Stage 9: Prema – Ecstatic love

From the creeper of bhakti, which first sprouted two leaves during sadhana bhakti, now suddenly appear many smooth petals in the form of anubhavas (the symptoms of ecstasy) attached to the flower of bhava. These anubhavas are filled with the devotional processes such as hearing and chanting,  and shine brilliantly at every moment.  First forming the flower called bhava, finally they bring forth the fruit called prema.  But the creeper of bhakti is most astonishing for though its leaves, bud,  flower and fruit mature into the succeeding form, they do not giving up their original forms. Together they shine in newer and newer ways. 

The devotee's innumerable thoughts were previously bound tightly by the ropes of possessiveness to family, relatives, house and properties.  When prema appears, however, it easily frees one's mental functions from all those attachments, by its inherent power completely transforming them, material though they be, into personal,  spiritually blissful elements, and similarly transforming all those ropes of material attachment into ropes of a spiritual nature.  Then,  by those ropes of spiritual possessiveness, prema binds the spiritualized functions of the mind to the sweetness of the Lord's name, form, and qualities. The splendorous sun of prema in this way rises,  and manifesting its brilliance, immediately puts to shame all material ideals (purusartha), like dim constellations in the sky.

The juice which comes from the fruit of prema, being tasted,  has as its essential quality most intense, concentrated bliss, and its outstanding nourishing property is its power to attract Krsna. Needless to say, when the devotee begins to taste that juice, he does not take heed of any obstacles.  Like a miser feverish for treasure, like a thief who has lost all sense of discretion out of absorption in his job, the devotee loses all sense of self-consciousness.  Sometimes there is an impatience for obtaining the Lord, like a hunger which cannot be satisfied even by eating the most tasty foods all day and night.  Burning like the sun by that anxiety, he is soothed,  as if by the coolness of a thousand moons, only on tasting the form,  qualities and sweetness of the Lord, which make a momentary appearance at that time. Astonishing prema, arising in the devotee,  increases slightly, and the devotee longs for direct meeting with the Lord at every moment.  By the intensity of his longing for  the Lord, which burns like a conflagration and pierces his body like a sharp arrow, he remains unsatisfied with the momentary vision of the Lord's form, qualities, and sweetness. 

He considers friends as useless as a dried, overgrown well, his household becomes like a thorn-filled forest.  Food becomes totally distasteful. Praise from other devotees is like the biting of a snake.  Daily duties become  un-performable.  All the necessary rituals become an unmanageable burden. The consolation of his comrades is like poison. Though he remains constantly awake,  wakefulness is an ocean of repentance and his sleep seems to be simply fleeing from life. His body seems the target of chastisement for the Lord.  His life airs become as  lifeless  as roasted grains.  What he previously took as his life's goal is  abandoned as a great calamity. Even thinking of the Lord rends his body asunder.

Then prema, assuming the form of a tender kiss, attracts black Krsna and makes him appear to the devotee for a moment.  At that time all the senses of the devotee (eyes, nose, ears, tongue, touch)  become the receptacles  of all the auspicious qualities of Krsna--His  supreme beauty, fragrance, melody, youthfulness, tastiness, audarya and karunya.  The ever-fresh sweetness of those qualities arises through the love of his devotee, who is the taster and relisher of those qualities, and greater hankering skilfully binds the devotee more and more at every moment. Such a great ocean of bliss appears at this time, that poetic words are not capable of discerning its limits.

Like a traveller on a desert path, burned by the sun's rays during the hot season, who takes shelter in a cool place supplied with a hundred vessels filled with icy water from a divine pool, under the shade of a vast banyan tree densely tangled with branches,  or like an elephant caught in a forest fire, who is finally bathed by unlimited water from a bank of rain clouds,  the devotee, afflicted by  mortal disease, and craving satisfaction, drinks that nectar, tastes its exquisite sweetness, and experiences unbounded bliss.
 
