Symptoms of Continuous Ecstasy 280
Krsna, there are different varieties of devotees. Their symptoms are
manifested transparently, just like jewels.

It is said that a great devotee brahmana would sometimes address
the Supreme Personality of Godhead as master, and sometimes he
would joke with the Lord, using different kinds of familiar words;
sometimes he would protect the Lord with a filial affection, and
sometimes he would cry out to the Lord, addressing Him as his be-
loved; and sometimes he would meditate on the Lord as the super-
soul. This means that the brahmana expressed his ecstatic loving
symptoms in different ways at different times. But in each instance,
because of ecstatic love, the brahmana merged himself in the ocean of
happiness and became situated in pure love. Thus he was a transparent
medium, like a jewel that shows reality in varying colors according to
its own nature.

When the great sage Narada was glorifying the pastimes of the Lord
with his vind, the four Kumaras, headed by Sanaka, although merged
in the impersonal conception of Brahman, were trembling all over.
Another devotee once exclaimed, ‘Although I can achieve liberation
simply by serving the devotees, my mind is still very much anxious to
see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose bodily complexion
is just like a dark cloud.” When a devotee is so anxious to contact the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, that can also be accepted as a
symptom of neutral love.

Generally, a devotee of Lord Krsna can be placed into one of three
groups. One group consists of those who are completely dependent
on the merciful affection of the Supreme Personality of Godhead;
another group consists of devotees who are dealing with Krsna on
friendly terms; and the third group consists of those who are dealing
with Krsna as His superior, with parental affection. These three classes
of devotees gradually develop different relationships of transcenden-
tal mellow with the Personality of Godhead. When the attraction for
Krsna is based only on one particular humor, that is called kevala, or
pure state. One in this pure state of devotional service gradually de-
velops the desire to follow in the footsteps of an eternal associate of
Krsna, e.g., to follow in the footsteps of Rasala, the personal attendant
of Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana, or to follow Krsna’s friends, like
