ecstasy
|
Imported quote 15353 There are three stages of devotional service: the first stage is called the beginner's cultivation stage, and the second is called the realization of the service, and the third, the supreme stage, is called attainment of love of Godhead. There are nine different methods for cultivating devotional service, such as hearing, chanting, remembering, etc. All these processes are employed in the neophyte stage of cultivation. If one is engaged in the matter of chanting and hearing with devotion and faith, then gradually his material misgivings become vanquished. Gradually his faith in devotional service increases more and more, and such stages assure him a higher perfectional position. Thus, one becomes firmly fixed, increases the taste for it, becomes attached to it, and feels an ecstasy which is called the preliminary stage of love of Godhead. Attainment of ecstasy is produced by execution of the cultivation of devotional service. Such attainment, when still more developed by that same process of hearing and chanting, gradually becomes thickened, and it assumes the name of love of Godhead.
(More...) The ecstasy of transcendental love has two components, the context, and the cause of the excitement. The context is also divided into two parts: the subject and the object: The exchange of devotional service is the subject, and Krishna is the Object. And the transcendental Qualities of Krishna are the causes of excitement. That means that a devotee becomes excited to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, being enamoured by the transcendental Qualities of Krishna. The Mayavadi philosophers say that the Absolute Truth is without specific qualities, and the Vaishnava philosophers say that being without qualities, (nirguna) means that the Absolute Truth has no material qualities, but that the spiritual qualities are so great and so enchanting that even liberated persons become attracted by the Supreme Lord. This fact is very nicely explained in the atmarama verse of Srimad Bhagwatam: those who are already situated in self-realization are also attracted by the transcendental Qualities of Krishna. That means Krishna's Qualities are not material-they are pure and simple transcendental qualities.
(More...) Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/?qg=2433
|