atha raganuga bhakti majjanasyanartha nivritti nishtha-rucyasaktyantaram prema-bhumikarudhasya sakshat svabhishta-prapti-prakarah pradarsyate. yathojjvala nilamanau “tad bhava baddha raga ye janas te sadhane ratah. tad yogyam anuragaugham prapyotkanthanusaratah. ta ekaso’thava dvi-trah kale kale vraje’bhavan” iti. anuragaugham raganuga bhajanautkanthyam natvanuraga sthayinam sadhaka-dehe’nuragotpattyasambhavat. vraje’bhavann iti avatara samaye nitya priyadya yatha avirbhavanti tathaiva gopika-garbhe sadhana-siddha api avirbhavanti. tatas ca nitya-siddhadi gopinam maha-bhava-vatinam sanga mahimna darsana sravana kirtanadibhih sneha mana pranaya raganuraga maha-bhava api tatra gopika-dehe utpadyante. purva janmani sadhaka-dehe tesham utpattyasambhavat. ataeva vraje krishna preyasinam asadharanani lakshanani. yad uktam – “gopinam paramananda asid govinda darsane. kshanam yuga-satam iva yasam yena vina bhaved” iti. “trutir yugayate tvam apasyatam” ityadi ca. kshanasya yuga satayamanatvam maha-bhava lakshanam.

Now it will be described how the raganugiya bhakta gradually advances through the stages of anartha nivritti (cessation of bad habits), nishtha (fixation), ruci (taste), and asakti (attachment to the beloved deity) upto the stage of prema (love of God) and the direct attainment of his beloved deity. In the Ujjvala Nilamani it is said that ‘those who are specially attracted to the ecstasy of the Vrajavasis and thus perform raganuga bhajana will attain that abundance of eagerness that is fit for performing raganuga bhajana and will take birth in Vraja in groups of one, two or three in their own time, according to their eagerness.’ Here the word anuragaugha means ‘that eagerness that makes one qualified for doing raganuga bhajana’. The anuraga mentioned here does not refer to the sthayi bhava (permanent mood) of that name, because the sthayi bhava named anuraga cannot be attained within a material body. The words ‘having taken birth in Vraja’ means the sadhana siddhas take birth from the womb of a gopika, just as Krishna’s eternally beloved gopis appear with Him when He descends to earth (prakata lila). After that, gradually sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga and mahabhava will become manifest in the gopika-body of that sadhaka on the strength of associating with the gopis that are endowed with maha-bhava and by hearing and chanting and seeing the greatness of Krishna’s eternally liberated gopis. These feelings could not possibly have arisen in the material body of the sadhaka, in his previous birth. In this way the extraordinary characteristics of Sri Krishna’s beloveds in Vraja has been shown. In Srimad Bhagavata it is said that the gopis attained the pinnacle of transcendental bliss by seeing Govinda. Without Him, they experienced a moment to last like a hundred ages. Their statement (in Srimad Bhagavata 10.31.15) ‘Without seeing You, we consider a second to last like an age’, is a symptom of mahabhava.

Kripa-kanika Vyakhya by Srila Ananta das Babaji:

Now it is described how the raganuga-sadhaka attains the personal service of his beloved deity in His lila-kingdom, after attaining the perfection of prema. Two kinds of sadhana have been desribed of the raganugiya devotees – the external practice of hearing and chanting in the sadhaka-body and the desired mental service in the self-conceived siddha body. When the sadhaka’s obstacles, such as anarthas (different kinds of mischief) are removed by the continued practice of bhajana, he gradually becomes fixed up, gets (lasting) taste for bhajana and becomes genuinely attached to the Lord. Then, when rati and prema are attained the practice in the sadhaka deha is completed. In other words, when all the stages of the stream of sadhana – faith, surrender, taking shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Guru, serving Sri Guru and Vaishnava, hearing, chanting, remembering, meditating, becoming free from mischief, becoming fixed up, acquiring taste, becoming attached to the Lord and rati – have been fulfilled – then one reaches the culmination named prema. It is described in the book named Sri Ujjvala Nilamani how, after attaining this prema, all these raganugiya sadhakas that do bhajana in the madhura rasa with the feelings of sakhis or manjaris, will attain the personal service of the Lord in the kingdom of lila:

tad bhava baddha raga ye janas te sadhane ratah
tad yogyam anuragaugham prapyotkanthanusaratah
ta eko’thava dvi-trah kale kale vraje’bhavan