The Lord reveals first His beauty to the eyes of the devotee in this remarkable condition.  On account of the sweetness of that beauty, all the senses and the mind take on the quality of eyes, and obstacles such as paralysis, shaking, and tears are generated.  From this the devotee swoons.  To console the devotee, the Lord next reveals His fragrance to the nostrils of the devotee, and by this, the devotee's senses take on the quality of the nose in order to smell. Again the devotee swoons in bliss.  The Lord then reveals His sonorous voice to the devotee's ears.  All the senses become like ears to hear, and for the third time the devotee faints.  The Lord then mercifully gives the touch of His lotus foot, His hands and His breast to the devotee, and the devotee experiences the Lord's fresh youthfulness.  To those in the mood of servant the Lord puts His lotus feet on their heads; to those in the mood of friendship, He grasps their hands with His; to those in the mood of parental affection, with His hand He wipes away their tears; and those in conjugal mood He embraces, touching them with His hands and chest.  Then the devotee's senses all take on the sense of touch and the devotee faints for a fourth time.  The Lord then restores him by giving the taste from His own lips.  This however is revealed only to those in the conjugal mood.  The devotee's senses take on the sense of taste and he faints for a fifth time.  This blissful swoon is so deep that the Lord must revive him by bestowing His audarya (generosity), the sixth type of mercy. Audarya refers to the state in which all the Lord's qualities, (His beauty, fragrance, sound, touch, and taste) at once suddenly manifest to the devotee's various senses.

At this stage, prema, which understands the aim of the Lord, increases to the extreme, to which there is a corresponding  extreme increase in craving for more; and having, of its own, given up its moonlike fickleness,  it spontaneously creates in the devotee's heart  a tearing friction amongst the simultaneous emotions, a conflict of a hundred waves in the ocean of bliss, and  then assumes, for the devotee, the form of a presiding deity of his mind.  By this means, prema bestows its influence so that one can experience the different tastes simultaneously without conflict.  One should not think that the intense craving of the mind will cause dilution of the various tastes. Rather, all of the senses, attaining the inconceivable, astonishing, extraordinary quality to perform the functions of the other senses to appreciate the Lord's various qualities, give more intensity the taste.  In these matters, one cannot use material arguments evolved from material experiences.  These inconceivable conditions of prema are not subject to mundane logic.

Then the Lord, seeing the devotee, like cataka bird, trying to taste the totality of rain drops, wanting to taste all the sweetness of his beauty, fragrance, sound, touch, taste, and audarya, but unable to do so, considers, "Why am I holding  so many wonderful qualities to my self?" 

To let the devotee enjoy them completely, the Lord manifests his krpa sakti (also called anugraha) the central pole of all energies, the supreme controlling energy,  which is described in the scriptures as a queen in the middle of a lotus whose  eight petals are the eight svarupa saktis (vimala, utkarsini, jnana, kriya, yoga, prahvi, satya, and isana), and which  is called by several names, such as vatsalya (affection) in relation to his devotees in the mood of servant (dasa etc) and karunya (compassion) in relation to the devotees in conjugal mood, and which makes visible to the devotee the lotus eyes and the body of the Lord.  By this krpa sakti,  the element of the Lord's all-pervading free will appears in the devotees, and causes great astonishment even in those who have realized Paramatma.  By this energy, the Lord's affection for his devotees, like a emperor, rules over all the other auspicious, constitutional qualities of the Lord, such as satya, sauca, daya and ksanti,  mentioned by Earth personified in the first canto of Bhagavatam (Text 26-30, Ch.16). 

The eighteen condemned qualities of illusion, laziness, error, taste for material enjoyment, intense lust, fickleness, arrogance, envy, violence, exertion, lamentation, dishonesty,  anger, longing, fear, illusion of supporting the whole world, partiality, and dependency on others are not present in the body of the Lord. But in compliance to the krpa sakti, however, even these qualities become present sometimes in the various avataras such as Rama and Krsna and become realized by the devotees as excellent qualities.

Attaining the power to taste all the Lord's qualities such as his beauty and fragrance, and tasting each one, the devotee ascends to higher and higher peaks of astonishing experience, and his heart melts on incessant realization of the Lord's unprecedented affection for his devotee.  Then the Lord, displaying His wonderful nature,  says, " Oh best of devotees, many births you have given up wife, house, and wealth for My sake, and out of obligation to serve Me you have endured the miseries of cold, wind, hunger, thirst, and pain, tolerated the contempt of other men by taking to a life of begging.  In payment for all your sacrifice, I cannot given you anything.  I have become your debtor.  Since lordship over the whole earth, taking the post of a demigod,  and acquisition of mystic powers are unsuitable for you, how can I give them to you?  One cannot give grass and straw, the enjoyment of cows, to any human being.  Though I am unconquerable, I have just now been conquered by you; I live for you and dance for you.  I am hanging on to the creeper of your good qualities for support."

