Chapter One: Rāgamayī Bhakti and Its Vaishnava Tradition
—The authorities on rasa describe this māna in two forms, dignified and playful. When viśrambha—the feeling of non-difference from the beloved in one's life, mind, body, and all else—awakens within māna, it is called praṇaya. Viśrambha too is said to be of two kinds: maitra and sakhya. In some situations praṇaya arises from sneha and matures into māna; elsewhere māna manifests from sneha and then matures into praṇaya.
When, through the excellence of praṇaya, even a cause of great suffering begins to appear as a source of happiness because it holds the possibility of attaining the Lord, praṇaya is called rāga. Rāga has two divisions, nīlimā and raktimā, each with further subdivisions. They are omitted here for fear of excessive detail and may be studied in works on rasa.
When the beauty, qualities, and sweetness experienced in one's chosen Lord become relishable as eternally new, and the attachment itself also becomes ever new, rāga is called anurāga. Beyond it comes the stage of bhāva. Anurāga increases at every moment. When it reaches its complete culmination and becomes self-revealing, it is called bhāva.
The ocean's water rises progressively in waves until, at high tide, it floods the shore and submerges everything there; it then seems to have no place left to advance. In the same way, anurāga grows within the heart until it fills the heart completely. As it unfolds, it affects every perfected devotee or practising devotee nearby. At last, its further increase becomes concentrated within itself.
Some theoreticians of rasa consider bhāva and mahābhāva one reality; others posit a distinction. Those who distinguish them say that the difference is like that between ordinary sugar candy and pure, brilliant sugar candy. When mahābhāva manifests, no distinction remains between the person in whom it appears and the feeling in that person's mind.
When love for God joins with determinants, consequent expressions, involuntary embodied states, and transitory feelings, it becomes fit for an astonishing relish and is then called bhakti-rasa. This rasa is twelvefold: seven secondary forms and five principal forms. Heroism, compassion, wonder, laughter, fear, anger, and disgust are the seven secondary forms. Peaceful devotion, service, friendship, parental affection, and sweetness are the five principal forms.
That within which and through which rati and the other feelings are relished is called a determinant, or vibhāva. Vibhāva is of two kinds. That in which rati is established is the supporting determinant, ālambana- vibhāva; that by which rati is stimulated is the exciting determinant, uddīpana-vibhāva. The supporting determinant is itself twofold: the object and the receptacle. The Lord is the object of love for God; his devotees are its receptacles. The exciting determinants are the actions, gestures, beauty, clothing, ornaments, places, times, and other things that stimulate rati.