The Nectar of Devotion 288
is sometimes considered to be pitiable and distressing to the heart,
but actually that is not the fact. The Ramayana narrates how Lord
Rama was sent to the forest by His father just when He was going to
be enthroned. After Lord Rama’s departure, Maharaj Dagaratha, His
father, died. In the forest His wife, Sitadevi, was kidnapped by
Ravana, and there was a great war. When Sitadevi was finally de-
livered from the clutches of Ravana, Ravana’s whole family and king-
dom, and Ravana himself, were vanquished. When Sitadevi came
home she was tried by fire, and after some days she was again ban-
ished to the forest. All of these subjects in the Ramayana seem very
pitiable, and they may appear to be very distressing to the reciter,
but actually this is not so. Otherwise, why would Hanuman, the great
devotee of Lord Ramacandra, read daily about the activities of Lord
Ramacandra, as described in the Ramayana itself? The fact is that in
any of the above-mentioned twelve transcendental humors of devo-
tional service, everything is transcendentally pleasing.

Srila Rupa Gosvami mourns in this connection for persons who are
in the fire of false renunciation, the dry speculative habit, and who
neglect devotional service. Persons who are attached to the ritualistic
ceremonies recommended in the Vedas and to the impersonal
Brahman cannot relish the transcendental pleasure of devotional ser-
vice. Sri Rupa Gosvami advises, therefore, that devotees who have
already tasted the nectar of devotion should be very careful to protect
devotional service from such dry speculators, formal ritualistic eleva-
tionists and impersonal salvationists. Devotees should protect their
valuable jewel of spiritual love from the clutches of thieves and bur-
glars. In other words, a pure devotee should not describe devotional
service and its different analytical aspects to dry speculators and false
renouncers.

Those who are not devotees can never achieve the benefits of devo-
tional service. For them the subject of devotional service is always
very difficult to understand. Only persons who have dedicated their
lives unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can
relish the real nectar of devotion.

When one transcends the status of ecstatic love and thus becomes
situated on the highest platform of pure goodness, one is understood
to have cleansed the heart of all material contamination. In that pure
