Chapter Two: The Nature and Scope of Madhura-rasa
The subsidiary devotional rasas
| Subsidiary rasa | Colour | Presiding deity |
|---|---|---|
| Comic | pale white | Balarama |
| Marvellous | tawny | Kurma |
| Heroic | fair | Kalki |
| Compassionate | grey | Raghava |
| Furious | red | Bhargava |
| Terrible | black | Varaha |
| Odious | blue | Matsya |
The stimulating determinants have been outlined above. Among neutral objects that act as stimulants, the coming of spring, the cuckoo's call, massing clouds, and the sight of the moon are foremost. Form, grace, softness, and the like are chief among the beauties of the body. Youth has three stages: fresh, manifest, and complete. Krishna's name, deeds, and līlā—for example, playing the flute, milking the cows, and lifting Govardhan—serve especially as stimulating determinants. Vrindavan itself, its rivers, bowers, trees, shrubs and creepers, flowers, birds, animals, and the rest also kindle love.
The anubhāvas have likewise been presented in the diagrams above. They include twenty-two ornaments of expression, seven involuntary dishevelments, and three expressions born of the limbs. The limb-born expressions include bhāva, hāva, and helā; those arising naturally include līlā, vilāsa, vicchitti, moṭṭāyita, and others. Līlā means the playful imitation of the beloved's conduct; vilāsa means gestures of amorous play; vicchitti means adornment; and moṭṭāyita means the explicit disclosure of desire. All these occur in the tradition of poetics too. The seven involuntary signs, however, are entirely new: the loosening of the waist-knot, slipping of the upper garment, yawning, the disarray of the hair, and so forth. In reality, these fall within vilāsa and moṭṭāyita. The verbal expressions include conversation, lament, incoherent speech, remorse, denial, message, extended reference, pretext, instruction, indication, and indirect designation.
The eight sāttvika-bhāvas are precisely the same as in poetics. They have four degrees: smouldering, flaming, blazing, and fiercely blazing.
Types of madhura-rati from the heroine's standpoint
- Ordinary (sādhāraṇī)—concerned solely with one's own gratification, as in Kubja. It extends as far as the state of prema.
- Harmonious (samañjasā)—love resting equally in both, in which one's own happiness and Krishna's happiness are sought alike, as in Rukmini. It extends as far as anurāga.
- Competent (samarthā)—existing solely for Krishna's sake, as in the gopīs. It extends as far as mahābhāva.
In the literature of Rama devotion these same three are called self-pleasuring (sva-sukhī), consciousness-pleasuring (cit-sukhī), and devoted to his pleasure (tat-sukhī). In substance and in feeling, these are wholly identical with the preceding classification.