisation of the Supreme Self. First comes the supremely sweet relish of Rasarāja. As one is then gradually and completely possessed by one's divine form, an intense fire of separation arises. At last there is the exclusive cessation of every mental mode. The realisation of the Supreme Self that occurs after this cessation is prauḍhā-bhakti. Premā and parā-bhakti are found in the dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, and other rasas, but prauḍhā- bhakti appears especially and exclusively in śṛṅgāra-rasa. This prauḍhā-bhakti is, in truth, the devotion that is both the supreme human end and the goal to be attained. Although the word rasa is used of all the rasas, śṛṅgāra is in fact the principal rasa. In the others, the quality of rasa is secondary. Śrṛṅgāra alone is Rasarāja, the sovereign and very embodiment of rasa.¹