Bhakti is the name of a spiritual path that stands apart from all others. Rather than simply offering a new teaching to replace an old one, it invites us into an entirely new way of understanding and experiencing spirituality.
When Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared in 1486, Vedic philosophy had become entangled inits own infinity. Though the scriptures consistently affirm that the Divine is composed of infinite being, consciousness and bliss, the seeker’s actual experience remained limited—confined to the information they could access and comprehend through writings and teachings of the brāhmaṇa class. We were finite beings tragically attracted to infinite life. Divine perfection was promised, but only through in impersonal books, lifeless rituals, and the teaching of others finite beings.
In a world longing for higher meaning, how could we know that God was longing too? How could we realise that the love in our hearts had a counterpart in the heart of God? The appearance of Lord Caitanya is the result of this glorious realisation by Kṛṣṇa himself. The Lord came to understand that just as his devotees were excluded from a fully loving relationship with him, he too was unable to experience the fullness of the very love he bore for his devotees.
In the Vedic past, Kṛṣṇa had always been venerated by his devotees as the embodiment of pure love—as love itself. In order to experience the divine veneration he received from his devotees, Kṛṣṇa appeared in the form of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, assuming the mood and devotion of the one Vrindavan cowherd girl (gopī) who loved him most deeply and purely: Rādhā.
Transcending the position of merely enjoying the love of his devotees, he could now experience the emotion of giving that love himself. He became one soul in two bodies: both lover and beloved, enjoyer of love and bestower of love.
Thus, the divine lover and the divine beloved are two, not one. That is the bitter-sweet paradox of love—we are one but separated. We relate to each other in every sweet, for that is what love is. But this relation is also the sign that we are not together, that our beloved is an other. To be fused together as one, in some perfect and eternal embrace, would serve no purpose, for there would be no desire, no attraction, no playful flirting, no bitter longing, no experience of love.
Love exists only in relation. Love is has three parts: lover, beloved, and relation. It is only through understanding the miracle of the relation that love is known and realised, It is only through the realisation of the relation that awareness arises, that consciousness deepens, and that love can grow. These things must be witnessed: the push and pull, separation and reunion, longing and fulfilment, attraction and repulsion, desire and detachment. The history of these līlās is the path of bhakti.
Therefore also in the eternal pastimes of Vrindavan, the divine lover and divine beloved are two, not one. That is the nature of love: they are separated, yet the space of that separation is the playing field of a thousand emotions, a thousands ways of relating, of living, feeling, expressing love. This is what love is. To be fused together as one, in some perfect and eternal embrace, would have no purpose—for there would be no experience of this space of love.
Thus together with the appearance Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the double form of Rādhā and Mohan, comes also our witness of that love, our experience and sharing. By appearing in our world, Lord Caitanya engages us in the love he seeks to experience. He makes us care-takers of divine love, mediums and messengers of love, guardians and attendants, servants. In other words, he offers us to take the position, through our spiritual practice, of the mañjarīs, the maid servants of Rādhā,and the mood they embody, mañjarī-bhāva.
Thus, with the appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the dual form of Rādhā and Mohan, comes also our opportunity to witness that love—to experience it and to share in it. By entering our world in the special way he does, Lord Caitanya invites us into the very love he seeks to realise himself. He makes us caretakers of divine love: its mediums and messengers, its guardians and attendants—its servants.
In other words, through our spiritual practice, he offers us the position of the mañjarīs, the devoted maidservants of Rādhā, and the sacred mood they embody: mañjarī-bhāva.
The practice of bhakti involves, at its essence, discovering and deepening mañjarī-bhāva—the mood of devotional service to the divine love shared between Rādhā and Mohan, the two complementary aspects of the soul of God.
As Rādhā holds the position of the divine lover, the bestower of divine love (prema), it is to her that the mañjarīs are exclusively attached. Her happiness is their sole aim and their only concern. Their loving devotion to her is wholly dedicated to a single purpose: to assist her in fulfilling her loving devotion to Mohan.
While the sole concern of the mañjarīs is the happiness of Rādhā, they understand perfectly that her happiness is realised only through the fulfilment of prema—her love for Mohan. There is no other path to her joy or well-being.
The mañjarīs thus play an extraordinary role in the miracle of prema-bhakti—the devotional service to God rooted in divine love. And yet, they do not perceive this role as a duty, nor as the execution of a divine command, nor out of obligation to some mighty law. They serve simply because it brings them joy—a distinct form of transcendental bliss. This exalted state is known as bhāvollāsa‑rati.
Bhāvollāsa‑rati is a crucial concept in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. It was first articulated by Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and later elaborated by Śrī Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī. The concept has since been expanded upon in numerous commentaries within the bhakti tradition—most notably by Śrī Ananta Dāsa Bābājī in his profound expositions on Vilāpa-kusumāñjali and Rādhā-rasa-sudhā-nidhi.
Rati is the name of the mood of love which causes us to develop attachment for the object of our feelings. As the emotions grow, so grows the attachment that we experience. Is thus stronger and more far-reaching than the basic mood or feeling of love we may experience (bhāva) because it strengthens our hearts as our feelings grow. Emotions that overflow all boundaries by their exuberance are called ullāsa. They are emotions that radiate like the sun, that spread and intensify, feeding off of and also deepening the experience of the hearts it touches.
Therefore: bhāva-ullāsa-rati — bhāvollāsa‑rati — the unique exalted form of love that the mañjarīs—and only the mañjarīs—feel though the realisation of their service to the divine couple Rādhā and Mohan. It is the special delight experienced by the mañjarīs when they witness the delight of their mistress in her meeting with her Mohan.
And yet It would be wrong to say, as we do in mundane terms, ‘the mañjarīs are happy when RādhāMohan is happy’. Bhāvollāsa‑rati is rati. That means as love flows, in pastime after pastime, from the divinely generous heart of Rādhā to eager Mohan, the attachment of the mañjarīs to Rādhā grows.
Bhāvollāsa‑rati is a form of attachment that grows with the very love it expresses. It overflows—but the excess is never lost. Rather, it is continually added to the heart of the one who feels it. The more we dedicate our spiritual consciousness to uniting Rādhā and Mohan—in all their forms and expansions throughout the world—the more our attachment to them deepens. And with that deepening, the energy of our love expands all the more.
Every bhakti devotee aspires to loving service of love it self (prema), to loving love, to letting our hearts overflow: I am in love with love. I am in love with the love I see everywhere around me, sometimes shyly lifting its head, sometimes boldly striding forward, sometimes languishing in its own happiness. The ecstasy of bhāvollāsa-rati is the realisation, reserved for those who understand their purpose as nurturing love, with skill, cleverness, and wisdom, just like the mañjarīs.
Every bhakti devotee aspires to the loving service of love itself (prema)—to loving love, to letting the heart overflow. I am in love with love! I am in love with the love I see everywhere around me: sometimes shyly lifting its head, sometimes boldly striding forward, sometimes quietly resting in its own happiness.
The ecstasy of bhāvollāsa-rati is the realisation reserved for those who understand their purpose as nurturing love—tending it with skill, cleverness, and deep spiritual wisdom, just like the mañjarīs.
The fully realised form of happiness and well-being for all jīvas is fully experiencing the love that flows between souls, all souls. Higher than the gods, sweeter than the world, bhāvollāsa‑rati is the name of the happiness felt by the universe fulfilling its purpose.
The fully realised form of happiness and well-being for all jīvas lies in the complete experience of the love that flows between souls—between all souls. Higher than the gods, sweeter than the world, bhāvollāsa‑rati is the name of the joy felt by the universe as it fulfils its divine purpose.