Laughing Ecstasy
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mouth in a disfigured way, and upon seeing this all His friends standing there began to laugh very loudly.
Once a palmist came to the house of Nanda Mahārāj, and Nanda Mahārāj asked him, “My dear sage, will you kindly check the hand of my child, Kṛṣṇa? Tell me how many years He will live and whether He will become the master of thousands of cows.” Upon hearing this, the palmist began to smile, and Nanda Mahārāj asked him, “My dear sir, why are you laughing, and why are you covering your face?”
In such a laughing ecstasy of love, Kṛṣṇa or matters pertaining to Kṛṣṇa are the cause of the laughter. In such laughing devotional service, there are symptoms of jubilation, laziness, concealed feelings and similar other seemingly disturbing elements.
According to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s calculation, laughter in ecstatic love can be broken down into six divisions. These divisions, according to different degrees of smiling, are called in the Sanskrit language  smita ,  hasita ,  vihasita ,  avahasita ,  apahasita , and  atihasita . These six classes of smiling can be classified as major and minor. The major division includes  smita ,  hasita  and  vihasita  smiling, and the minor division includes  avahasita ,  apahasita  and  atihasita  smiling.
When one is smiling but his teeth are not visible, one can distinctly mark a definite change in the eyes and in the cheeks. This is called  smita  smiling. Once when Kṛṣṇa was stealing yogurt, Jaratī, the head-mistress of the house, could detect His activities, and she was therefore coming very hurriedly to catch Him. At that time, Kṛṣṇa became very much afraid of Jaratī and went to His elder brother Baladeva. He said, “My dear brother, I have stolen yogurt! Just see—Jaratī is coming hurriedly to catch Me!” When Kṛṣṇa was thus seeking the shelter of Baladeva because He was being chased by Jaratī, all the great sages in the heavenly planets began to smile. This smiling is called  smita  smiling.
Smiling in which the teeth are slightly visible is called  hasita  smiling. One day Abhimanyu, the so-called husband of Rādhārāṇī, was returning home, and at that time he could not see that Kṛṣṇa was there in his house. Kṛṣṇa immediately changed His dress to look exactly like Abhimanyu and approached Abhimanyu's mother, Jaṭilā, addressing her thus: "My dear Mother, I am your real son Abhimanyu, but just see—Kṛṣṇa, dressed up like me, is coming before you!"