(Sri Haripriya Pra.- 49 and 50)

“Those who are especially attracted to the feelings of the gopis and are thus engaged in raganuga bhajana, attain the abundance of anuraga that is proper for raganuga, and according to their eagerness, take birth in Vraja at different times as Vraja-gopis alone or in groups of two or three.” In the above verse the word anuragaugham means the eagerness that is proper for raganuga, not the sthayi bhava named anuraga, because only stages up to prema can appear in the sadhaka body. The stages above prema, from sneha up to mahabhava, that are required to attain personal service in the mood of the gopis, can only appear in a transcendental gopi-body, for a sadhaka body is unable to tolerate the coolness of meeting with Sri Krishna or the heat of separation from Him. The words ‘vraje’bhavan’, meaning “taking birth in Vraja”, must be understood to mean that the sadhana siddhas appear in the womb of a gopika in the same way as the eternally beloved Vraja-vadhus of Sri Krishna appear during the manifest pastimes. After that, on the strenght of the association of nitya-priyas like Sri Radha and Lalita they gradually attain sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga and mahabhava through seeing, hearing and glorifying Sri Krishna and His associates. Without this mahabhava the personal devotional service of Sri Krishna in a gopi body cannot be attained. The example of this is given by Sri Sukadeva in the Srimad Bhagavata, when he described how the gopis went on their way to dance the Rasa with Krishna after they heard Sri Krishna playing His flute, but some gopis were locked into their inner chambers because they were sages from the Dandaka-forest in their previous birth who were unable to get the association of the nitya siddha gopis, although they had taken birth in Vraja as gopis. Since they were thus unable to attain mahabhava and could also not get the aid of Yogamaya, the gopis who were locked into their houses by their relatives felt such great pangs of separation from Sri Krishna that on the strength of their meditations on Him they were quickly able to attain this stage of mahabhava, that is usually only attained through a gradual process, and thus became blessed by attaining the Rasa-dance. Thus the blessed author says that in the sadhaka body of the previous birth it is not possible to awaken the stages from sneha up to mahabhava. Therefore the extraordinary characteristics of the Sri Gopikas in Vraja are described in Srimad Bhagavata:

gopinam paramananda asid govinda darsane
kshanam yuga-satam iva yasam yena vinabhavat (10.19.16)

“The gopis, that experience a single moment without Sri Krishna to be like a hundred ages, attained the topmost bliss when they saw Govinda.” Then again in the Sri Gopi Gita we can find the Sri Gopikas speaking the following words to Sri Krishna:

atati yad bhavan ahni kananam trutir yugayate tvam apasyatam
kutila kuntalam sri mukham ca te jada udikshatam pakshmakrid drisam (10.31.15)

“When You go out into the forest in the daytime to tend Your cows we consider even a splite second that we don’t see You to be like an age, and then when You return home in the evening we consider the Creator, who made our eyelids blink, so that our eyes cannot gaze constantly at Your face, that is decorated with curly locks, to be dull and arasika.” This experience of a moment like a hundred ages is a characteristic of mahabhava. Srimat Rupa Gosvami writes in his definition of rudha mahabhava –

nimeshasahatasanna janata hrid vilodanam
kalpa kshanatvam khinnatvam tat saukhye’py arti sankaya
mohadya bhave’pyatmadi sarva vismaranam sada
kshanasya kalpatetyadya yatra yoga viyogayoh

(Ujjvala Nilamani Sthayibhava Prak. – 161. 162)

“In the stage of rudha mahabhava, either during union or during separation, the gopis show the following physical expressions of permanent emotions (anubhavas): they cannot tolerate a moment of separation, their hearts are disturbed by approaching people, they consider an age (when they are together with Krishna) to be like a moment, they suffer when they are anxious about Krishna’s happiness, even if He is happy, they forget all about themselves even when they are free from delusion and they consider a moment to be like an age (when they are separated from Krishna).”