In a previous post, I examined Anuccheda 84 of the Prīti Sandarbha where Śrī Jīva Goswami explains that each successive stage of prīti derives from and builds on the previous one. There, I discussed the first four of the eight stages of Prīti. Here, I will examine the remaining four stages of sneha, rāga, anurāga, and mahābhāva. As before, I present Babaji’s translations:
Śrī Jīva Goswami explains sneha as follows:
ceto-dravātiśayātmakaḥ premaiva snehaḥ, yasmin jāte tat-sambandhābhāsenāpi mahā-bāṣpādi-vikāraḥ priya-darśanādy-atṛptis tasya parama-sāmarthyādau saty api keṣāṁcid aniṣṭāśaṅkā ca jāyate |
Prema that melts the heart to an exceptional degree by its essential constitution is called sneha. Upon its arising, even slight contact with the beloved gives rise to a great profusion of tears and other ecstatic transformations of love. Additionally, the devotee is never satiated on beholding the beloved (priya), and although Bhagavān is supremely omnipotent, the devotee becomes apprehensive that some calamity may befall Him.
Śrī Jīva Goswami presents an example of sneha in Anu 88, where he cites verses from the Bhāgavata which describe the state of the Pāṇḍavas when Śrī Kṛṣṇa was about the leave the city of Hastināpūra. I reproduce one of those verses below. This verse contains the word ‘sneha-sambaddhā’ or ‘being bound by affection to Śrī Kṛṣṇa’, and also the word ‘drut-cetasaḥ’, which means ‘of melted hearts’. Thus, the verse is directly demonstrating the stage of sneha —
sarve te’nimiṣair akṣais tam anu druta-cetasaḥ vīkṣantaḥ sneha-sambaddhā vicelus tatra tatra ha
Being completely bound to Kṛṣṇa through affection and with their melted hearts thus running after Him, they all gazed upon Him alone with unblinking eyes, as they scurried here and there [to honor Him with gifts].
Sneha ripens into the next stage of rāga —
sneha evābhilāṣātiśātmako rāgaḥ, yasmin jāte kṣaṇikasyāpi virahasyātyantaivāsahiṣṇutā | tat-saṁyoge paraṁ duḥkham api sukhatvena bhāti, tad-viyoge tad-viparītam |
When sneha itself is endowed in its essential constitution with ardent longing for Bhagavān, it is called rāga. Upon its arising, even a moment’s separation from the beloved is completely intolerable. In union with the beloved, even supreme misery is experienced as pleasurable, whereas in separation, the opposite is true [even supreme happiness becomes a source of unbearable misery]. SB 1.11.13
Anu 89 provides an example of this in the form of Kuntī devī’s famous prayer which I provide below. In this prayer, she requests that calamities befall her. Whenever calamities befell Kuntī, Śrī Kṛṣṇa arrived to personally help her. The bliss of His ḍarśana removed any disturbance from the calamity itself. Conversely, separation from Him was in itself a calamity to her. This is why she prays for calamities —
vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat tatra tatra jagad-guro | bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād apunar bhava-darśanam || [bhā.pu. 1.8.25]
O Universal Preceptor, may calamities continuously befall us in all these various circumstances, so that in the midst of such calamities, we may be granted the vision of You, by which the vision of worldly existence may never be repeated again. (sb 1.8.25)¹
The next stage is anurāga —
sa eva rāgo’nukṣaṇaṁ sva-viṣayaṁ nava-navatvenānubhāvayan svayaṁ ca nava-navībhavann anurāgaḥ, yasmin jāte paraspara-vaśībhāvātiśayaḥ | prema-vaicittyaṁ tat-sambandhiny aprāṇiny api janma-lālasā, vipralambhe visphūrtiś ca jāyate |
When that same rāga causes its object to be experienced in an ever newly unfolding manner at each and every moment and is thus continuously renewed itself, it is called anurāga. Upon its arising, the feeling of mutual subjugation between lover and beloved is tremendously enhanced; “love’s perplexity” or “counterintuitive response” (prema-vaicittyam) is experienced as the feeling of separation from the beloved even in the state of union; the wish to take birth even as an inanimate object related to the beloved emerges; and in the state of separation, the beloved appears as if directly present to the lover by virtue of “the immediate self-disclosure of His form” (visphūrti).
