When prema blossoms, the Lord reveals first His form of matchless beauty to the enraptured devotee. The devotee's senses and mind become one and he beholds with all his senses the Lord's exquisite beauty. At the sight of the Lord's unparalleled beauty, the devotee feels ecstatic symptoms (asta-sattvic vikara) like being paralyzed, quivering, weeping, and so on. These ecstatic symptoms begin to hinder his vision of the Lord; not only that, but the exhilaration renders him unconscious.
Seeing the devotee's condition, the Lord consolingly manifests His second ambrosial attribute-His physical fragrance-which immediately arrests the devotee's sense of smell. Now all the devotee's senses withdraw from the sense of sight and rush to centre on the sense of smell. This overpowers him, and once again intense joy causes him to lose consciousness.
Kåñëa once again rescues the devotee, and this time the Lord revives him with His melodious voice. The Lord speaks to him saying, “My dear devotee! I am now your captive, fully under your control. Do not be overwhelmed, just perceive Me and fulfil the desire of your heart”. The devotee's senses become surcharged and they seek to hear and absorb the sweet melody of his beloved Lord's voice. Again he is unable to contain his ecstacy and he becomes bereft of consciousness. Then the Lord, full of compassion, embraces the devotee with His body, displaying His fourth nectarean opulence of tender youthfulness To the dasya denotee (mellow of servitorship) He places His lotus feet on his head; to the sakhya devotee (mellow of friendship) He entwines His lotus fingers with his fingers; to the vatsala devotee (parental mellow) the Lord wipes away his tears with His lotus hands; and to the madhuiya devotee (conjugal mellow) He draws him to His chest and wraps His arms around him in a tender embrace. From this we understand that the Lord reciprocates appropriately with the different mellows of each devotee's love.
Just as before, when the devotee swoons in indescribable joy, the Lord shows His fifth opulence, that of versatile loving exchanges. Kåñëa offers the devotee sublime ambrosia in the form of chewed remnants from His mouth and lips. As the bhakia fully relishes it, his sense of taste becomes satiated. At this stage the Lord appears to His devotee who is now absorbed in the conjugal mellow, and initiates him into a transcendental emotional exchange of intense loving intimacy, long coveted by him. Of course, the Lord never divulges such a confidential mood to any other devotee except one who is in mädhurya-rasa (congugal mellow).
Once again the devotee is drawn into an overwhelming mood of divine bliss from this intimate encounter with the Lord, and again he swoons. The Lord's succor to him this time is in the form of showers of audarya, or magnanimity-His sixth transcendental attribute. In this condition the devotee will not respond to any consoling. Audarya in this instance means when all the transcendental attributes of the Lord are at one. time forced onto the devotee's conglomerate senses: sight, hearing, mind. Prema now responds almost as if to the Lord's bidding. It waxes by leaps and bounds, and the devotee's thirst for it increases proportionately. Gradually, like the waxing moon, these transcendental attributes combine together to mature fully. Uncountable like the waves in the ocean of unlimited bliss, a plethora of transcendental pastimes helps prema to stir and shatter the devotee's heart. Prema then installs itself in the devotee's mind as its guardian deity, repairing and rebuilding his inner being. Prema radiates its energy, audarya, in such a way that the devotee is able to relish unhindered all of the Lord's transcendental qualities.
Thus it cannot be refuted that the devotee can taste to his complete satisfaction all the different qualifies of the Lord, nor can it be argued that he relishes full bliss at this stage. This is possible owing to the Lord's wonderful and inconceivable potency that helps the devotee concurrently perceive all of the Lord's attributes with his five senses and the mind. This naturally inspires the devotee beyond imagination.
These transcendental topics are outside the jurisdiction of mundane logic. The Upaniñad confirms this: acintydh bhava ye bhava na tamstarkena-yojayeta. “Spiritual subject matter is inconceivable to the mind hence beyond the realm of mundane thoughts and arguments.”
The pure devotee is eager to relish altogether each of the Lord's sublime attributes such as His exquisite beauty. Butjust as a swallow with its beak shut tight is unable to slake its thirst even when it rains, so the devotee isalso helpless on. his own against the Lord's opulences inundating his senses. Seeing the devotee's predicament the Lord thinks, “Is this confusion the purpose of My matchless beauty?” So the Lord offers to the devotee His seventh opulence, compassion. This opulence is the headmistress of all the other attributes. It is she who is enthroned in the corolla of the eight-petalled lotus constituting the eight potencies like Vimala, Utkarsini, and so on, known collectively as svarüpa-çakti (the Lord's internal potency).
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