Neutral Love of God 293
long as one does not happen to see Your eternal form of bliss and
knowledge, appearing just like a newly-grown tamala tree, with a
bluish hue—only for so long can the impersonal feature of the abso-
lute truth, known as Brahman, be very pleasing to a saintly person.”

The qualifications of a saintly person are described in the Bhakti-
rasamrta-sindhu as follows: A saintly person is one who understands
fully that simply by discharging devotional service he can become
confident of liberation. He is always situated in the regulative princi-
ples of devotional life and at the same time aspires to be liberated
from the material entanglement.

A saintly person thinks like this: ‘‘When shall I be able to live alone
in the caves of the mountains? When shall I be dressed simply with
undergarments? When shall I be satisfied by eating simply a little
fruit and vegetables? When will it be possible for me to always think
of the lotus feet of Mukunda, who is the source of the Brahman ef-
fulgence? When, in such a spiritual condition of life, shall I fully
understand my days and nights to be insignificant moments in eternal
time?”

The devotees and self-realized persons who are engaged in preach-
ing the glories of the Lord always maintain an ecstatic love for the
Lord within their hearts. Thus they are benefitted by the rays of the
ecstatic moon, and they are called saintly persons.

The impulse of a saintly person is to be engaged in the study of the
Vedas, especially the Upanisadic portions, to always live in a place
where there is no disturbance from the common people, to always
think of the eternal form of Krsna, to be ready to consider and
understand the absolute truth, to always be prominent in exhib-
iting knowledge, to see the Supreme Lord in His universal form
(visva-rupa), to associate always with learned devotees and to dis-
cuss the conclusion of the Vedas with similarly elevated persons. All
of these qualifications of a saintly person serve to raise him to the
status of santa-rasa.

In the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu it is stated that all those who at-
tended the pious meeting held by Lord Brahma for the study of
Vedic literature like the Upanisads became overwhelmed with ec-
static love for Krsna, the chief of the Yadu dynasty. Actually, the re-
sult of studying the Upanisads is to understand the Supreme Per-
