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Chapter Two: The Nature and Scope of Madhura-rasa

It has already been said that Sri Krishna performs his līlā in Dvaraka in the relation of a husband, and in Vraja in the relation of a paramour. All the young women of Vraja are parakīyā in relation to Krishna, the son of the king of Vraja. The reason is that, apart from parakīyā, madhura-rasa cannot reach its highest development. This point needs some explanation.

Why rasa reaches its highest excellence in parakīyā

The contrariness, inaccessibility, and obstruction created by prohibitions and restraints surrounding a woman are Kāma's supreme weapons. Where prohibition is especially strong and the beloved difficult to obtain, there the lover's heart becomes most intensely attached. Krishna, the son of Nanda, is a cowherd. He takes delight in none but the cowherd women. Practitioners qualified for śṛṅgāra-rasa worship Krishna in the very disposition in which the gopīs rendered loving service to him. On the path of imaginative contemplation, the practitioner should regard herself as a resident of Vraja and, in the role of an attendant to some fortunate woman of Vraja, serve Radha and Krishna under her direction. Rasa will not arise unless one regards oneself as a mature woman. This self-conception as a mature woman is the very condition of gopīhood in Vraja.¹

Stimulating determinants of love for Krishna

The stimulants (uddīpana-vibhāvas) of love for Krishna are organised as follows:

• Qualities
  • physical, intellectual, and mental;
  • the physical qualities include age, form, beauty, and softness;
  • age comprises childhood (kaumāra), boyhood (paugaṇḍa), adolescence (kaiśora), and youth (yauvana);
  • adolescence has an early, middle, and final stage.
• Activities
  • the rāsa dance and the destruction of the wicked.
• Adornment
• Other stimulants