Other Ecstatic Symptoms 236

earth with her red, lotus-like nails. Because she was shedding tears,
the black ointment from her eyes was dripping, along with the tears,
onto her breasts, which were covered with kunkum powder. Rukmini
was so aggrieved that her voice was choked up.

Devastation

When a person is confused by simultaneous happiness and tribula-
tion and does not know what to do, this state of confusion is called
pralaya, or devastation. In this condition of pralaya one sometimes
falls down on the ground, and all the symptoms of ecstatic love be-
come manifest. When the gopis were searching after Krsna and all of a
sudden He came out from the bushes and creepers, all of them be-
came stunned and almost senseless. In this state the gopis appeared
very beautiful. This is an example of pralaya, or devastation in happi-
ness.

There are also instances of pralaya in distress. One such example is
described in the Tenth Canto, 39th Chapter, 14th verse of Srimad-
Bhagavatam, where Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit: “My dear
King, when the gopis were missing Krsna, they were so much ab-
sorbed in meditation upon Him that all of their senses stopped func-
tioning, and they lost all bodily sense. It was as though they had be-
come liberated from all material conditions.”

Out of the many ecstatic symptoms of the body, the symptom of
being stunned is especially significant. According to the degree of
being stunned, the vital force within the body becomes agitated, and
due to such a state, the other ecstatic loving symptoms sometimes
become altered. These transcendental ecstatic symptoms gradually
develop, and in the course of such development, they are sometimes
called smoky, sometimes called blazing, and sometimes called shining.
These three degrees are experienced for many, many years and
extend to different parts of the body. Unlike the shedding of tears
and faltering of the voice, the condition of being stunned is spread
all over the body. The shedding of tears and faltering of the voice are
simply localized symptoms.

The shedding of tears, however, sometimes makes the eyes become
