35 / Neutral Love of God
Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī offers his respectful prayers to the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead who is always so beautiful and for whom the pure devotees are always engaged in loving transcendental service. This third division of  Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu  describes the five primary kinds of devotional service—namely, neutrality, servitude, fraternity, parenthood and conjugal love. These five items will be very elaborately explained here, and thus they have been figuratively described as the five waves on the western side of this ocean of nectar of devotion.
When one is actually able to maintain the transcendental position, his stage is called neutrality in devotional service. Some great sages have attained this neutral position by practicing austerity, penance and meditation to control the senses. Such sages are generally called mystic  yogīs , and in most cases they are inclined to appreciate the spiritual pleasure of the impersonal feature of the absolute truth. They are practically unaware of the transcendental pleasure derived from personal contact with the Supreme Godhead.
Actually the transcendental pleasure derived in association with the Supreme Person is far greater than the pleasure derived from impersonal  Brahman  realization, because of the direct meeting with the eternal form of the Lord. Impersonalists do not directly derive the transcendental pleasure of association with the Lord by hearing of His pastimes. As such, the impersonalists cannot derive any relishable transcendental pleasure from the topics of the  Bhagavad-gītā , in which the Lord is personally talking with Arjuna. The basic principle of their impersonal attitude does not allow them the transcendental pleasure which is relished by a devotee whose basic principle of
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