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XXXIII The Joy of bhakti
435 to generate in himself the firm conviction that God is the greatest friend of His devotees; one should try to look upon God as one's best friend. The Sāstric duties should be performed only so long as there is no real inclination of the mind towards God, to recite His name, to listen to His glories, and to say them with joy. As soon as this stage comes, one is on the path of vaidhi-bhakti and must follow its specific duties, so that it may continually grow into a truly natural and irresistible emotion. Here begins the stage of sādhya-bhakti with bhāva. Even before we come to this there is another stage of sādhana-bhakti, the rāgānuga. It is only when one transcends this stage that one can come to a still higher stage of the sādhya-bhakti with its successive developments. Rāgānuga-bhakti is said to be an imitation of the rāgātmikāl. The rāgātmikā-bhakti is the bhakti as natural attachment; rāga means "attachment". This rāgātmikā-bhakti may be of the type of erotic emotion (kāma) or the assumption of other relationships, such as friendship. parenthood, etc. The rāgānuga-bhakti is that where there is no natural attachment, but where there is an effort to imitate the forms of natural emotional attachment, and it may be associated with the diverse steps taken for the furtherance of vaidhī-bhakti. The distinction of prema (spiritual love) and kāma has already been explained above. Though kāma is often used in connection with the intoxicating love of God, yet it is used in the sense of prema3. The rāgānuga-bhakti thus following the two kinds of subdivision of rāgātmikā-bhakti is itself also of two kinds, kāmānuga and sambandhānuga.
From the second stage of sādhana-bhakti as rāgānuga we come to the stage of bhāva-bhakti, which also evolves itself into ever more
attachment. Senior to any type it takes the for
virājantīm abhivyaktām vraja-vāsi-janādişu
rāgātmikām anusytā yā sā rāgānugocyate. Ibid. 1. 2. 131. 2 It is said that in the case of natural attachment, even when it takes the form of an inimical relationship to God, it is superior to any type of vaidhi-bhakti where there is no such natural attachment. Thus it is said in Jiva's Durgamasangamana, 1. 2. 135: yathā vairānubandhena martyas tanmayatām iyāt na tathā bhakti-yogena iti me niscitā matiħ tad api rāgamaya-kāmādy-apeksayā vidhimayasya cittāveśa-hetutve'tyanta-nyūnatvam iti vyañjanārtham eva. yeşu bhāvamayesu nindito'pi vairānubandho vidhimaya-bhakti-yogác chreşthāh. The natural feeling of enmity towards God can be regarded as bhāvätmikā (or emotional) but not as rāgātmikā. It cannot also be regarded as bhakti, for there is no desire here to please God; it therefore stands on a separate basis; it is inferior to rāgatmikā-bhakti but superior to vaidhi-bhakti.
3 premaiva gopa-rāmāņām kāma ityagamat prathām. Ibid. 1. 2. 142, 143.
