Other Ecstatic Symptoms
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When the ecstatic symptoms cannot be checked, and they simultaneously appear in four or five different categories, this stage of ecstatic love is called shining. The example is cited, in this connection, that when the sage Nārada saw Lord Kṛṣṇa standing before him, his body became so stunned that he stopped playing on his  vīṇā . Because of his faltering voice he could not offer any prayers to Kṛṣṇa, and his eyes became filled with tears. Thus, Nārada’s ability to see Kṛsna was also obstructed.
When similar symptoms were manifest in the body of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, some of Her friends criticized Her: “My dear friend, You are blaming the flavor of the flowers for the tears in Your eyes. You are rebuking the air for the standing of the hairs on Your body. And You are cursing Your walking in the forest for Your thighs being stunned. But Your faltering voice reveals the cause to be different: it is just Your attachment for Kṛṣṇa!”
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī remarks that when various symptoms become manifest very prominently, the devotee's condition can be called the brightest. For example, a friend of Kṛṣṇa addressed Him as follows: “My dear Pītāmbara, because of separation from You all the residents of Goloka Vṛndāvana are perspiring. They are lamenting with different words, and their eyes have become moistened with tears. Actually, all of them are in great confusion.”
There is a supreme symptom of ecstatic love which is called  mahābhāva . This  mahābhāva  expression was possible only in Rādhārāṇī, but later on when Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya appeared to feel the mode of love of Rādhārāṇī, He also expressed all of the symptoms of  mahābhāva . Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī says in this connection that when the symptoms of ecstatic love become the most bright, that stage is accepted as  mahābhāva .
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī  further analyzes the ecstatic loving expression into four divisions which are called  sattvābhāsa .
Sometimes impersonalists who are not actually in devotional service may also exhibit such symptoms of ecstatic love, but this is not accepted as actual ecstasy. It is a reflection only. For example, sometimes in Vārāṇasī, a holy city for impersonalist scholars, there may be seen a  sannyāsī  crying from hearing the glories of the Lord. Im-