308 The Nectar of Devotion

caught hold of the lotus feet of the Lord and pressed them to his
heart. Being overwhelmed with joy, he manifested all the symptoms
of ecstatic love, with tears in his eyes and a faltering voice.

In such expressions of ecstatic love there are many other subsidiary
symptoms, such as jubilation, withering, silence, disappointment,
moroseness, reverence, thoughtfulness, remembrance, doubtfulness,
confidence, eagerness, indifference, restlessness, impudence, shyness,
inertness, illusion, madness, ghastliness, contemplation, dreaming,
disease and signs of death. When a devotee meets Krsna, there are
symptoms of jubilation, pride and perseverence, and when he is feel-
ing great separation from Krsna, the symptoms of ghastliness, disease
and the signs of death become prominent.

It is stated in the First Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, 11th
Chapter, 4th verse, that when Lord Krsna returned from the battle-
field of Kuruksetra to His home at Dvaraka, all the residents of
Dvaraka began to talk with Him, as a child talks lovingly to his father
after the father’s return from foreign countries. This is an example of
jubilation.

When Bahulasva, the King of Mithila, saw Krsna at his palace, he
decided to offer his respects by bowing down before Him at least a
hundred times, but he was so overcome by feelings of love that, after
bowing down only once, he forgot his position and could not rise up
again.

In the Skanda Purana a devotee tells Lord Krsna: “‘My dear Lord,
as the sun evaporates all the water on the ground by its scorching
heat, so my mental state has dried away the luster of my face and
body, due to separation from You.” This is an example of withering
in ecstatic love.

An expression of disappointment was made by Indra, the King of
heaven. When he saw the sungod, he told him, “My dear sungod, your
sunshine is very glorious because it reaches unto the lotus feet of
Lord Krsna, the master of the Yadu dynasty. I have thousands of
eyes, but they have proved to be useless because not even for a
moment are they able to see the lotus feet of the Lord.”

Reverential devotion for the Lord gradually increases and trans-
forms itself into ecstatic love, then affection and then attachment.
