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Chapter Two: The Nature and Scope of Madhura-rasa

In the conscious world, the union of the Supreme Person and Prakriti is utterly pure and grounded in Reality. The Lord alone is the enjoyer there; all other conscious beings, in the form of Prakriti, are enjoyed by him. In this material world one jīva becomes the enjoyer and another the enjoyed. Because this whole transaction opposes the fundamental principle, it becomes shameful and repellent. In truth, one jīva cannot be another's enjoyer. All jīvas are enjoyed; Sri Krishna alone is the enjoyer. What comparison can there be between one jīva's use of another and Krishna's enjoyment of the jīva? Yet an exceedingly valuable principle can be recovered even from within this degraded condition. We shall explain how later.

The support and object of Madhura-rasa

Krishna is the object of madhura-rasa, and his beloved ladies are its receptacles. Together they form its supporting determinants. Sri Krishna, the object of madhura-rasa, is supremely beautiful and sweet, dark as a fresh rain cloud, endowed with every auspicious mark, powerful, ever youthful, sweet-spoken, clever, grateful, subject to love, captivating to women, eternally fresh, incomparable in amorous play, magnificently beautiful, supremely beloved, and a player of the flute. The radiance of his toenails crushes the pride of tens of millions of Cupids, while his sidelong glance enchants every heart.

The playful līlā of Sri Krishna, crown jewel of lovers, with the gopīs is the very soul of madhura-rasa. Its enduring emotion is their mutual belovedness, or madhurā-rati, which continually impels each toward union with the other.¹ When, through appropriate determinants and consequent expressions, this rati reaches in devotees' hearts the condition of relishable rasa, it is called madhura-rasa, sovereign of devotional rasa.²

Krishna's manifestation as the beloved is the principal foundation of this rasa, but "beloved" may be understood in two ways: as husband or as paramour. The theorists of rasa consider śṛṅgāra to reach its highest excellence in the paramour form.³ If the conscious operation of śṛṅgāra-rasa is a necklace of mysterious gems, parakīyā madhura-rasa is its unique Kaustubha jewel. Just as rasa rises progressively from śānta to dāsya, from dāsya to sakhya, from sakhya to vātsalya, and from vātsalya to madhura, it reaches its culmination in parakīyā rather than svakīyā love.