Hearing the sweet, affectionate words of the Lord, the devotee says,  "Oh Lord, master, ocean of mercy, you glanced upon me while I was being bitten by an array of crocodiles, the infinite miseries  of endless births and deaths amidst the terrifying current of material existence.  Lord, transcendental to all the material planets, whose butter-like heart melts as it manifests mercy, original spiritual master, destroyer of ignorance in the form of such qualities as lust, by manifesting the sudarsana cakra of Your wonderful form, You have pierced those crocodiles and freed me from the clutches of their teeth.  To fulfil my desire to serve Your lotus feet, You placed the syllables of Your mantra in my ears, You destroyed my suffering, You purified me by the process of constant hearing, chanting, and remembering Your qualities and name, and made me understand how to perform service to Yourself through the association of Your devotees.  I am unintelligent, the lowest of the low, and even one day have not done You service.  Such a miserly selfish person deserves to be punished.  Contrary to this however, showing Your very self to me, You have made me drink nectar.  You have mortified me by saying that You have become my debtor.  Now I am thinking what to do.  I would be presumptuous to ask you to pardon all my offenses--five, seven, eight, a thousand, or a million?  I can definitely say it must be more than a hundred thousand billion.  But let be all the fruits of my past activities, received and yet to be received. Previously I compared Your dark limbs to the monsoon cloud, to the blue water lily and to the sapphire; I compared Your effulgent face to the moon, and Your tender feet, to newly sprouted leaves.   Now these analogies seem like a pile of burned mustard seeds compared to a golden mountain or like a chick pea in comparison to a touchstone, like a jackal in comparison to a lion, or a mosquito in comparison to Garuda.  By my poor intelligence I have clearly committed offense to You.  Such inept poetry meant as praise unto Yourself is accepted by common people.  I am like an unsettled cow threatened by the sudden appearance of Your glorious form.  But, I cannot defile the desire tree of Ypur beauty even with my  destructive comparisons."

In this way the devotee profusely praises the Lord, and the Lord, reveals to the devotee endowed with all qualities of love, as much as possible everything desired, in relation to the Lord's pastimes, filled with quality of rasa: Sri Vrndavana; the desire tree; the maha-yoga pitha; the most dear daughter of Vrsabhanu; her associates such as Lalita and other servants; His own friends such as Subala; palyamanas such as Naiciki; the Yamuna River; Govardhana; forests such as Bhandira; Nandisvara Giri; all the mothers, fathers, brothers, friends and servants there, and the houses.  The Lord submerges the devotee in the enchanting tidal wave of various types of bliss, and then disappears with his entourage.  

Recovering consciousness after some moments, the devotee, anxious to see the Lord again, opens his eyes, and not seeing the Lord, he begins crying.  "Was I merely dreaming?--No, no, I was not dreaming, because I have neither drowsiness, nor any contamination in my eyes from sleep. Was it some hallucination or witchcraft? No,  for witchcraft could never give such bliss.  Or was it from some defect in the mind?  No, because all the symptoms of unsteady mind-such as laya and viksepa are totally absent.  Was it the fulfilment of some material desire?  No, no material fancy could ever approach what I have seen.  Was it a momentary meeting with the Lord?  No, because it is completely different from all previous visions of the Lord that I remember."   

In this way the devotee remains in uncertainty. Lying upon the dusty earth, he prays constantly for the same experience, but not obtaining it, he laments, rolls on the ground, weeps, wounds his own body, faints, recovers, stands, sits, runs about, and wails like a madman.  Sometimes he remains silent like a sage and sometimes, like a social misfit, he fails to perform his daily obligatory duties.  Like a person possessed by spirits, or affected by evil planets, he talks incoherently.  Unto a devotee friend who comes asking privately what is the matter, he explains what he has experienced.  When the friend explains that it was, by good fortune, a direct meeting with the Lord, satisfied, he recovers and becomes happy.

