abhisāra [the passionate pursuit by the secret lover of the beloved]
A term borrowed from classical Indian poetry and drama, abhisāra refers to the quest of a heroine to meet against all obstacles, both social and material, her beloved.
Abhi is a prefix meaning ‘toward’, ’to’, or ‘near’ (we think of abhidheya, the process of devotional service that leads to the ultimate goal, dheya, of loving service to RādhāMohan.) Sāra means journey, but also movement or approach.
It is easy to understand that in the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, abhisāra refers to the journey to the secret, loving meetings of Rādhā and Mohan. Rādhā overcomes all odds to leave her home in search of her lover. Then, with the help of her mañjarīs she must confront the twists and turns of desire that finally unite her with her lover. Love-in-separation (vipralambha), the painful longing that grows in the absence of the beloved, is the fuel of this abhisāra.
In his commentary on Verse 152 of Rādhā Rasa Sudhānidhi, Ananta das Bābājī describes abhisāra this way:
‘When a living entity, by some indescribable stroke of good fortune, becomes eager to attain the mood of Rādhikā’s maidservants, and when the divine couple sends a message to the doorstep of the heart of such a rāga sādhaka (practioner of spontaneous devotion), then the devotee’s hope blossoms and he runs quickly towards Śrī Śrī Rādhā Mādhava. That is the jīvābhisāra, the love journey of the living entity.’
Abhisāra is indeed the name of Rādhā’s obstacle-filled journey to meet her beloved Mohan, with her mañjarī, in this case, Tungavidya, close behind. But it also refers to another journey, the journey that lies in waiting in the heart of every jīvā.
Jīvābhisāra, then, is the presence of Rādhā’s love journey in the soul of every sādhaka. For most of us it is unrealised and unfulfilled. It remains a trace of feeling, a suspicion of joy, revealed, as Bābājī says, by an instant of divine mercy, without cause, without rhyme or reason.
But for those fortunate few who feel an attraction to Bhakti, who feel even the tiniest spark of the presence of the divine, there is also the first footstep of a hesitant movement of the heart, a risk-filled journey of the soul, through the dark streets of the village of the mind, along the shadowy paths of the forest of doubt, and finally to the service of RādhāMohan.
This journey, this jīvābhisāra, this ‘hidden path of devotion’, lies waiting in the heart and soul of all jīvās. It’s the path of perfection, the journey of the soul toward pure identification with the spiritual self, the svarūpa.
The soul is already perfect. But the journey toward it is abhisāra: fraught with obstacles. Some of these are psychological, some are social, some are material. But like all obstacles, their destiny is to be overcome, perhaps now, perhaps later. No obstacle remains an obstacle, it becomes something else.
Siddha-deha, our spiritual form, is not where we might go if we are fortunate. Causeless mercy has already placed it within our reach. The only question that remains is how soon, and how directly, we will arrive there.
Jīvābhisāra, the pilgrim journey of soul, is programmed into our very essence. But it is our choice to surrender to it, to put one foot in front of the other on the path to the service of the highest experience available to us, the service of divine love (prema).