Spiritual form follows function
In the spiritual world, form follows function. This is true of everyone- including Kṛṣṇa’s associates
Rupa Goswami defines bhāva, part III
We now examine the remaining qualifiers of bhāva. As we saw before, bhāva is qualified by rucibhiś citta-māsṛṇya-kṛd and prema-sūryāṁśu-sāmya-bhāk. Sri Jiva Goswami explains the meaning of these words, which is reproduced below. The word ruci = prāpti-abhilāṣa, sva-kartṛka ānukulya-abhilāṣa and sauhārda-abhilāṣa. That is, ruci implies three things: […]
The material world is not a perverted reflection of the spiritual world
There is the notion in some bhakti sects that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world.
Rupa Goswami defines bhāva, part I
We now examine the definition of bhāva by Sri Rupa Goswami. As a reminder, bhāva is the sādhya or goal of sādhanā bhakti. Sri Rupa Goswami defines bhāva as follows:
śuddha-sattva-viśeṣātmā prema-sūryāṁśu-sāmya-bhāk | rucibhiś citta-māsṛṇya-kṛd asau bhāva ucyate ||