When asakti achieves extreme maturity it is calledrati or bhava. Bhava is the immature (budding) stage of the three sat-cid-ananda energies ofthe Lord's svarupa-shakti: sandini, samvitand hladini. In other words, bhakti actually begins tomanifest from the stage of bhava. It is thus the blossoming flower of the desire-creeper of bhakti. Its outerluster is the quality of sudurlabha (rarely achieved), andits inner luster is moksha laghu krita (derides even the conception of liberation). Just one atom of bhava uprootsignorance completely. Moreover, the profuse release of fragrancesof the flower of bhava invites Madhusudana and causes Him to appear there. What more can I say? Scented by the fragrancesof bhava, all the emotions of the heart become like theoil of liquified bunches of sesame seeds, at once fit to smear on all the limbs of the Lord. At the appearance of bhava, even a candala becomes worthy of respect from Lord Brahma and others.
At that time, his eyes fully long to turn towards VrajendraNandana to lick the blackness of His limbs (uuuuuhyama< >lina), the rosy hue of His lips and eye-rims (arunima), the white brilliance of His moon-like teethshining in His smiling face (dhavalima), and the yellow hue of His clothing and ornaments (pitima). They thenbegin to bathe his body in profuse streams of tears. Like he isrunning here and there, freezing its motion at every moment and raising his ears, He longs for his ears to be decorated with theearrings of the song of Krishna's flute, the jingling of Hisanklets, and the sweet intonation of His voice (sausvarya)almost like a direct order to serve His lotus feet. Then thinkinghow the longed for touch of the Lord's tender hands(kishalya-sparsha) must be, his body erupts in ecstasy.His nostrils open wide repeatedly and inhale, anxius to examinethe fragrance of the Lord's body (saurabhya). “Oh, will I ever be able to taste the nectar of the Lord's lips?” Feeling like he has attained that taste (rasana), histongue feels great joy and he licks his lips. Sometimes, feelinglike he has obtained direct realization of the Lord in his heart (sphurti, he feels unlimited happiness in his mind. Tasting the rare treasure of the sweetness (madhurya) ofthe Lord, he becomes delirious. Then, at the disappearance of that feeling, he plunges into grief. In this way, it is as if heis decorating his body with the thirty-three symptoms ofsanchari-bhava. In the states of wakefulness, sleep and deep sleep, hisintelligence becomes resolutely fixed as the pilgrim on the pathhis remembrance of Krishna. His self-conceit (ahamta, I) almost gives up the material body of the sadhak as nearlylifeless and practically enters into a siddha-deha (spiritual identity) according to his desire to serve the Lord in a specific manner. His sense of possessiveness (mamata, mine) becomes like a bee to relish the nectar of the Lord's lotusfeet. Having obtained the most precious jewel of bhava, the devotee tries to hide it like a miser from the ordinarypeople. However, the faomus logic says a bright face revealshidden wealth (the face is the index of the mind). Thus, advanceddevotees will recognize his internal status as he becomes theresidence of such wonderful qualities as renunciation andtolerance which manifest themselves at the stage of bhava. Common people, being unable to discern these qualities, willconclude that his mind is distracted or mad.
This stage of bhava is of two types: that arising from raga bhakti and that arising from vaidhi bhakti. Bhava arising from raganuga bhakti, being excessive inquality (jati) and quantity (praman), is very thickor intense. It is characterized by an absence of awe andreverence with a predominance of the feeling that the Lord is onan equal or lower level. The second type arising from vaidhi bhakti, being somewhat lesser in quality andquantity than the first, with a type of affection for the Lordmixed with perception of the Lord as the all-mightyGod, is not so thick. Those two types of bhava are tasted in twodifferent ways in the two types of hearts possessed of two typesof spiritual desires in two types of devotees.
As there are different degrees of thickness in the juices ofmango, jack fruit, sugar cane or grapes, there are differentdegrees of sweetness of bhava. Thus there are five typesof devotees according the bhava in which they are acting: shantas (neutral admirers), dasas (servants), sakhas (friends), pitri (elders), preyasi (lovers), acting in the five different bhavas. That is, the shantas are acting in shanti (peacefulness), the dasas in priti (affection), the sakas in sakhyam (friendship), the pitri invatsalyam (parental love), and preyasis inpriyata (conjugal love).
Then again, these five bhava, by their own energy, obtain vibhava, anubhava, sattviki, vyabhichari as their subjects along with their opulencesand become the kings known as sthayi bhavas. These five sthayi bhavas by mixing with these elements transform intothe five rasas: shanta, daysa, sakhya, vatsalya and ujjvala.
The shruti texts define rasa as the very essence of the Lord: raso vai sah rasam hy evayamlabdhvananda bhavati, the Lord is rasa itself (rasa-svarupa, and, attaining that rasa, thejiva becomes blissful. As water is present in all thestreams, rivers and ponds, but is personified in the ocean, rasa is present in all the avataras of the Lord, but doesnot reach perfection in any of them. Rather, it attains itsabsolute climax in Vrajendranandana, Krishna, the son of the Kingof Vraja. When bhava first matures and begins to trnsforminto prema, that very Vrajendranandan, Who is thepersonification of rasa, is directly realized by qualifieddevotees.