But then again he laments, "How can I attain that experience again?  Was it a shower of mercy from some great devotee, or was it the result, by lucky chance, some how, some time, of some past honest endeavour in serving the Lord.  Or perhaps it was simply the causelessness of the  mercy of the Lord upon the lowest of the low, filled with despicable qualities.  By some indescribable fortune I have attained the Lord, but then, because of a grave offense, I have lost him again.  With muddled intelligence, I cannot ascertain the truth.  Where shall I go?  What shall I do? By what means?  Who to ask?  I am completely vacant, without soul, without shelter, scorched by a conflagration. The whole world gazes upon me, ready to devour me.  Giving up this worldly association, I will live in solitude for a while."

Doing this, he laments further, "Lotus-faced Lord, holding streams of nectar, bedecked with fragrant garlands which scent all the forests, attracting  swarms of vibrating bees--just for a moment may I serve your Lordship again.  Having once tasted your  sweetness, I cannot aspire for anything else." 

He begins to roll on the ground, breathe heavily, faint, and lose his mind.  Suddenly seeing the Lord everywhere, he rejoices, embraces, laughs, dances, and sings, and when the Lord disappears again, he becomes filled with remorse, and weeps. Being extraordinary in behaviour, he withdraws his very life symptoms, and he loses awareness of whether he still has a body or not.  Then, not aware that his material body has passed to the elements, he understands only that his desired Lord, the ocean of mercy, has manifested himself, engaged him in service and is leading him to his own home. Thus the devotee reaches the goal of life.

     adau sraddha tatah sadhu sango'tha bhajana kriya
     tato' nartha nivrttis ca tato nistha rucis tatah
     athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudancati 

(First appears faith, then association with devotees, devotional activities, clearing of obstacles, steadiness, taste, attachment, bhava and finally prema.)

The stages of devotion mentioned in this  verse have been described as they are. Sneha, mana pranaya, raga, anuraga, and mahabhava, successively specialized tastes, are fruits growing on progressively higher branches of the creeper of bhakti.  Because the body of the devotee cannot tolerate the friction of extremes of all those tastes, they are not manifested in his body, and thus these tastes have not been described here. 

Ruci, asakti, bhava and prema, which can be experienced, have been described, but aiming at real comprehension of these states, the scriptural evidences were not supplied, since introduction of those proofs would produce a harshness in comprehension.  As they may be required, they are supplied here.

Ruci:

     tasmins tad labdha rucer mahamate
     priyasravasi askhalita matir mama
     yayaham etat sad asat sva mayaya
     pasye mayi brahmani kalpitam pare

"Oh great sage, as soon as I got a taste of the Personality of Godhead, my attention to hear of the Lord was unflinching, and as my taste developed, I could realize that it was only in my ignorance that I had accepted gross and subtle coverings, for both the Lord and I are transcendental." SB 1.5.27

Asaki:

gunesu saktam bandhaya  ratam va pumsi muktaye

"The stage in which the consciousness of the living entity is attracted by the three modes of material nature is called conditional life.  But when that same consciousness is attached to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one is situated in the consciousness of liberation."  SB 3.25.15

Bhava:

priya sravasyanga mama bhavad ratir

"My taste for hearing of the Personality of Godhead increased at every step." SB 1.25.26
                                             
Prema:

prematibhara nirbhinna pulakonga'ti nirvrte
ananda samplave lino napasyma ubhayam mune

"O Vyasadeva, at that time, being exceedingly overpowered by feelings of happiness, every part of my body became separately enlivened. Being absorbed in an ocean of ecstasy, I could not see both myself and the Lord. SB 1.6.17

Symptoms of ruci:

ta ye pibanty avitrso nrpa gadha karnais
tan na sprsanty asana trd bhaya soka moha

Symptoms of asakti:

srvna su bhadrani rathanga paner
janmani karmani ca yani loke
gitani namani tad arthakani
gayan vilajjo vicared asango

"An intelligent person who has controlled his mind and conquered fear should give up all attachment to material objects such as wife, family, and nation and should wander freely without embarrassment, hearing and chanting the holy names of the Lord, the bearer of the chariot wheel.  The holy names of Krsna are all-auspicious because they describe His transcendental birth and activities, which He performs within this world for the salvation of the conditioned souls.  Thus the holy names ofthe Lord are sung throughout the world .SB 11.2.39
 
Symptoms of bhava:

yatha bhramyatayo brahman svayam akarsasannidha
tatha me bhramyate cetas cakrapaner yadrcchaye

