The visions of devotional service and the end of those visions follow each other successively, creating simultaneously an amazing satisfaction and agony. This agony is a deeply relishable bliss.

Although Śrīla Dāsa Gosvāmī is an eternal maidservant of Śrī Rādhikā he always feels as if he loves Her for the first time, regardless of what condition he is in. At every moment the awareness of a lack of direct meeting with the beloved deity arises in his heart. How great is his agony! “I have fallen on the bank of Your lake! Please take me to Your lotus feet, knowing me to be Your fallen maidservant!”

The neophyte devotees must learn this eager devotional longing from him. The life of a devotee is naturally full of thoughts of the beloved deity and nothing else. His mind wants nothing and nobody else. Such intimicy with Śrī Rādhārāṇī cannot be attained while being engrossed in the mundane kingdom. “A person like me has left all his kith and kin far behind to go to Vraja, where his mind became absorbed in thinking of temporary things. I’m living in Vṛndāvana, where the birds are singing Śrī Rādhikā’s glories, where the trees and vines shudder out of love for Śrī Rādhikā and where each speck of dust is sprinkled with the mahā bhāva that emanates from Śrī Rādhikā’s footsoles – where is that realization?” Sensitive devotees experience the real form of Vraja, but fellows devoid of devotion see it as just an ordinary, mundane place. Therefore the practising devotees should give up their material conditionings and bring in their transcendental conceptions. The soul thrives on prema-rasa and must relish that and attain the honey-sweet association of the Divine Couple.

Śrī Dāsa Gosvāmī sits on the bank of Śrī Rādhākuṇḍa and weeps for want of the direct, personal service of Śrīmatī Rādhikā, to whom he has offered his whole mind and heart. The Gosvāmīs have taught by example that if the mind wanders off elsewhere Svāminī is running off. “Why won’t I become absorbed in You? Why can I not make my life a full success? I will purify my muddy mind with this mahā-vāṇī!” A person who thinks like that is a bhakta-vīra (devotee-hero). Śrī Raghunātha’s life-airs reach his throat when he suffers the pain of love-in-separation. Just then he gets a vision; he’s no longer Raghunātha, now he is Tulasī Mañjarī. “Svāmini! I have put these hoop-earrings above Your ears!” How wonderful is the slight smile that appears on Svāminī’s face then! niramala vadana, hāsa rasa parimale, malina sudhākara ambare roi “When the spotted moon in the sky sees Rādhikā’s spotless face scented with the rasa of laughter, he must cry.” Tulasī serves without hesitation, and Svāminī also accepts her service without hesitation. Is this only a mental concoction? She accepts all service rendered within the mind.

Śrī Dāsa Gosvāmī personally relished the sweet rasa of devotional service and taught: vraje rādhā-Kṛṣṇa pracura paricaryām iha tanu (Manaḥ Śikṣā 2) “Elaborately serve Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in Vraja!” Serve the heart’s friend of Śrī Rādhā within the mind, He will accept it all! This mental service is the very life-force of the externally rendered devotional service.109 Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has proven from the Padma Purāna that one who always serves Lord Hari mentally has direct association with He who is otherwise not perceived with (material) words and mind:

mānasenopacāreṇa paricarya hariṁ sadā pare vāṅ manasāgamyam tam sākṣāt pratipedire (Quotation from Padma Purāṇa in Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhuḥ)

In his commentary on this verse Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī quotes the story from the Brahma Vaivarta-Purāṇa about the brāhmaṇa from Pratiṣṭhāna-pura who mentally offered hot kṣīra (sweet rice) to the Lord, but burned his physical finger by touching it. The condensed form of smaraṇa is dhyāna (meditation) and the condensed form of meditation is sphuraṇa (transcendental visions). Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī was a living example of that. It is mentioned in ‘Bhakti Ratnākara’ that he became sick one day, so Viṭṭhalnātha, the son of Vallabhācārya, called for a doctor, who said that Raghunātha Dāsa was suffering from indigestion. Viṭṭhalnātha, who knew that Raghunātha Dāsa was renunciation personified and that he hardly ate anything at all, refused to believe that, but the doctor insisted. Raghunātha Dāsa then confirmed the doctor’s diagnosis, saying: “It is true. I had mentally offered kṣīra (sweet rice) to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and I mentally ate too much of the remnants of Their enjoyed food.” This is one of several occasions in which the mental contact with God becomes physically manifest.
…
How am I spending my days, having gotten ācāryas like that! By doing bhajan some realizations will come. The reflection of the forms, qualities and pastimes of the Divine Couple will be attained, as well as the awareness of the flavour of Their compassion. The Gosvāmīs say that the best practice is to become attached to the pastimes of the beloved deity. The mind will slowly but surely proceed towards Svāminī’s lotus feet by hearing and chanting about these pastimes.

Śrī Ānanda Gopāla Gosvāmī
Śrī Ananta dāsa Bābājī