An example of anurāga is seen in SB 1.11.33 —
yadyapy asau pārśva-gato raho-gatas tathāpi tasyāṅghri-yugaṁ navaṁ navam
pade pade kā virameta tat-padāc calāpi yac chrīr na jahāti karhicitAlthough Kṛṣṇa remained by their side, and moreover in a private chamber, His feet appeared newer and newer to His queens at every moment. What woman would abandon His feet, which the Goddess of Fortune, Śrī, though fickle by nature, never gives up? SB 1.11.33
The verse above describes how Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s feet appeared new at each moment to His queens, while they remained unsatiated as evident in the last line; this is one of the defining features of anurāga.
And the final stage is called mahābhāva —
anurāga evāsamordhva-camatkāreṇonmādako mahā-bhāvaḥ | yasmin jāte yoge nimeṣāsahatā kalpa-kṣaṇatvam ity-ādikam | viyoge kṣaṇa-kalpatvam ity-ādikam | ubhayatra mahoddīptāśeṣa-sāttvika-vikārādikaṁ jāyate iti saṁskāra-hetavo guṇā darśitāḥ |
8 ) Anurāga that maddens the lovers by its unequaled and unsurpassed wonder (asamordhva-camatkāra) is called mahābhāva. Upon its arising, while in union, even a moment’s obstruction in seeing the beloved due to the blinking of the eyes is intolerable, and an entire cosmic age (kalpa) is experienced as a single moment; while in separation, a moment appears like a kalpa. In both union and separation, all the ecstatic transformations of the heart’s unalloyed state of being (sāttvikavikāras) become simultaneously manifest to their highest peak of radiance (mahoddīpta).
This stage of mahābhāva can be experienced only by the gopīs and no one else. Anu 91 presents SB 10.19.16 which contains the defining feature of mahābhāva —
gopīnāṁ paramānanda āsīd govinda-darśane kṣaṇaṁ yuga-śatam iva yāsāṁ yena vinābhavat
The gopīs experienced supreme joy at the sight of Śrī Govinda, in whose absence a moment appeared to them like a hundred yugas.
Summary
As we saw in the previous article, prīti of the śānta bhaktas does not go beyond the first stage of rati, because they lack mamatā for Bhagavān. Those who have mamatā, meaning the sense that Bhagavān belongs to them, can go beyond the stage of rati. I list below, the different stages of prīti and the corresponding devotees. This is based on an analysis of Babaji’s commentary to Anuccheda 92. Mamatā increases as we go down the table.
| rati or bhāva | taṭastha-bhaktas: 1. śānta-bhaktas 2. taṭastha-bhaktas | 1. Śukadeva, Kumāras 2. those who saw Śrī Kṛṣṇa along the way as He traveled to Mithilā |
| prema (rati+intense mamatā) | pālya-bhaktas suhṛt | residents of Dwarakā Friends who are benefactors |
| praṇaya (prema+exceptional intimacy) | sakhās | Śrīdāma and others like him |
| māna (praṇaya+arising of crookedness) | gopīs | |
| sneha (māna+heart melts) | residents of Hastīnapūra | Pāṇḍavas |
| rāga (sneha + ardent longing for Bhagavān) | bhṛtyas lālya-bhaktas vatsala devotees | servants in Dwarakā Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s children parents, others like Kuntī |
| anurāga (rāga+newer and newer experience of Bhagavān) | queens in Dwārakā | |
| mahābhāva (a moment feels like a hundred yugas) | gopīs |
Leave a Reply