Chapter One: Rāgamayī Bhakti and Its Vaishnava Tradition
—meditating upon Sri Radha and Krishna in his mañjarī body. He saw Sri Krishna sporting in the waters of the Yamuna with the gopīs. One of Sri Radha's earrings fell into the water, and the sakhīs began to search for it. In external time, Srinivasa spent a week searching for that earring in his contemplated body; his practitioner's body remained motionless upon its seat.
When Ramachandra Kaviraja arrived, he too entered the perfected body as Srinivasa's companion and joined him. Ramachandra saw Radha's earring beneath a lotus leaf and at once placed it in the hand of Srinivasa's contemplated form. Waves of joy surged among the sakhīs and mañjarīs. Pleased with them, Sri Radharani gave them as a reward betel she had chewed. Ramachandra and Srinivasa both returned to their practitioners' bodies like people awakening from sleep. It was then seen that the betel Sri Radha had bestowed as a reward was actually in their mouths.
Just as there are gross, subtle, and causal bodies, there is also a body of devotional feeling, or perfected body. Through this body, the practitioner relishes the rasa of the Lord's līlās. We shall discuss the body of devotional feeling and the perfected body in detail in the appropriate place.
The Lord's grace is called puṣṭi: "His grace is nourishment." The devotion or love of God that arises through that grace is called puṣṭi-bhakti.
Several points concerning Puṣṭi Bhakti
This devotion is rāgamayī by nature. Shandilya defines it as sā parānuraktir īśvare—"It is supreme attachment to the Lord." Narada calls it sā tv asmin parama-prema-rūpā—"It is of the nature of supreme love for him." The Pāñcarātra defines it as follows:
Māhātmya-jñāna-pūrvas tu sudṛḍhaḥ sarvato 'dhikaḥ /
sneho bhaktir iti proktas tayā muktir na cānyayā //
"Firm and unsurpassed love for God, preceded by knowledge of his greatness, is called devotion. Liberation is attained through it and through no other means."
This affectionate rāgātmikā-bhakti is received by the Lord's grace. That grace is not something produced or attained by spiritual practice, nor is it dependent upon any practice. God is dependent upon his devotee—subordinate to the devotee. Consequently, here the absence of practice is itself the practice.
Just as creation, secondary creation, and the other cosmic acts are pastimes of Sri Purushottama, so too are this devotion, grace, and puṣṭi pastimes of the Lord. What is līlā? The Subodhinī commentary on the Second Canto defines it:
"Līlā means the desire for play. It is activity alone, apart from any intended result. No external result is produced through that action. Even if a result is produced, it is not desired; nor does the activity cause effort in its agent. Rather, when the inner being is filled with complete bliss, an overflowing of that bliss sometimes manifests as an action resembling the production of a result."