27 / Symptoms of Ecstatic Love

The bodily symptoms which are manifested by a devotee in ex-
pressing, ecstatic love for Krsna are called anubhava. Practical exam-
ples of anubhava are as follows: dancing, rolling on the ground,
singing very loudly, stretching the body, crying loudly, yawning,
breathing very heavily, neglecting the presence of others, drooling,
laughing like a madman, wheeling the head and belching. When there
is an extraordinary excess of ecstatic love, with all of these bodily
symptoms manifested, one feels relieved transcendentally.

These symptoms are divided into two parts: one is called Sita, and
the other is called ksepana. When there is yawning, it is called Sita,
and when there is dancing it is called ksepana.

Dancing

While watching the rasa dance performed by Lord Krsna and the
gopis, Lord Siva beheld the beautiful face of Krsna and immediately
began to dance and beat upon his small dindima drum. While Lord
Siva was dancing in ecstasy, his eldest son, Ganeéa, joined him.

Rolling on the Ground

In the Third Canto, lst Chapter, 31st verse, of S rimad-Bhagavatam,
Vidura inquires from Uddhava, “‘My dear friend, is Akrira in an aus-
picious condition? He is not only a learned scholar and sinless, but he
is also a devotee of Lord Krsna. He has such ecstatic love for Krsna
that I have seen him rolling upon Krsna’s footprints in the dust as if

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