"O brahmanas, as iron attracted by a magnetic stone moves automatically toward the magnet, my conscousness, having been changed by His will,is attracted by Lord Visnu, who carries a disc in his hand. Thus I have no independence." SB 7.5.14

Symptoms of prema:

evam vratah sva priyanama kirtya
jatanuragodrutacittauccaih
hasaty atho roditi, rauti gayati
unmadavan nrtyati loka bahyah

"By chanting the holy name of the Supreme Lord, one comes to the state of love of Godhead.  Then the devotee is fixed in his vow as an eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much attached to a particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heart melts with ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly or cries or shouts.  Sometimes he sings and dances like  madman, for he is indifferent to public opinion." SB 11.2.40
                                              
Temporary appearances:

ahuta iva me sighram darsanam yati cetasi

meeting the Lord:

pasyanti te me rucirany amba santah
prasanna vaktraruna locanani
rupani divyani vara pradani
sakam vacam sprhaniyam vadanti
 
"Oh my mother, My devotees always see the smiling face of My form, with eyes like the rising morning sun. They like to se My various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent, and they also talk favorably with Me." SB 3.25.35

Nature in that state:

tair darsaniyavayavair udara
vilasa haseksita vama suktaih
hgtatmano hrta pranams ca bhaktir
anicchato me gatim anvim praykte

"Upon seeing the charming forms of the Lord, smiling and attractive, and hearing His very pleasing words, the pure devotee almost loses all other consciousness. His senses are freed from all other engagements, and he becomes absorbed in devotional service.  Thus in spite of his unwillingness, he attains liberation with out separate endeavor." SB 3.25.36

Mentality in that state:

deham ca tam na caramah sthitam utthitam va
siddhao vipasyati yato' dhyagamat svarupam
daivad upetam atha daiva vasad apetam
vaso yatha parikrtammadira madandhah

"Because he has achieved his real identity, the perfectly realized soul has no conception of how the material body is moving or acting, just as an intoxicated person cannot understand whether or not he has clothing on his body." SB 3.28.37

These verses should be considered. The basic truth is as follows.

Ahankara is of two types: ahanta (consciousness of "I") and mamata (consciousness of "my"). By jnana these two are destroyed and liberation is attained.  By directing these two towards the body (I am this body), house (this is my house) etc. bondage results.

"I am the follower of the Lord.  I am the servant of the Lord.  The Lord with his associates, an ocean of sweetness with his form qualities and pastimes, is to be served by me." If one thinks in this way identifying  oneself as the Lord's servant and making the Lord and his followers the object of ones possession, it is called prema.  Prema is different from both bondage and liberation, and is thus called the crown jewel of human goals.  There is an order of spiritual development, based on this.
 
When the materialistic aspect of ahanta and mamata is extremely deep, one remains in the cycle of birth and death.  When a causeless particle of faith develops and one thinks of becoming a vaisnava and serving the Lord, ahanta and mamata  becomes slightly spiritualized and the jiva becomes qualified for devotional service.  At the stage of sadhu sanga, the tinge of spiritualization becomes more concrete.  At the stage of anisthita bhajana kriya, the spiritualization is localized in  one place, whereas the material aspect is in full force.  At the stage of nistha, spiritualization becomes more pervasive and the materialistic influence decreases somewhat.  At the stage of ruci, spiritualization of me and mine becomes dominant and the materialistic aspect becomes localized.  At the stage of asakti the spiritual aspect becomes complete and the material aspect becomes a trace.  At the stage of bhava the spiritual aspect becomes thorough and the material aspect becomes a shadow, occasionally appearing.  At the stage of prema, the spiritual  aspect becomes extremely intense and the material aspect is completely absent. 

At the stage of bhajana kriya, meditation on the Lord is mixed with other topics and is temporary.  At the stage of nistha, meditation on the Lord has a trace of other topics.  At the stage of ruci, other topics are absent and the meditation is long lasting.  At the stage of    asakti, meditation becomes deep.  During bhava, by meditation, the Lord appears in the mind.  Achieving prema, along with the appearance of the Lord in the mind, there is direct association with the Lord.

May the sweet bank of clouds satisfy the world, by distributing its rasa lifted from the ocean of sweetness, Sri Krsna Caitanya.